Monday, April 28, 2008

My Son Presents "The Human Race"




My son was given an assignment where he was asked to choose a social issue that was a challenge for us as a nation. He was asked to create a campaign that would address those issues and bring about solutions. He chose "the 'isms" - racism, sexism, sizeism, classism, ableism, and lookism. He spent about a month on this assignment and did a lot of research. I was enlightened as I watched him collect all of his data and I began to see for myself the magnitude of these 'isms in our society. As part of his assignment he was asked to do an experiment that would help him to understand discrimination better so I borrowed a wheel chair and took him to a nearby Mall. He was only in that chair for less than an hour but he learned more in that short time than he could have possibly learned in a classroom. We had not even gotten inside before the lessons began - the doors going into one of the stores from the parking lot at the Mall had those automatic handicap doors - but they were broken. That was just the start to what truly turned out to be a "life lesson" and I know that he will have a new found respect for his own blessings. He titled his project "The Race of Humans" - the thing about this race is no one wins.
Maybe it would help us all to walk or ride in someone else's shoes sometime.