We’ve all seen the videos on Facebook. You know, the ones with the special needs kids? They’re just sitting in the classrooms and spending their days as they usually would. Learning. Trying to better themselves, and become more and more like the other kids walking around outside in the hallways. They get to walk around and be independent, those other kids are learning things that the special needs child hasn’t learned yet. It’s clear that they’re different.
The specific videos I’m referring to are those which involve a teenage girl, usually a cheerleader or someone of a popular status, walking into a special needs classroom and beginning to interact with one of the students.
When the video begins, what is your first reaction? You were happy, right? It was nice to see the transformation of the boy’s attitude from the minute she walked into the room.
Then, to set off the bomb of excitement in the kid’s heart; she asks him to prom.
The majority of viewers are going to be more than pleased with the entire interaction. The population builds share after share of the video, and this is not a one time occurrence.
No, this is a trend.
Girls ask these special needs kids to prom and it lifts their spirits millions of feet off of the ground.
When anyone asks why, others respond with something similar to,
“because he’s a friend of hers."
But nobody ever wants to consider that maybe, it was done merely to receive praise, or publicity; not necessarily for the special needs students benefit. Students with disabilities are considered ‘slow’ for a reason, because they ‘we’ learn slower than others. This means that as the child continues to think about that prom night over and over again for the foreseen future, he’s going to see that prom night for what it really was. Regardless of whether or not the girl had good intentions, the prom was a pity date. The boy won’t stop thinking about it, and he will remember it as the time that one of the most popular girls in school WANTED to go the prom with HIM. That one time a girl actually chose him over a football player or basketball star. It would be that moment that he feels on top, and not long after that, he’ll grow to want a second date. Perhaps with the same girl, perhaps with another, but regardless, he will not know why he can’t make it happen. Once you get the dopamine high of a drug you’ve never had, it’s going to be an unbelievable feeling. In this case, the boy gets the joy from being able to go to prom with this beautiful girl. Then, when that high is over, you don’t simply go back to the way you were feeling before; you hit rock bottom, and you don’t even remember the fall.
There are circumstances with good intentions, trying to make a kid feel good. If they’re depressed, if they have a mental disorder of any kind, it’s best to be kind but true and honest. There are some things that give you such a great feeling, similar to how a drug interacts with your brain. The withdrawal you get when you’re quitting a habit, the depression that hits when you’ve broken up with a significant other, and the feeling you know when you realize that your date wasn’t a date at all, and when you start to question everything else.
Remember every video you watch on the internet has multiple sides. Some people will see the bright side, and some will see the darker side. Then, one lucky person will see the truth.
