Connecting Learning and Laughter

Thinking about what I am learning and how it connects to laughing my mind is drawn to my discussions in my kinesiology class lately. This class is all about physical disabilities. Before you get upset that I am connecting laughing and disabilities hear me out.

In this class we are learning about multiple diseases and disorders. We learn how they affect mental capabilities. We learn how they effect physical aspects. Certain disorders effect the physical body of a human rather than the mental. For example, Parkinson's Diseases is this way. Parkinson's effects people's speech, it becomes slower. They have a hard time not drooling. Parkinson's creates rigidness in people's body. Simply Parkinson's is a disease where not enough dopamine is connecting with neurons therefore muscle contractions don't work as smoothly. This creates tremors in the arms, legs, hands and jaws. Parkinson creates slowness in movement. You can see how Parkinson's creates physical changes.  

Let me tell you where all of that kinesiology talk is leading. So this is a completely normal, functioning human being with a few physical problems. People like to laugh at those who they feel are superior to them. Can you see how this plays in? It sad to think about but people with disabilities like Parkinson's get made fun of everyday. Students on a college campus, someone at the grocery store, a co-worker or someone just walking down the street will be laughed at for their appearance. They understand why people are laughing, they are fully capable of feeling hurt or feeling defined by their diseases. This laughter is the cruelest of all to me. I believe that laughing at a person's disease or disorder is worst part of laughter. Even writing about people laughing at this makes me cringe. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be at the end of this laughter but I imagine it makes the world a very lonely and hurtful place.

I have a good friend whose brother is legally defined as a midget. This is not meant as a derogatory term or a hurtful term. Her brother is now in middle school. Can you imagine how hard it would be to have a physical disability in middle school. Middle school students are know to be mean or harsh. They are known to take little things such as hair color, height or middle name and make fun of them. I can imagine the laughter that gets thrown at him. This makes me cringe.

In my class we talk about "person first terminology". This means referring to someone first as person then to their disorder or disease. I think when we all think about laughing at someone with a disability we must think of "person first terminology". They are a person not their disease.  I know this is not a light subject and not something we like to think about but I believe it must be thought about. Laughter is a tool that can create friendship and positive atmosphere but we must remember it is a tool that can be used to tear down someone.