How old are they that they called labeled as ableist? This would not have happened in 2000s elementary
I donāt know - the term āableistā has certainly spiked in popularity in the last ten years or so, but even in the 90ās youād get a bollocking for throwing around the terms āmongā or āspazā or āflidā within earshot of a teacher.
I mean, I can see why - I hate the terms myself now. but when youāre in single digits of age, itās just used as another derisory term rather than a specific slight at someoneās physical or mental development challenges.
It still got you in hot water if you were daft enough to get caught shouting it though.
Spaz was very mild in the US and very serious in the UK. Meant kinda different things too.
The opposite for extremity in these countries at the time was fanny. Meant completely different things.
Were you in a big city? Mine was pretty small. I wonder if that has to do with it? I never heard the word until maybe high school or college
Nah I was in a pretty small town, semi-rural but not buttfuck-nowhere either.
It certainly wasnāt labelled āableistā then, it was simply ābeing a little shitā - I only really learned of the term ableism around 10-15 years ago.
Really? I was in a pretty medium sized city (30-40k people, suburb of 1M+ city), and we used it all the time as kids. I have kids about the age of OP and live in a similar sized city, and I catch my kids using similar language.
I grew up in a liberal area and now live in a conservative one. It would take a lot more effort than that to get suspended from elementary school, you basically need to actually beat someone up or use drugs in school to do that.
Hm.
They could be in 4th grade in 2010, and be 25 now posting this. I could also believe that elementary school teachers could be among the first 5% of people to adopt a new super-inclusive type of brand new lefty language thatās just starting to be used for a new type of friendly inclusiveness in 2000.
elementary school teachers could be among the first 5% of people to adopt a new super-inclusive type of brand new lefty language
Elementary school teachers are also more likely to crack down on any sort of insulting language in general. I remember when I was a kid in the 4th grade, our teacher would punish us for asking, āSo?ā So was short for āSo what?ā At the time it was (sometimes properly, give me a break, Mrs. H) a way to insultingly say that someone elseās statement was meaningless.
It wasnāt because it was ableist, or anything else you could point a finger to except insulting, and teachers head that sort of interaction off early.
Makes sense.
Iām about 10 years older and have never heard the term in person, only in lefty online communities like Lemmy. I even took an ASL class from a deaf person (highly recommend, though maybe my teacher just rocked) as an adult with my SO, and we didnāt even use the term āablism,ā but instead just āhearingā to describe people who arenāt deaf (so the concept, not the term). That wouldāve been mid to late 2010s, IIRC.
Couple that with the claimed suspension in 4th grade, and I have serious doubts any of this happened. To get suspended, you need to be starting fist fights or something, even cussing or intentionally insulting people would probably only land normal detention.
So as someone hard of hearing, please donāt get your understanding of disabled Americans from the deaf, weāre opinionated in ways that folks like the blind and mobility assisted donāt really see and canāt really go along with. We are however starting to talk about audism but you arenāt really going to see talk of audism in an asl class. Maybe the term will be used in the context of mainstreaming.
But yeah this is veering into cultural correctness vs political correctness.
Could be that they didnāt say ableist at the time it happened but anon remembers it that way it just tells it that way.
Anon after getting back:
The nameās Richard
Retarded Richard
Thatās dumb dick to his friends
I can see it nowā¦ Iām called first; I donāt know what an adjective is (I still struggle); I panic from the social anxiety of stage fright; I awkwardly try to say anything at all, so I can sit the fuck down and move on; so I say, āReally Richardā
Iām told thatās an adverb, and I need to use an adjective. Now Iām pale as a ghost and about to faint from the panic. I stutter, āRichmond Richard?ā. Iām informed thatās a proper noun, so I quickly try again (visibly sweating) spouting, āReading Richard!āā¦ and am told to sit down, because that was a noun and Iāve now been assigned extra homework on grammar.
Someone snickers and says āRetarded Richardā in a low voice. The entire class laughs, the teacher is doing their best not to crack a smile (but I can tell), and I am henceforth known as āRetarded Richardā until graduation and beyond.
Adverbs, adjectives, verbsā¦ prepositions! Iām in a living nightmare. There is no waking up from this. I am, forever, āRetarded Richardā
Principal:
āOK this kid is fucking based, Iāll reward him with a week offā