Irving Kenneth Zola Self Identity Summary

Irving Kenneth Zola wrote an article titled Self, Identity, and the Naming Question. