Under the Table - The Importance of Presuming Competence | Shelley Moore | TEDxLangleyED

[Music] hi everybody um that's a long walk okay uh so for those of you who don't know me I'm shelle Moore and um speaking of geekdom I'm an inclusion geek like I am obs obsessed with inclusive education if you know me at all um but you know this this definition that about inclusion inclusion and inclusive education didn't just come to me in the night like this has been something that's evolved over like the last 12 years of my career and so when I first started like I kind of got it but then I was like

but I didn't get it enough to defend it and so when I'm working with the kids uh who I represent are the students who kind of need the most support in schools and students with developmental disabilities especially in secondary and if you guys have ever worked in a secondary school you know this a whole different kind of worms when it comes I mean they're naturally compartmentalized buildings and so I learned that I had to really refine my definition of inclusion because I would get zingers from people zingers all the time and for a while I

ducked them and then I would be like you know what if I'm gonna if I'm going to Advocate if I'm going to move forward in inclusive education I have to be able to have these conversations um so one Zinger that I would often get get um and still get to this day is you know I'm trying to advocate for kids to get into classrooms and and the Zinger I get is why are they here what are they going to get out of science they can't read they can't write like why do they need to learn

about the periodic table of elements and before I could like articulate this I would just get sassy and be like why does anyone need to learn about the periodic table of elements smirk and walk away so you can imagine how well that went over in my building and so you can see like why this would be an important thing to develop so anyways over the last like decade or so I've been you know learning about what this means to be an inclusive educator and most of my learning actually has not come from books or classes

or experts or teachers or professors but from the kids that I work with and so the story that I'm going to tell you today is about one particular student that I worked with who was a very very early learning in my career and I think very pivotal because without this learning I can guarantee you that I wouldn't be standing here right now so I'm going to share this with you and this is a story about um a student that I worked with named Daniel and it was uh I met Daniel in my it was my

very my second job I got hired at high school and I was still fresh like where you go and like you buy an outfit before your first day of school right kind of like this outfit that I bought for this event right now and uh um thank you and and um and so you know I'm a little bit nervous but I'm showing up and and my nerves were quickly relieved when I walked in and was like so welcomed by this group The this group of kids and staff and so uh the job that I got

was working with a case hold of about 15 students with developmental disabilities and I had these two EAS who worked with me and they were best friends with each other and so often they would be referred to as one person so their names were Sharon and marleene but we called them Sharon and Marlene where's Sharon marleene I need Sharon and Marlene like they were they were actually one person so I would always go to Sharon and Marlene if I ever needed anything so anyways so I'm getting to know all the kids and I'm walking around

and everyone's awesome but like in the corner of my eye I'm like there's a kid under the table in the corner of the classroom and no one's acting as if this is nor this is strange and so I'm like just kind of keeping my ey so I'm like eventually I'm like Sharon and Marlene there's a kid under the table over there and they laughed they're like oh that's Daniel what's he doing under the table they're like because you're here what do you mean because I'm here they're like well you're new like he'll come out in

good time and then they kind of smirk at each other and they're like but if you can get them out then you you can stay and I'm like are they kidding I don't think they're kidding this kid is like the gatekeeper of special education so I'm like okay okay okay okay you know what I can accept the challenge so I go over kind of lean under hey Daniel but I should tell you a few things about Daniel from what I knew from him at that moment there's Daniel he's under the table and you know he's

dealing with a lot of things so Daniel Down syndrome Daniel was deaf blind Daniel had autism Daniel also had a bin filled with about 300 newspaper flyers and he also had a giant red dictionary and so I'm seeing him and this is all I know about him right so I'm just like okay so he did have some residual sight and and hearing but to get him to choose to look or hear you was the hard part so you got to like you had to like be flashy so I go over and I'm like Daniel hiy

I'm Miss Moore I'm really nice like I'm a student Whisperer come out as you can imagine I needed a new strategy so I'm like Sharon and marleene what is he like you know like teenagers love food beef jerky Captain Crunch what does he love they're like oh he loves Diet Coke so I run across the store I get a Diet Coke and I'm like oh Daniel and I wish we could see this from the bird's eye view because it was like his hand came out grabbed the diet coke pulled it over the table and I

was left and I'm like okay next strategy so I'm like okay okay okay next plan so maybe we need to see that we like have a similar interest so I'm like you know what I like dictionaries I can go I listen to I can pretend that I like dictionaries so I go get a dictionary and this time I'm like I need to like get under the table with him because this like bending over is not cutting it so I actually get under the table and I'm like wow Daniel did you read this page this is

a this is really interesting page but I'm watching him and he's not he's not reading it what he's doing with it is he's feeling it and I don't know if you've ever worked with kids um who have SE sensory deficits you know they'll often mind well I mean to be honest just things occupy themselves and that feel good right and so he was taking the pages of the dictionary and and like flipping them so he could feel the fan on his cheek and dictionary Pages they're really thin like the pages of a Bible so I

mean it was like feathers so I'm like I've never tried it so I pick up the dictionary and I was like I'm like Sharon marene you got to try this and this is not one day people I mean we're like so that lasted for 3 days because I didn't want to stop but Daniel is still not coming up from under table so I'm like okay I need a new strategy I'm like maybe we could like support like an interaction you know like a game like I don't know Hungry Hungry Hippos I don't know something so

