Annessa Mortensen's reading curriculum has a second goal: to teach students to respect people with disabilities.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published December 3, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Annessa Mortensen surprised her language arts students recently with a provocative question.
"How tall does a person have to be to become a doctor?" she asked.
Twelve-year-old Malcolm Delgado was among the first to raise his hand.
"You wouldn't have to be tall at all," he said. "You'd just have to be smart."
Mortensen followed up with another question.
"Can a woman who is very small become a doctor?"
Of course, Malcolm said. The other students nodded in agreement.
"Do you think a woman my size could be a doctor?" Mortensen probed.
Malcolm sat back and thought about that one.
"I think it would be pretty cool," piped up Shawn Hubbell, 13.
Mortensen smiled and passed out an information sheet about Jennifer Arnold, a Pittsburgh pediatrician who is just more than 3 feet tall.
Fascinated, the students read about how the "little doctor" stands on a chair to examine her patients.
"Notice that she adapts to different things," Mortensen said. "People with physical disabilities are really creative people."
The lesson was another in a series Mortensen has presented since August to her students at Riviera Middle School, 501 62nd Ave. NE. Her aim has been twofold: to introduce them to individuals with physical challenges and to increase their interest in reading.
The sixth- and seventh-graders are participants in the school's Read 180 program, a curriculum that combines small group work with a teacher and independent work on a computer and in a reading center. The program was originally designed at Vanderbilt University to boost reading and comprehension skills for children who read below grade level.
The lessons are giving the children a new set of role models, including comedian Chris Fonseca, who has cerebral palsy; astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often called Lou Gehrig's disease; and athlete Wilma Rudolph, who overcame polio to become the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympic season.
Mortensen, who is 37, has a special interest in teaching children about the accomplishments of physically challenged people. She was born with a brittle bone disease called osteogenesis imperfecta and uses a motorized wheelchair because her bones cannot support her weight.
Far from considering herself handicapped, she views her physical challenges as a first-hand opportunity to teach children about self-sufficiency and the innate value of each person.
"Some people are in wheelchairs and some people can walk, the same way some people have blond hair and some people have brown hair," she reminded them halfway through their most recent lesson. "We all have our own unique set of things we can do."
To give the lessons a wider audience and to offer her students a chance to shine, Mortensen asked the school's media specialist to tape a short presentation from each child about a physically challenged individual for broadcast on the morning announcements. The students also helped prepare a bulletin board highlighting the contributions of physically challenged people that features the slogan "Incredible People Changing Our World."
Darren Bivins, 11, took a special interest in cartoonist John Callahan.
"He's in a wheelchair," Darren said. "He's paralyzed from his chest to his toes. Sometimes he uses his mouth to draw. I tried it once, but I messed up."
Ieysha Taylor, who is also 11, became fascinated with Stevie Wonder. She expressed her admiration to the blind musician in a letter.
"I have been learning about you and I would like to know how you play the piano when you can't see," she wrote.
Bringing up children to respect people who are physically challenged is important, Mortensen said.
"There are a lot of stereotypes that exist, a lot of archaic images about people with physical challenges. The best way to eradicate that in the future is to target America's youth," she said.
She welcomes her students' natural curiosity about her own challenges.
"Kids don't have a problem with disabilities the way many adults do," she said. "If they don't know something, they ask. I think that's the greatest thing in the world."
Mortensen concludes her lessons with a reminder that each person is a mixture of assets and disabilities, that no one can do everything, and that no one is completely incapable.
Students such as Malcolm seem to be getting the message.
"She's taught me a lot of stuff about different kinds of nouns and ways to remember words," he said. "I've also learned that just because people are different from you, they can do the same things you can do."
