THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY

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A VALUABLE TOOL from page 19

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"I realized I had
the right to be
disabled, that I
represented a
normal part of
human diversity,
that I wasn't
,
`broken.”

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~

appeared, the more they would like
me," said Kunc. "I had an invisible
scorecard in my mind to keep track of
how I was doing. One day a friend
asked me why I was trying to be non-
handicapped.
"I realized I had the right to be dis-
abled, that I represented a normal part
of human diversity, that I wasn't 'bro-
ken.' We are a segment of society that
has always been there and will always
be, despite medical research. All of us
deal with limitations; mine are just
more obvious.
'After that, my life changed," Kunc
said. "I realized the problem wasn't
with me. When I went out with a girl,
if she had difficulty with my disability,
then it was her problem. It changed
the way I danced. When I fell, the fall
was not an interruption of the dance;
it became part of the dance. I stopped
trying to dance the perfect dance."

Exus of

Ann

~

Exus

Of

ARBOR

590 Auto Mall Dr. • Ann Arbor

5701 Pennsylvania Ave • Lansing

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-

'

OPEN

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In 1990, Kunc and his wife, Emma
Van der Klift, established Axis
Consultation and Training Ltd. in
Nanaimo, British Columbia. Axis pro-
vides in-service and training in inclu-
sive education, employment equity,
conflict resolution and other disability
rights issues. They travel extensively
throughout North America and inter-
nationally, working with school dis-
tricts, human service agencies, employ-
ers and advocacy groups.
"Learning is not getting a 95 per-
cent on a test," he said. "Learning is
getting 65 percent, figuring out what
you did wrong, and doing it again and

Emma Van der Klift and her husband,
Norm Kunc, talk about learning from
failure and about inclusion education.

again [until you get it right]," Kunc
said. "We see learning as the end
result, the destination, instead of valu-
ing the journey."
Kunc is a big proponent of inclusive
education, referring to segregated spe-
cial education classrooms as "social
suicide" for students. He believes that
many educators are afraid to try inclu-
sive education because they are afraid
they will not be successful in teaching
students with disabilities.
"For the teachers who do include
kids with special needs, one of their
best tools is failure," said Kunc. "They
use the 'Ready, Fire, Aim' approach. If
something works, they keep doing it;
if not, they try something else."
Valerie Lane of West Bloomfield,
whose 17-year-old daughter Lauren
has cognitive impairment, said, "He
reminds us to look at what our kids
can do, not what they can't, and to
give them the same chance to try
things that we give our other children.
Society tries to put a bar on how far
our kids can go but, as parents, we
don't ever want to do that."
Danielle Kaplan of Farmington
Hills, one of 100 young volunteers
from the Friendship Circle who
attended the "Hell-Bent on Helping"
session, said, "His message about
being respectful when you help some-
one with a disability was very good.
He talked about 'appreciated help' ver-
sus 'resented help.'"
Jayme Hirschman of West
Bloomfield, whose 10-year-old son
Merrick had a stroke at birth that affect-
ed his ability to speak and use his limbs,
felt Kunc confirmed a lot of her beliefs.
"I've always believed that Merrick
knows what he wants and needs, and I
listen to him," she said.
Kunc added, "We get so caught up
with success, we don't realize that fail-
ure is part of learning. A child doesn't
learn to tie his shoes by doing it once,
he has to do it many times. Education
is a process." ❑