Raising the Bar: How Schools Shape Self-Belief in Nonspeaking Students

The idea that I am a loud voice with unpopular opinions is hard to digest when you are part of a system that won’t allow me to access my preferred communication.

For the first time in my life I know when I ask to share something folks all around the world might read it and learn from my words. What a feeling of empowerment to be passed the mic.

TJ works with his mother Tammy while at Reach Every Voice. Together, they read and discuss a lesson about Judy Heumann, disability rights activist. TJ responds by pointing to letters to spell the words he wants to say on a laminated board held by Tammy.

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I always believed the limitations my school put on me. They were the experts. I didn’t know to question their judgement.

As I sat in classes with simple topics I assumed it was what I could handle, making things that seemed complex forbidden. Loud voices and simple sentences. Those were the language everyone decided I understood.

But they were wrong.

I didn’t think to question them, but my mom did. She believed I was smart and they didn’t know how to teach me.

Do you all know what it’s like to listen to your mom fight a school system for years, telling them you are smart, and can you imagine actually thinking she is the crazy one because you have completely lost all faith in your own abilities?

Self-doubt is a monster. I didn’t have any for years. That’s how completely convinced I was of my own limitations. Then all that changed.

Learning that other people like me - other people who also talked but said lots of nothing - now found ways to control their little fingers to slow down and point to one letter at a time to spell huge thoughts… this made me doubt my ingrained belief in my own inability.

Suddenly I doubted everything. What if I didn’t require simplified learning? What if I didn’t need picture schedules? What if I didn’t actually need a four page plan to analyze my every stim? What if they’re wrong about me? What if they’re wrong about ALL the kids in my class?

This story has no happy ending. My school sitch is an ever-loving hot mess. But there is a moral to my story.

Teachers may be overworked and underpaid, but they wield enormous influence in how their students view themselves. We all rise or fall to the expectations of our teachers. How high do you set the bar in your classroom?

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TJ Thompson is an avid Pixar fan and lover of history. Lately he has developed an interest in disability rights and advocacy.

This is TJ's first blog.

You can find more of TJ's work advocating for nonspeaking students on the Reach Every Voice instagram.