Learning Disability

A Social approach

David Race

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781135260279
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Learning Disabilities

The detailed study of learning disability features rarely in university courses. To a large extent this reflects the low value attributed by our society and its human services to people with learning difficulties. This unusual book, based on one of those rare courses, includes contributions from academic specialists, students and people with learning difficulties, all of whom have participated in the course. Its 'social approach' challenges the very idea of what should be taught about the subject of learning disability and who should teach it.

Learning Disability - A Social Approach looks at how people's lives are affected by human services. It covers specific policy and service issues, different aspects of working with people and key debates. The unique insights gained from the combination of academic knowledge and real life experience make it a topical and thought-provoking text for anyone involved with learning disability - student, teacher, professional or policy maker.

Part 1

Voices of People

Chapter 1

Attempts at a Social Approach to a Degree Course

David Race

Introduction

As the degree course at Stockport progressed in its attempts to become more inclusive, and to give students ‘knowledge’, not just from the traditional routes of lectures and reading lists, but also by drawing on the lived experiences of people with learning difficulties, a number of innovative ways emerged. This chapter attempts to give a flavour of the results of that innovation, and to start the book with the voices of both students and people with learning difficulties themselves. The chapter is placed first, and as a part in its own right, in recognition of the philosophy within which the course, and gradually the book, developed, as discussed in the Introduction.

The authors are many and varied, and are named where permission has been granted by the individuals concerned. One of the authors of other chapters, Kathy Boxall, was responsible for gathering the various opinions, and is named, as is Iain Carson, the former Course Director, in some of the accounts. With one exception Kathy also wrote the introductory remarks. The Editor was responsible for the order and format of the chapter as a whole. Each piece will be set in context, but the broad aspects of the course that are covered are: people with learning difficulties as presenters; as participants in research for dissertations; and as providers of criteria by which students on placements, in their role as ‘staff, might be judged.

David Barron

Introductory Remarks

As a child, David Barron was institutionalised under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. He spent many years at Whixley Institution near York and was finally released in the 1950s. Since then, David has written his autobiography A Price to be Born (Barron 1996) and has become an accomplished orator, speaking and lecturing to many groups ranging from primary school children to university students.

Since 1992, David has given an Annual Lecture to students on the BA (Hons) Professional Studies: Learning Difficulties at Stockport College. Below is David’s view of teaching at Stockport – transcribed from a tape made in his flat on 12 August 2000 (two days after his 75th birthday).

David Barron’s View of Teaching

I’ve now stopped lecturing over at the Holy Family school in Leeds where I’ve been going for the past twenty-two years. I would like to have carried on there, but the headmaster’s taken early retirement and so has the organiser who arranges for me to speak to the children. I found that by speaking to those children it was great because, with living in Leeds myself as a child, I was able to give them a bit of local history.

However, coming back on to Stockport College, I’ve always said out of the countless schools and colleges I’ve been to and the Open University and the Royal College of Nursing and the church groups, I found the other place, besides the Holy Family school, that I’ve liked going to most of all is Stockport College. Some places look so nice on the surface but when you get down to it, you’re not talked to, they talk down to you. That I didn’t like, but I still went and still tried to get my life story across regarding the institution where I was a patient for twenty-five years. I can always tell when I walk into the room what sort of reception I’m going to get. I’ve always been received very well by both the students and staff alike on the learning difficulties course at Stockport College. There’s only one thing that hurts me more than anything, and this I must say.

On one occasion, I did have, from Stockport College, five students come to visit me at my home as they were so impressed with the talk I’d given them about the time I spent at Whixley Institution. They were the only ones that came. After that I only received the occasional Christmas card from the odd student, certain ones. It does hurt me. You go and speak to a class of students like I did just this last year, the year before we came into 2000.1 found that the students promised me faithful that they would send me a card and some wanted to come and see me. It was only a small group and they were very, very taken up with everything I was saying, in fact the time went literally so fast that it was over before you knew where you were. At the end of the day I do get upset though because they promised they would come and see me, two students, they promised they would come, but they didn’t, none of them. I stop and think these students have a tremendous lot to do, they haven’t got the time to visit me.

The thing that helps me is that I know that it’s embedded in them, something I’ve said which is going to help them in their course or in their work and this in turn will help other people. At the end of the day if it’s what the students want and the powers that be are prepared to have me in Stockport College, then I’m fully prepared to go. If I can carry on, then I know that when God takes me off this earth, then at least I’ll have left a message that in some cases will be able to stop the tremendous cruelty that’s taken place, not just to me, but to thousands of patients alike.

Now the other reason for my talking the way I do, and as painful as it is when I am talking on the subject of my life in the institution, is I stop and think of the countless thousands that there must have been in the institutions. I also stop and think of the poor souls in the community today who can’t speak out for themselves. In a way, I’m trying to speak out for them.

I lectured for ten years at the Manchester University. One year when I was at the Manchester University it was the students’ Christmas party and they even stayed behind to get my address so they could contact me when they could have just have left the building and gone to their party straight away. So that must have proved that they were really interested in what I said.

I find the students at Stockport have listened attentively to what I have to say too. The must do, otherwise they couldn’t ask all the questions they do. They have shown a great interest and they’ve been very quiet during the lectures. There’s not been anybody looking at their watches to see when it’s going to be half-time or the end. It’s always been a case of me saying, ‘Have I got any time left?’ That’s how it’s been over and over again with the students at Stockport College.

