It was 1963 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a transfer student from a state college in Platteville, I needed to take a general U.S. history course in Bascom Hall. The “survey” course included about 200 students, and exams usually called for writing essays in long hand within “blue books” under time restraints.
At the time, I was the only student in the class with a visible disability. My cerebral palsy made it very difficult to write the essays by hand and complete the exams on time.
As a student today, I would have had lots of help from Disability Student Services (DSS). But there was no DSS back then. Luckily, I had a TA who recognized my problem and would actually lead me back to his office and give me more time to complete my essays at his own desk.
I felt guilty taking that extra time because I knew “extra time” was a blunt “solution” to the problem that was probably unfair to the other students. But, the TA, trying to gain traction on a liberal campus and in his academic career, probably had no choice in his mind other than to give me a break with the only tool he had available: extra time for completing my exams.
* When have you experienced “paternalism by default” as an elder despite the good intentions of everyone involved?
It was 1963 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a transfer student from a state college in Platteville, I needed to take a general U.S. history course in Bascom Hall. The “survey” course included about 200 students, and exams usually called for writing essays in long hand within “blue books” under time restraints.
At the time, I was the only student in the class with a visible disability. My cerebral palsy made it very difficult to write the essays by hand and complete the exams on time.
As a student today, I would have had lots of help from Disability Student Services (DSS). But there was no DSS back then. Luckily, I had a TA who recognized my problem and would actually lead me back to his office and give me more time to complete my essays at his own desk.
I felt guilty taking that extra time because I knew “extra time” was a blunt “solution” to the problem that was probably unfair to the other students. But, the TA, trying to gain traction on a liberal campus and in his academic career, probably had no choice in his mind other than to give me a break with the only tool he had available: extra time for completing my exams.
* When have you experienced “paternalism by default” as an elder despite the good intentions of everyone involved?