Canes Enable Response

1) What are your thoughts on the presentation?

My thoughts on the presentation was that it was a very good one and that you learn a lot about canes and how they can be used. For example, there is the umbrella cane. It is a cane on one side and an umbrella on the other! Neat huh? Also the canes looked really cool. The word transportation sheet was kind of boring because it wasn’t something that interested me.

2) What did you learn?

I learned that there are a lot of people who are having a hard time out there in the world moving around and that we are lucky not to have to use a cane, wheelchair or crutches for the rest of our entire lives. I also learned that canes could be used for more than just walking. They used to be used to store liquor and the like and was also a symbol of authority (power).

3) What surprised you?

What surprised me the most was the weight of his prosthetic leg. It seemed to weigh 5 lbs. or more. Also, when I first saw him coming in, he looked like he had 2 legs. But when he came closer, I saw that on leg was a different colour that the other. Then, it hit me. He didn’t have 2 legs, but one real and one removable leg. He also gave a very good performance.

4) What are your thoughts on making places more accessible?

One idea that went through my head is making everybody “handicapped,” so that all areas will be accessible all the time. Another way that we could make places more accessible is by replacing all stairs with ramps so that it makes it easier on everyone to get around with heavy objects like suitcases. Or we could just get an elevator especially for the disabled for every set of staircases that are really big.

Homework

Do we have to do the glossary for friday??? and what other homework do we have in Mr. Gelmon???

Canes Enable

Canes Enable
I thought that presentation was very good and to the the point. The speaker Debbie Havusha was very good in enabling people to understand her organization. Personally I learned a lot about what canes can do for people. Debbie taught us about canes and what different canes can do for people. The guest Lawrence taught me many things like how much a prosthetic leg costs to how he can accomplish goals like somebody with two legs.

I learned that canes don’t only stabilize people but also that you can use them for many different ways. We also learned different ways you can move using the letters of the alphabet. Lawrence showed us what he could do with one leg. This gave me a better understanding to how people can adapt to different situations.

I was a bit surprised on how Lawrence was so confident to talk about his leg and his past. People I know would not feel as comfortable talking about their disability in front of a large group of people.

Ways that I would make different places accessible is to make ramps going on top of the stairs. I would also put in a hand rail and if i could an elevator.



Adam Cohen
7B

Canes Enable response

Canes Enable presentation was very fascinating to me because I learned daily challenges that I would have never imagined people having to go through. Debbie Havusha was like our ‘tour guide’ through the experience. I thought that she puts a lot of effort into anything she does. For example, the canes enable presentation and documentary. Although the presentation was only one third of what it should have been I thought it was very interesting and engaging.

The things I really liked were when Debbie took out Sarah Bear. Sarah Bear is a little stuffed animal with a prosthetic ‘leg’ that kids can hug to comfort them. She contains questions inside of her little ‘hoodie’ that we could each ask Lawrence such as ‘have you been able to do everything you have wanted to?’ All of these answers and questions were fascinating to me.

Just to think of the idea that one person can get around his wants, needs and dreams really touched me. His want or important but his dreams are incredible to accomplish. Many people think their life is over and they don’t do anything or take chances to see if thy can accomplish what their dream is. I think it’s incredible that Lawrence took in all of this news when h was just en years old.

Debbie introduced us to Lawrence around twenty or forty minutes into the presentation. Lawrence is a man who had is leg amputated and replaced with a prosthetic leg when he was just ten years old because he had bone cancer. Not in an insulting way, but, I could never do anything with just one leg. It would be a great challenge for me and I would be held back from many adventures that I would and had taken with my family. But that is where I went wrong. I thought that having one leg and a prosthetic leg isn’t good enough to do many physical activities out doors, indoors and in the water. But you can do almost anything you wish to do.

I also liked when Lawrence told us and showed us about him self, like when he took off his leg and he started to dance on one leg. He said "the way you move and where you move always means something different."What I found really nice is that he doesn’t consider himself different to us. He doesn’t care what people think of him, how they react to the news and his story or anything like that. When he told us that he had gone skiing for 6 hours yesterday on one leg I found that amazing and unbelievable. I took snowboarding lessons and the first hour of the class I broke my arm. I am surprised that he has not been sevearly injured while he was doing these physical activities.

Lawrence had us all guess how much a prosthetic leg costs. We were all way off because we guessed in the hundreds and tens. He told us that an average prosthetic leg costs about fifteen thousand dollars. I went in to shock and I can imagine that my mouth also flew open in shock. But what I really picked up was that fifteen thousand dollars, just for a NORMAL PROSTHETIC LEG!!!! That is a huge amount of money that would take years for me to raise! There are also some special prosthetic legs that can be put in water and those can cost up to forty thousand dollars!

I think that some people are assuming that there aren’t so many people that need wheelchairs in the world but it’s sad to hear that there are a lot more then you would imagine. Many places are not wheelchair accessible including our school. I find this really bad because there is one child that needs help walking in grade 4 because he has some disorders. So he uses a wheel chair. But he must have one on each floor of the school! Even though there are only 3 floors to the school I would imagine he has around four or five wheelchairs with him.

There have also been times when my fellow classmates have needed to be in wheelchair accessible places. Like Jonah, he was once in a wheelchair and because our school is non-wheelchair accessible he could not get around very easily. He could only use his wheelchair for recess and when he was on the main floor, lobby. The rest he had to do in crutches.

This also happened to me but I didn’t have to use a wheelchair. I only used crutches but the part that bugged me the most was that it was so hard to go up and down the stairs. It drove nuts! I had to get someone to carry my crutches up and down the stairs and then they needed to wait until I crawled up or down the stairs to get my crutches. I rented my crutches from London rugs and when I didn’t have anyone to carry my crutches for me I would have to just throw them down the stairs and just hope that nothing would happen to them. And luckily nothing did.


-Janine