On my last visit to Stockport College, in the year leading up to the millennium, I was received by a small group of students. I found the students to be very, very impressive right the way through. But what I did, I decided to change a little bit of the way I speak. Instead of leaving it to half-time before giving them a chance to ask questions I gave them the chance to ask questions as I was talking. I said, ‘Look, I’ll stop if you want to ask me a question now’. I found that it went over better and the students did too. But there again, at the end of the day they asked for my address but I haven’t heard from them.

The only thing I was worried about the last time I came to Stockport College was when Iain and Kathy said, ‘This is the last time you’re coming to the College, isn’t it David?’. Well, the bottom nearly dropped out of me because I thought I really don’t want to stop coming to Stockport College. Even if they say they can’t afford to give me any money at all, I still want to keep going there. As I’ve said before, the Holy Family school in Leeds and the Stockport College mean more to me than anything else on this earth. Then they said, ‘Well we thought that you’d said you wanted to retire David’. I said, ‘No, it must have been a misunderstanding because in no way do I want to give the College up until the College decides it wants to get shot of me. Well when they said, ‘There’s no fear of that David’, that lifted me up. So that visit was a tonic and I got a good reception from the students. Two students were going to come to visit me – sadly, that didn’t materialise. Another five students were going to write to me. Now in all fairness I may have received a card from one of them. I think it’s only that that does hurt me a bit. But they definitely do take notice. You might say well how do you know if they take notice or not, David? Well, the answer is if they’re not listening, then how could they ask questions?

I’m looking forward to coming to the College again next year and if this book comes to fruition and I’m still alive I would love to receive a copy. There’s one more thing I’d like to say. I only hope that God spares me long enough whereby I can come to the Stockport College and lecture again next year. That would make it ten years that I’ve lectured at Stockport College, which would make it the same as I did at Manchester University.

Students’ Views on David’s Lecture

David returned to Stockport College on 10 January 2001 to give his tenth Annual Lecture. The following week, students were asked to provide written feedback on the lecture. All of the feedback was positive and emphasised the emotional impact and learning from a ‘first-hand’ account. Sample comments are included below, from a number of different students.

The talk was very interesting, highlighting the injustice and lack of vision, with regard to people with learning difficulties, perpetrated by officialdom. It is good to see that out of such negativity and discrimination there has been a positive result. I admire your self-confidence and ability to speak before a group of people.

It was a good experience to actually hear the truth about what went on in the institutions, instead of reading accounts from book. We had the chance to ask questions which was good. Very moving and emotional to think what people went through.

It was very moving, compelling and in a sense shocking, to hear a person’s account first hand, of their life in an institution. It was very beneficial to us all, both personally and professionally to hear David’s story. David was extremely open and honest with us – his lecture was excellent – made me see many things in a completely different perspective.

David’s talk was a moving way to gain insight into long-stay hospitals and what people experienced there. David is a very brave man whom we were lucky enough to meet and be allowed to share his experiences. David gave a very open and factual talk that benefited us all and was a very useful learning experience.

The talk you gave last Wednesday was riveting and fascinating. You were very brave in everything you went through. I cannot believe that this sort of thing can happen in an institution in which a person is supposed to be looked after by people of authority, and not victimised. More people who have been victimised in the early years and who were put into institutions should speak out and tell others about their experiences – good and bad. I read a couple of pages of your book and found it interesting. David, you are an inspiration to us all.

I think having guest speakers with learning difficulties coming into the College is an essential part of the course, to learn mutual respect. It is a good opportunity to listen and learn from a different, non-biased point of view. We get an insight into the courage and determination of some people who would be labelled as dependent and not worth listening to. I would like to see more teaching staff with learning difficulties coming on to the course.

I felt it was great to hear such an honest and open account of David’s life. The lecture was emotional for me, though not through a sense of pity. The insight into this man’s life and experiences, told so bravely, highlights how services have advanced and also how they must continue to improve for people with learning disabilities. I thoroughly enjoyed David’s lecture and I have thought and spoken of him on numerous occasions already.

Hearing David’s story of his life enabled myself to understand what it was like to live in an institution. All too often we only hear professional accounts of the effects of being institutionalised – David’s story is the real account and therefore is of more importance.

I found David’s story very interesting and informative, which gave me enormous insight to life in an institution. David’s story being a personal account of his experiences left a deep impression on me of the horrendous situation people faced in an institution because he shared from a feelings and emotional perspective rather than just a factual viewpoint. I believe David’s lecture will leave a lasting impression on me in terms of how I conduct my future work practices.

David talked about his institutional years so matter-of-factly, yet at the same time you could feel the pain of those stolen years. I felt the talk was his ‘own therapy’ – this being David’s podium to express his anger about his years of abuse. It was an interesting and yet sad talk; informative and emotive. David had achieved so much in his lifetime and yet had he ever really left the institution? I felt he had (internally) ‘stopped living’ and he was in a time warp, constantly reliving his time at Whixley Hospital. David appeared not to have come to terms with his years of abuse and yet at the same time appeared so calm and ‘in control’. I felt many emotions during (and after) the talk but the most overwhelming feeling was the damage humans inflict on each other – the repercussions can last a lifetime, and in David’s case may do.

David has been fronting lectures for the last ten yea...