I'm like Sharon Marlene I need something that he likes to play they look at each other we got the perfect thing he loves math numbers adding so this is my face in front of Shera Merlene oh good idea this is my face in my head math who likes math who wants to play math and then I start thinking but how do you even know that he likes math he doesn't talk he doesn't read he doesn't see he can't hear like how do you how could you possibly even know that he likes math he is kneed

deep in newspapers but I keep my thoughts to myself because I'm a new teacher that has learned to do so and this is how it went so Sheron and Marlene gave me my flashcards and under the table I go and had a conversation with myself so Daniel what is 10 + 12 20 what did you say 30 oh my you are so brilliant this went on but what he's doing beside me is he's just like totally in his dictionary Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip FP Flip Flip Flip Flip

Flip Flip stop for a minute Flip Flip Flip Flip Flip while I'm having a conversation with myself finally I put a flash card down and I'm like hey Daniel what's 20 + 60 what okay so you can imagine that he's probably getting as irritated as I am of myself and he let me know it by smacking me across the face a total backand in my face head hits the table my eyes are tearing my nose is like swollen and I'm like I don't think you're allowed to hit teachers I'm holding my sh I'm like so

I'm like after the shock and I'm like should I go should I stay should I get the principal like what what do I do but I actually didn't have to answer this question too long because when I peered through the fingers holding my face together I saw him pointing at something and I'm like no way and I looked closer and sure enough he was pointing to the page number 80 and I was like OMG so I put down another flash card Flip Flip stop Point sure enough it's the answer with the page number so I'm

like Whoa We have connection flash card flash card flash card flash card and sure enough every single one he would stop and answer the question this totally blew my mind because I was thinking I'm like how long has he been doing that [Laughter] for so I get out from under the table and sure enough guess who follows me from under the table as Daniel comes up from under the table and Sharon and marleene are like secretly quietly cheering in the background all you know so it was it was a really great day but I realized

it had nothing to do with me it had everything to do with him and so like I think about I think about this all the time and and I was like after my swelling went down and was reflecting you know this is really hard for me to admit right now because I would never say this now but 10 years ago I'm going to be really brutally honest I didn't think he could do it like there's no way he is too autistic he is too deaf he is too blind he is way too disabled to be

able to do math how could he possibly do math there's no way like these are the kids that we expect to have a functional existence that we don't teach the math for a reason right and then after thinking about this I realized I'm like he's not the one that's to anything it was me I was too ignorant I was too unmindful I was too assuming because he was trying to communicate with me the entire time it was me that had the walled up it was me that wasn't listening so this was really really profound because

I think about you know how many times we do this to kids to be like they can't do it they won't do it you know that's that saying that just like I hate these kids are too low they can't do it and so you could see how this would impact me every single day with the kids that I work with but like the teachers that I work with and the people on the street this this there's this underlying belief like do we believe that people are competent and so there's another Zinger that often comes my

way and it's about this idea of the real world you can't do that that's not in the real world you need to do this this is the real world and there's something about all of this that really resonates to me because I'm like who's real world because that implies there's only one real world right and you know when I'm thinking about Daniel and I look him under the table like he was in his world and I had my world and what was magical was in our worlds connected but what did we need to connect we

needed something that wasn't words we needed something that we both understood in a way and for us it was the dictionary and then we could you know build that trust and be include each other and learn from each other and see how we different have different abilities to teach each other and I think if you're not willing to open up and understand what these this this looks like from different perspectives and different lenses and different abilities and different genders and different languages and cultures your world is going to be so small so I I challenge

you to think about you know when you're having those hard days with those kids think like what's the dictionary that you need so that your world can come together but there's still one more lesson and this is the lesson that really really hit home for me and this is the one that I hope that you hold on to is that there's this idea and I mentioned it before of competence and that you know if we're moving forward in 21st Century Learning and teaching to diversity and strength based learning and la la la la la la

la the underlying thing for all of this is that we have to believe that people are competent we have to trust that all people can learn because what I realize is that if you don't presume competence it's us who are the people who are disabled thank you thank you