`Disabled' Puppets
Teach Students
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DAVID ZEMAN STAFF WRITER
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JAMES DESIGNS
DESIGNS
PINE JEWELRY
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CUSTOM DESIGNS IN PLATINUM • GOLD • SILVER
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MAJOR DIAMONDS • PRECIOUS GEMS
GEM PIER
PIERO platinum
he goal was to teach Jew-
ish children awareness
and understanding of
youngsters with disabili-
ties. The plan was to hand out
yet another educational packet
to teachers.
Yawn.
"It was not likely to be used,
or even read," conceded Shawn
Locke, director of school services
at the Agency for Jewish Edu-
cation.
It was then Ms. Locke dis-
covered the power of puppets.
This Sunday at the AJE in
Southfield and next Sunday at
Temple Israel in West Bloom-
field, Jewish 4th-graders in con-
gregational religious schools in
metro Detroit will learn about
the physical and emotional de-
mands faced by disabled chil-
dren when the students attend
one of two performances by the
Kids on the Block. Students will
attend the performance with
their class.
The puppet troupe, which per-
forms throughout the country,
consists of disabled and non-dis-
abled puppets who look and act
like children.
By reenacting real-life situa-
tions faced by the disabled —
and by interacting with students
attending the event — the
troupe reminds audience mem-
bers what it's like to feel like an
outsider in their own class-
rooms, and on their own play-
grounds.
Ms. Locke hopes the perfor-
mance gives the young students
pause to ask their own ques-
tions: How does it feel to be left
out of a group? What is it like
to be teased?
"They have to be able to per-
sonalize it," Ms. Locke said.
'With young children, everything
has to be very
concrete. We didn't want to
present this as somebody
else's issue. We wanted to get
them to empathize, and to em-
pathize they have to feel it them-
selves."
And so teachers have
incorporated the subject into
class projects that both preceded
and will follow the performances.
The students will confront
some of their own insecurities.
They will read about the every-
day experiences of disabled peers,
and learn that, often, their com-
mon bonds exceed their differ-
ences.
In one classroom exercise, a
10-year-old hearing-impaired boy
named Michael asks this favor of
classmates:
"Don't be afraid to talk to me.
You're probably worried that I
will not understand you. Well,
don't worry. If I don't understand,
I'll ask. And if you don't under-
stand me, I don't mind if you ask
me again and again. I really want
to be included in your conversa-
tions."
The curriculum also reminds
students — in text, games and
song — of the biblical injunction
that all people are to be treated
with respect, that we are all
bzelem Elokim, created in God's
image.
"We want them to understand
that the Jewish community cares
about this issue," Ms.
Locke said. "We are
just looking for the
best way to
discuss it." 0
1111 REPAIRS AND RESTORATIONS ON JEWELRY • WATCHES
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810-626-4484
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Disabled and non-disabled puppets teach the true meaning of friendship.