Education is an inherently ableist environment. This is a new thought, something I am only learning now in my own life, going on six years in the tertiary education system and many more as a young student.
I have been lucky to find education and academic achievement to be by and large a safe place; an “easy” place. I learnt less in PE than maybe I could have but by and large we have an education system which feeds minds, praises intellect and abstraction, and (perfectly for me) ignores our bodies. It was this body-mind division that allowed me to be included.
Inclusion however, that operates on this division, that sees our success depend on leaving disability at the door, is only learning that includes the “able part” of us. I wonder what education would look like that really included whole people?