MEMOIR / TEACHING PRACTICES
Unfiltered Voices
Why I teach writing.
Yes, I teach writing. Or, more specifically, I’m currently tutoring students who have one thing in common. All of my students are adults living with a condition known as cerebral palsy. Now, before your mind goes into automatic pity mode, please understand that the people I’m about to talk about, find such patronizing societal attitudes revolting. Still, with that being said, my students don’t blame individuals who have been preconditioned to pity. They are aware that mainstream media and passed-down generational misinformation about people with disabilities contribute to these ingrained false beliefs.
For these reasons, each one of my students has articulated to me a need to tell their own story. And the more I work with them in developing their autobiographies, the more I’ve come to admire their determination. People with physical challenges have to overcome many obstacles. Some obstacles are obvious and some are not. However, it’s the not-so-apparent ones that turn out to be the most infuriating. I understand this all too well because I, like my students, am an adult who has cerebral palsy.
So, I more than grasp the primal urge to shake people from their ignorant misconceptions. As a matter of fact, the main impetus behind writing my autobiographical novel, Redefining Normal, was to tell the world my life story in my literary voice. But, my priority wasn’t to make the New York Times Bestseller List. As an aside, if you’re writing in the hopes of becoming rich and famous, I’ve got sobering news for you. First, even if you’re lucky enough to have your book published, don’t count on making a living off the royalty stream — it’s more like a pauper’s trickle. Second, a true writer, just like any artist, writes because their soul compels them to weave their unique piece into the cultural mosaic.
My top three students are Julianne, Jonna, and Nic. Although they each have cerebral palsy, their life experiences are vastly different. I’m a little chagrined to admit that this discovery caught me off guard. This just goes to show that cultural programming is an insidious virus that infects even the most open-minded person. After all these years of advocating for myself, and displaying my talents again and again, I was guilty of underestimating my students.
These unique adults have had a broad range of experiences and personal interactions. One got married and raised two children. Another is a major advocate for disability rights within her community. And, the third person became a photographer who also has a gift for blending realism, metaphorical verses, and fantasy into his poetry. Although their individual life paths may look completely different, there’s one constant companion that’s along for each one of their journeys — cerebral palsy. An able-bodied probably thinks that C.P. is the overarching dystopian narrative for people with this condition. However, having known over one hundred people with my condition, I can report to you the foundation for that baseless assumption is built on quicksand.
Furthermore, it would probably surprise many people, that I don’t try to “run away” from my physical challenge or otherwise marginalize its existence. But, to be fair, when I was an adolescent, I did attempt to escape its’ ever lingering shadow. Over time though, I discovered that by running from it, I began to feel like I wasn’t embracing my whole self. To that end, my brand of C.P. is not only uniquely mine, it has helped form my identity and perspective. And, my angle on life has helped cultivate a fully developed and tested empirical research on the cultural plaque known as ableism.
Just like racism, sexism, or any other “isms” ableism is a part of the social construct.
Up until recent times, writers of diversity weren’t encouraged to make meaningful literary contributions. So, in the past, for the most part, white male able-bodied writers were the only ones providing source materials on groups of other people who weren’t white or male or able-bodied. So, naturally, when a book or essay was written about a group of diversity, no matter how many research claims he made, his piece was guilty of being written using at least some assumptions.
To that point, writing an autobiography is one way that a person with a disability can command the narrative of their legacy. One of the major reasons why a person with a disability wants to pass down their life experiences is because they feel a need want to relate to the unfiltered: what, where, why, and how. Furthermore, my students are incentivized to retire overused tropes such as courageous and inspirational. The best way to begin shifting societal attitudes is when more and more writers with disabilities tell their stories through their unique words or voices.
That’s why I teach writing.
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