How Did We Get Into This Mess? Down Syndrome is "Hell on Earth."

[raging moderate]

56. What if there could have been that DS person or AS person, but without the impairment?

When I was working in the public schools, many years ago, there was this boy with Down's Syndrome. He was friendly, sensitive, and always very helpful with some kids who had severe impairments. This boy was conscientious and hard working. During his entire elementary school career, he had INSISTED on spending a couple of hours every day on what he called his homework. He filled line after line on page after page of lined notebook paper with meaningless connected loops, the exact size of cursive writing. It seemed futile but harmless. Everyone liked him, and nobody wanted to upset him by thwarting his efforts to emulate the work of the unimpaired students around him.
Then, when this boy turned 16, suddenly HE LEARNED HOW TO READ AND WRITE. Not very long words or sentences, but enough to read some signs, enjoy some books, and leave some notes. Imagine the shocked joy of all the adults in his life. Those years of "useless" pre-writing practice had trained his hand to form letters small enough to be functional. Even with that Down's Syndrome impairment, this boy came up with a learning strategy for himself that was BRILLIANT.
I am glad that this boy is in this world, a man now, I suppose. I bet he is doing some very useful work and maintaining some very fine friendships. But I wish, with all my heart, that that chromosome hadn't ripped in him. Imagine what such a person could have accomplished with all of his chromosomes intact.
Maybe these scientists can learn to prevent these little anomalies. Maybe they can figure out how to thwart the factors that cause these harmful mutations.