I have a amazing memory. Literally that is how I am able to share stuff from my past with you guys and that is the reason why I am able to tell you this story.
I remember the specific moment that I first learned of connotation and Denotation. It was in tenth grade in english class. A few years later (2010) when I asked a teacher to speak about the R word what term come to mind Connotation and Denotation. the students were also reading Othello so I used all three of those things to explain about the R Word.
It really saddens me when people fail to understand the hate ful affects of the word Retard. You see growing up in middle and high school we never discussed disabled history. Growing up we never learned what historically was ment by the R Word.
Historically if someone was born with any type of disability in the United States doctors were told to send their infant to a training facility away from family. This was not a school it was a prison where it was common place to see scenes like this
And this
That is what the connotation of the word Retarded was. That is what people who were the R word were subjected to. These people these kids were subjected to conditions worse then prisons. These people for no apparent reasson other then a dingoes of some kind were terrorized and lived in inhumane conditions.
The Dictionary term can be found here. I will not post it because the connotation is way stronger. When people say the R word it makes those poor people in insitutions suffer even more. We need to teach general education kids about this painful part of the United States history because this is still going on around the world today.
To be continued
In the mean time end the word or tell a friend about it
1 comment:
Excellent post!
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