Posts
who
I ran across this photo collection site, Square America, and quickly became lost in it. People, places, stories - all unknown. Fascinating.
Then, I ran across this one.
What do you think? It looks like an institution to me, sometime between the 30s and 50s. I look at the faces. I'm reminded of a thought that often strikes me, what would Grant's life have been like if he had been born 30 years ago? 50? 80? 100? Would we as his parents have had the courage to fight against the societal norm and keep him at home? Or would we have shipped him off to some place like this when it became clear that "he was not like the rest of us"?
What's going through the minds of all those men? What could there lives have been like if they lived today?
5 comments:
Yeah, I went to an advocacy training this past year and we spent a great deal of time learning about the history. Very scary indeed!
A family at our church has a 30 year old son diagnosed with autism with mental retardation. Even then, they were told to institutionalize. They refused and Jason still lives with them. How brave those parents must have been.
I got lost in that website. I kept thinking, "Some of these people could be relatives."
I've always been amazed at others' lives, though. While watching a boy get yelled at by our teacher, I once asked a classmate in 9th grade if she ever thought about what it must be like to be someone else. She looked at me like I was crazy. I guess I was a voyeur before voyeurism was "in".
Yes, I do think about this a lot. My guess it that TJ would have been labeled odd, lazy, perhaps mentally retarded. I don't know if he would have been institutionalized, but I'm pretty sure it would be only a matter of time before they labeled him as uneducable.
How sad. I think of all those lives with so much untapped potential.
I have thought about what might have been many times and it can be quite scary.In the late 70's I worked in an institution and it was quite a good place considering what I have read about and seen in other places since. Thankfully here people with learning difficulties are cared for in individual houses of 2 or 3, I am so glad that we have moved on so considerably.
I've thought about these kinds of things before too.. what would we have done if we were raising our son 25 or more years ago? Temple Grandin's mom, Eustacia Cutler, is one of my heroes for following her own instincts about raising her daughter years ago, rather than listening to some of the advice she was given.
Post a Comment