"First, the line between self and other is, as Merleau-Ponty pointed out, blurry and indistinct, sufficiently that my body is never entirely and simply mine, and under my control, but is produced in relation to others, and their difference. Second, the line between ability and disability is similarly blurred, precisely because the capacity to feel oneself to be normal, is overmised on disavowing disability, designating the other as 'disabled.'" - Jessica Robyn Cadwallader
Mike Rose focuses on in The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University how educators believed in "vocabularies of errors"(Rose 590) that could be remedied through drill practices. Remedial grammar books keep students from learning the skills of rhetoric that they need to truly learn how to write and be valuable in the workforce. Remedial grammar books are based on attitudes in education / composition that state "writing ability is judged in terms of the presence of error and can thus be quantified" (Rose 586), "Writing is a skill or a tool rather than a discipline" (Rose 586) and "A number of our students lack this skill and must be remediated" (Rose 586). The unfortunate side effect of believing in a general "vocabulary of errors" was that error became associated with learning disability regardless of whether or not the students had it, so the excuse in failing to educate them could be put on cognitive disability. Mike Rose believes that by being more open-minded in how we look at writing, educators can encourage true pedagogical change that would help students become better writers (Rose 587).
Students feel discouraged by writing, and are diagnosed with learning disabilities. Overdiagnosis of learning disabilities has become a way of students being "dealt with" as a medical problem rather than assessing the idea that there could be other pedagogical strategies that work better for the student. It is true that therapy and medications can help some students, but it is also true that some students are worse off than before due to the side effects of medication. Moreover, Mike Rose emphasizes that "The function of labelling certain material remedial in higher education is to keep in place the hard fought for, if historically and conceptually problematic distinction between college and secondary work" (Rose 593). The problem that can be used to solve the overdiagnosis of learning disabilities is both counteracting the lack of funding in composition courses and the acknowledgement that writing is a unique process with strategies of thinking, planning, revising, outlining and mediating through a topic that are unique to individuals.
Shirley Brice Heath states that literacy in the mid-19th century was related to "character, intellect, morality, and good taste... literacy skills co-occurred with moral patriotic character." Rose begs us to move beyond the strategy of correcting "error-ridden prose" (Rose 601). Rose acknowledges David Bartholomae and Patricia Bizzell recognizing "the academic discourse community". Rose believes that if we acknowledge that students are apart of a larger academic discourse community, we would acknowledge the unique perspectives that students have to include in academia (Rose 601). We would acknowledge rhetoric as well as the multiple different kinds of rhetoric of our students so that we can help students focus more on making their points and contributing their ideas rather than deeming them illiterate and assuming they have nothing to say.
Merleau-Ponty discusses body orientation when it comes to disability studies. He describes "the subject as an embodied being always thoroughly intertwined with the world and thus also with others" (Merleau-Ponty 2). In her analysis of decreasing the stereotypes of what her students think about mental disability, Jessica Cadwallader found that many of her students were unable to relate their own ordinary life experiences as being experienced by those whom have disability. She relates this back to Merleau-Ponty's look at the disabled body stating, "First the line between self and other is, as Merleau-Ponty pointed out, blurry and indistinct, sufficiently that my body is never entirely and simply mine, and under my control, but is produced in relation to others, and their difference. Second, the line between ability and disability is similarly blurred, precisely because the capacity to feel oneself to be normal, is overnises on disavowing disability, designating the other as 'disabled'" (Cadwallader 522). Cadwallader demonstrates the fear inside all of us to justify themselves as normal and others as disabled. We try so hard to feel like we fit into society and yet by denying the part of ourselves that might be 'crazy' (Siebers xi), we drastically limit a revolution in our society that can inspire compassion and change through the discussion and acceptance of mental disability. I believe that if we weren't so focused on trying to appear normal, we could have an open conversation about mental health in our society in a way that reduces stigma of talking about it. Ultimately I think the inability to talk about mental illness stems back to Marxist theory in that we are busy trying to conform to the capitalist standards, causing us to be unable to understand the ways we systematically disenfranchise others.
Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is a psychiatrist in Decatur, Georgia. He acknowledges in “What Does The New York Times Have Against Psychiatry?” that Psychiatry is regarded by many as not a hard science when he sees from his work experience that diagnosis is very rigorous and treatments are very effective. He and many others who either work with those who have mental illness or are those who suffer from mental illness and have gotten better from treatment see a problem in Anti-Psychiatry movements. Anti-Psychiatry movements question the diagnosis of mental illness and the effectiveness of medications. Lieberman and others see that questioning research in the fields of psychiatry and psychology as contributing to the stigma that keeps those with mental illness from seeking help. He states "It is very disturbing that we still live in an age when the stigma of mental illness and the lack of interest in trying to present medical science as it deserves and needs to be for an informed public, is still preyed upon by this kind of journalistic opportunism" (Lieberman 2). Ultimately, Lieberman acknowledges that certain medications do not work for all individuals but he believes we should trust that Psychiatry will improve with time and respond to these issues.
