To Whom It May Concern:
As you may know, I work at a summer camp. At this camp, I work on the high ropes course, normally. However, due to only having 5 people with my job title, one person is required to be shipped out to our sister camp in western Nebraska every two weeks to work on the ropes course out there. I am writing this after the end of my first of two weeks out here.
What does this have to do with the r-word? This past week at camp I helped serve as a camp counselor to a group of adults with special needs, in lieu of a group of regular-aged campers. Due to their special needs, they do not participate on the ropes course, so I helped my co-workers counsel for these individuals for this last week. This was my first longer-term experience working with those with special needs, and I can easily say that it was an eye-opening experience. I’m addressing you in particular, because I cannot believe the amount of times I still hear the r-word in my daily life.
You probably think you’re so cool, going around slinging the r-word all the time. The reality of it? You’re not. Anyone who still uses the r-word, in my opinion, is incompetent, rude, and just plain wrong. I can guarantee those of you who still use that word must not have spent much time with those with special needs, because after doing so, you realize that they are no different than any other person, besides the fact that they need different things.
Quite literally, special needs just means that these people require different things than others. That’s the end of it. While most people only need food, water, and other basic things, these special individuals might require social interaction. Or perhaps, they don’t need social interaction. They may communicate with words, or they may communicate solely through drawings. They truly do just have different, or “special” needs compared to others. And that’s okay.
This is the 21st century, people. It’s time to leave the r-word in the dated past where it belongs. It stems from a time of ugly discrimination within our history, and is not something we should be proud of or continue to use in modern history. Spend any amount of time with an individual with special needs, and I promise you will come to the same conclusion.
