Today is the day to speak out against using the term retard and retarded. I have taken a pledge not to use these words and I will speak out when I hear them used.
There are a lot of stories about how these terms hurt. The best place to start finding these stories is at http://www.r-word.org/.
Personally, the R-word has hurt me. Msk has strengths and weaknesses, gifts and challenges. There are many different kinds of intelligences, and his rankings on these swing all over the place. Even in areas where he's most challenged, I'm thinking expressive language and social interactions, he is not a joke or an insult to be thrown around. When msk's classmates throw the term around at each other as a joking insult and then talk to me about how I feel about msk being retarded, I am hurt.
Inclusive education is a learning experience for all parties. One of the things I have seen is attitudes change about assumptions. But to move from changing attitudes about a specific person to a more general understanding, the blanket, hateful terms need to end.
Please go to http://www.r-word.org/ and take the pledge.
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