Very interesting and moving article. I was surprised by his incredible self-awareness and self-acceptance. Now it makes me wonder about all the reasons why you can't fit in our busier-than-ever society. Why bother trying joining the workforce when it's already broken for most of us? Maybe he could learn to grow his own food, learn to make things at his own pace and become more 'independent' while doing so?
For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
51–60 of 118 posts
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#52I enjoyed reading this article, strangely enough by Aljazeera. That did made me want to know how a child like this would grow up in the Middle East. I found this: http://media-dis-n-dat.blogspot.nl/2009/03/saudi-mother-trie...
Why is it strange coming from Al Jazeera? Would you think it strange if it came from the BBC or Der Spiegel? Despite what many in the US believe, Al Jazerra isn't the mouthpiece of terrorists or Qatar's propaganda machine, they're mostly just a very good news source.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#53In Germany another young man with Down syndrome is currently much talked and written about. It is about eleven year old Henri who took part in a model experiment to attended regular school classes. Now that some of his classmates are about to go to high school, his parents try to get him also into high school. Their reasoning is that it would be cruel and against the idea of the original experiment to separate him fr…
I'm currently working as a tutor in a center for gifted (high intelligence) children. Along with this intelligence, in many cases comes some mental difficulties. As an instructor in this environment, it is actually very difficult to deal with some children who are unable to interpret what I am saying to them. Not only does the child get frustrated when I don't understand what they're trying to tell me, but I get frus…
My son (7) is gifted, his school has no program for children with special needs, and he's having enormous problems in school with other children and his teacher. Would you mind sharing some tricks to share with his teacher that might help her handle my son better?
We told her to keep him occupied, send him for photocopies, give him some extra tasks in class etc. but she doesn't want to do such things since my son sometimes improvise things and messes up.
Sorry for thread hijacking.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#54I found this article disturbing.
Why are we forcing developmentally disabled people -- or anyone, for that matter -- to get jobs? Is there a dire shortage of low-skilled labor that I'm not aware of?
"Whenever we talked about his employment prospects after the age of 21, we reminded Jamie that he did not want to live a life of watching YouTube, wrestling videos and Beatles Anthology DVDs in the basement."
Would there have been anything wrong with watching YouTube videos all day if Jamie's father had never told him that it was wrong?
And if the purpose of sheltered workshops is to provide busy work for developmentally disabled people, why should it matter whether they pay below minimum wage?
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
God damn, I would've been so furious at that. I'm young and have been known to make irrational decisions at times and don't have many responsibilities, and I don't know I could've stopped myself quitting (though I'm not having a go at you for staying!). That's such a big red flag to me :(
It is to me too. There are ways to make everyone a winner than the asshat though. Karma was served here. The individual in question got a referral from me to another position, got a call and a job with a golden handshake and I got a £500 referral fee from the agent, which was spent on a nice new oscilloscope (an essential part of my exit strategy). He won because he got a job at a better company and cash. I won becau…
Now that is an excellent outcome! :)
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This kind of categorization perhaps wouldn't fly in the States I see this as a bit of a paradox in the States. There is always some discussion about how everyone should be treated as equal, yet your "race" (whatever that means in the age of genetics!) is recorded by the government, and minorities are tracked by employers even though this is absolutely not related with their skills. If i think too much about it, I'd…
"Race"? In France it is forbidden to ask or record the religion or color of skin. Thus, it is forbidden to make statistics about it. Of course it is not the same about people with a handicap.
It turns out that recent studies have shown that employers will still find something to discriminate about.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/11/2...
Not saying the American system solves this either. But it's interesting how the different approaches end up working on the ground.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
As long as you track it, you make it matter. That's the point. The observer always has an impact on what is measured. That's a very well know principle.
And if you make sure you don't track it, you don't know whether you have a problem or not.
It seems like most countries live perfectly fine without tracking people's races.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#58I found this article disturbing. Why are we forcing developmentally disabled people -- or anyone, for that matter -- to get jobs? Is there a dire shortage of low-skilled labor that I'm not aware of? "Whenever we talked about his employment prospects after the age of 21, we reminded Jamie that he did not want to live a life of watching YouTube, wrestling videos and Beatles Anthology DVDs in the basement." Would there…
We are not forcing people to get jobs. We are allowing them to get jobs if they wish.
Work has some stron benefits - social activity; economic activity; independance. These spread into health benefits (exercise, mental health resiliance) and also strongly reduce the risk of abuse.
Watching yourube videos all day is not what most people want to do. It would have been a problem for the person doing it, but also a problem for the people looking after him.
I really do not understand what point you're trying to make. This young man wants to be part of society. It's easy to say that his mental capacity is the problem, but perhaps it is our attitudes to his capacity that are the greater problem.
He might not ever be a marine biologist, but he could certainly help at aquariums.
For many years people have left people with learning disabilities to rot. Look at the mortality for people with LD we see unacceptably poor rates for things not connected to their LD, caused by things like doctors making excessive use of DNR for people with LD, or even just people not keeping dental hygiene up to date.
I'm trying to be polite here, and I want to ask a quesion hat I realise might sound very rude. Please, I am not attacking you. I am involved in work on stigma and I am genuinely curious. Do you feel as if your comment is stigmatising at all?
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#59I found this article disturbing. Why are we forcing developmentally disabled people -- or anyone, for that matter -- to get jobs? Is there a dire shortage of low-skilled labor that I'm not aware of? "Whenever we talked about his employment prospects after the age of 21, we reminded Jamie that he did not want to live a life of watching YouTube, wrestling videos and Beatles Anthology DVDs in the basement." Would there…
Would you be happy sitting in the basement watching YouTube videos all day? Jamie is clearly happier working a job, he earns some money, the employer gets a job done, and somebody with a normal IQ is freed to do something more mentally demanding. Sounds like a quadruple win to me.
Re: For Hire: Dedicated Young Man With Down Syndrome
#60Maybe in Taxonomy? Taxonomists are scientists who can catalogue specimens of animals and plants into species, and argue about what is a species and what is two species.
However, he might be quite good at learning to classify specimens and classifying them. Not in the more academic/scientific role, but it would be valuable work. He might even be able to discover things about taxonomy nobody else has found yet.