The discussion of mental illness and mental disability is ultimately a political one that is constant flux but it is important to understand that rudimentary knowledge and understanding such as through education can better stabilize society as a whole. On MadinAmerica, Michael Cornwall criticizes Lieberman saying "Critics of psychiatry shouldn’t be labeled and demonized as scientific anarchists. It’s dangerous, Dr. Lieberman, to throw that kind of ostracizing, condemning language around. It’s demagoguery." I do not want to insinuate that Psychiatry is an illegitimate practice, that mental illnesses aren't real or that certain individuals don't need medication and can just get over it. In my own article "How Psych Meds Took My Bipolar Disorder and Made It Infinetly Worse", I stated "It seems that those who get on medication do not want to have the dark side of psychiatry talked about and it is their loud opinion, in the name of “decreasing mental health stigma” that get promoted over the opposition." There is still a failure in addressing disability in our education system. What concerns me about not talking about disability means we aren't addressing it when many in the general education classrooms have disabilities. Until we address that it would benefit most students to have a disability-inclusive pedagogy, we will still see problems by not seeing the intricate link between psychiatry and education.
To create a disability-inclusive classroom, we have to first understand how disability and mental illness effect the mind. Learning disabilities can include but are not limited to: ADD, ADHD, Autism and Asberger's. The medication used to treat learning disabilities either increase the brain activity through the use of a stimulant or relax brain activity through the use of a stimulant or relax brain activity through the use of an anti-depressant or anti-psychotic.
Other mental illnesses include Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Schizophrenia and other illnesses. Mental illnesses are conventionally treated through the use of a mood stabilizer, anti-psychotic and/or anti-depressant.
Both mental disorders and learning disabilities are effected by drugs effectivity - which is why it can be underestimated how dangerous it is to be diagnosed and hope the medications will help when they don't always help. It's why as a society we should become more accepting and mindful of how quick the mental order of a young person can go to chaos. Therefore, we must create a disability-inclusive writing classroom with a knowledge in mind that many of the students who seem "fine", "normal" or have seemed to recover from the use of psychiatric drugs will likely continue to suffer cognitive impairment. Medication is not something that fixes "problems" - it is a continual process that requires constant management. Many that don't take medications cannot understand how hard it is to continue treatment even when things seem to not be improving at all.
Many medications will lose efficacy over time as the patient produces less brain chemicals, causing a continued reliance on medication and a decreased cognitive state in the long-term.
A disability-writing course should be a required course for those wanting to be English-Composition teachers. This course would not only address the topic of mental disability and mental disorder but also strategies for teaching students composition with mental disorders. It would help with the awareness of mental disorder and psychiatry. It would help teachers focus on the individual student's writing strengths. It would also help students form learning strategies that will help them in life and career through a disability-inclusive pedagogy strategy.
We must acknowledge that learning disabilities and mental disorders exist . Putting those individuals in a separate category both takes responsibilities off the teachers and makes students more afraid of getting diagnosed . Stigma is not allowing people to get help. Ignoring pedagogical strategies that can help students is continuing the bad, capitalistic pedagogies that do not help students in the first place. It must be recognized that many of the students diagnosed with learning disability suffered from a lack of time, money and commitment of educators that caused them to be stuck in a false diagnosis their entire life instead of being included in the general population.
We don't want to insinuate that it is bad to be put in special education but by experimenting with pedagogy, the majority of students will be helped and won't need to be put in special education. The general student population could benefit from similar instructional strategies seen as only exclusive to those with learning disability. Many students are put in remedial programs not because they are disabled but because they come from a different cultural background, have different learning styles and because schools do not have enough money to focus on how to help individual students. Since the line between disability/ability and disorder/mental disorder can be so vague - it's better for us to create an environment where there is no stigma to the diagnosis of a mental disorder/disability through a disability-inclusive classroom.
We would hope that a disability-writing course would not increase to the stigma of mental disabilities. We would ensure that it would not happen by challenging the perception that people with Bipolar Disorder would act a certain way or people with Autism would think a certain way. Understanding the chemical and socio-political strengths and weaknesses of mental disability would help help for understanding that a diagnosis of mental illness or lack of is not a personality test or an attribution to characteristics portrayed in media but a reflection of how differences in people occurs in neuro-divergence to come to a greater understanding that disability is a greater foundation to the understanding of effective pedagogy and strategy in the composition classroom.