Schooling Mentally Challenged Children

[redforever]

[quote=Dion;1455397]I volunteer with the Special Olympics and both the kids and youg adults take offense when someone refers to them as a "######"[/quote]


Calling someone a ###### is offensive in general, not just specifically to those who face challenges in their lives.

I am always surprised and dumbfounded how in this day and age, so many still have no understanding of the challenges many face and instead of being tolerant and accepting of them, they choose instead to name call. It is mind boggling.

People simply do not realize what a priviledged society and country we live in. There is more than enough to go around. No, our country is not perfect, we can do better, but surely we can rise above speaking of people with challenges in a derogatory manner.

Perhaps those with no understanding of what it means to live a challenged life should try taking a step in their shoes. And then try a step in the shoes of those who are the caregivers of those who have special needs and challenges.

They try to make it sound so easy, just isolate them and put them all in one room. Then we don't have to look at them and the problem will disappear. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Just don't let me be inconvenienced.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by flip

Wow. I might have to give up. You bleeding hearts are really starting to sicken me.

Almost every argument you give is just laughable and completely missing the point of this argument.

I'll say for about the millionth time. ###### IS NOT INHERENTLY OFFENSIVE. It has several different contexts that it can be used in.

Just because you can't understand that a word can have more than one strict concrete meaning is beyond me.

It isn't about being a bleeding heart, it is about understanding the connotations behind the term ###### and merely being sensitive to those who have challenges in life that you will hopefully never have to face.

You go up to a homosexual and call them a "fag" or "queer" - the two terms you mentioned for reclaimed words - and I am sure that they would take offense.... you drop the n-word around an African-American and they will likely take issue with it.... those are all reclaimed words that significant portions of the population shouldn't use because of the connotations behind them.

The term is used as a derogatory slur in order to marginalize a segment of the population.

[jammies]

Why do all the fuzzy happy inoffensive terms have to be so ugly and cumbersome? I hate using tortuous language that shilly-shallies around; of course the main point of such language is to control thought by forcing a mental pause to think of the "right" term to use.

If we could just come up with some one or two syllable words to label people with, life would be ever so much better. After all, labels are all about classifying people, and that should be efficient.

Seriously, though, I stay away from terms like "mentally challenged" or "learning impaired" or whatever hideous newspeak term is currently the vogue; sometimes you have no choice but this continual rewriting of English so as not to offend anyone ends up offending people like me that hate the bureaucratization of language. It almost makes me wish for a central authority of the English language (like the Académie française for French) that we could submit official new words to, so that we could replace the blandness of PC with something no longer offensive but also not deadly boring.

[LIP MAN]

I think this thread reassures me that of all the posters on this board, Flip is the one I hate. Claiming to "not want to be PC" is such a cop out when you make ignorant and stupidly rude statements of your beliefs. I'd like to add more but really it would be a waste of my time.