the other day in class, we had a discussion about when we first heard of autism and/or neurodivergence. a lot of the answers included learning in school or from personal experiences. like most people, my elementary school had a special education class. because children are followers and since they don’t know any better, a lot of my peers would constantly taunt the students in the special education class. they’d find an excuse to walk past their classroom and make faces or obscene jokes. as a child, i did not understand why those students were made fun of or why they were in a separate class. even now i still don’t understand why.
i would say that i didn’t really learn about cognitive disabilities until 8th grade. the elementary school i went to did not have a health class, and the health teacher i had for the beginning of middle school only made us watch movies and play jenga. once i finally learned about disability and mental health disorders and neurodivergence, i realized a few things. one: if my elementary school had a health class early on, maybe a lot of my peers would not have been so ignorant about what the students in the special education class were going through. two: separating students in that way supports an environment that encourages treating people differently based on their disability (aka discrimination). three: children are products of their environment, and promoting these ideas as okay put us backwards on the path to equality. things like ableism, racism, sexism, etc. are learned. so maybe instead of inadvertently teaching kids that being ableist is fine, we can actively teach everyone about disability so we are not ignorant. they say ignorance is bliss and it is not, it is damaging. just because you don’t know about something does not mean you should not worry about it.
Unruly Bodies 
I experienced similar things in my elementary school as well. Constant taunting and bullying, which derived from the practice of dividing students based on their ability and capability to learn. This kind of learning and interaction is toxic to children. To practice intersectionality and inclusivity, we should not be separating children in the classrooms on whether they are abled or not; gifted or not. Proper education that accomodates for every individual and their distinctive experience is so important and leaves a lasting impression on them. I love what you added at the end, criticizing the phrase, “Ignorance is bliss”. Just because you do not know about the issue, does not mean it is not there, especially when it impacts such a large population.
You did a great job depicting what its like being neurodivergent in a public school. I was always to “Functioning” to get accommodations even though I needed them. I was passing as a neurotypical student, but I did see the bullying that happened in my school. I was a helper in a soccer club for the special ed kids. I became really close with this one girl who had autism and down syndrome. She would share stories both good and bad about her experiences with being neurodivergent and I found it really eye opening.
This is the big reason that I was highly ableist in middle and high school. There was no health class in my middle school and high school only focused on bodily functions and fatphobia. It really doesn’t help for kids and teens to just not get educated about their peers and put them down. I do think elementary school kids should be given lessons about how everyone is different and that does not make them worth less.
The separation in schools causes so many issues. In my elementary school, there were a couple people with disabilities and when they transitioned to be apart of the class rather than a separate class the “normal” kids created a “cheese-touch” for the students, but most students didn’t care or see the problem with it. The separations implies that they are completely different and need to be treated differently even though they do not need to be.
Hi, I love the way you worded your points on creating an equal classroom and the steps to getting there. I remember the separate classroom in my public elementary school and I too did not know why it was like that. I observed others taunting these children and I could physically see how they looked different than everybody else because of the separate classroom and I came to the conclusion they were taunting them because they looked and acted differently. This sounds too familiar to segregation and the desegreagation that occured in schools in the 1950s. It was rough and still is very rough with the treatment people still receive for the color of their skin. However, with making the classroom inclusive, racism was eventually not taught (as much) in schools and it became what parents or others say outside of the classroom. You can no longer look into a room (for the most part) and see only one person that fits a societal ideal. It’s just people. Using what you said is how we make the same change for people with disabilities to eventually just see the people.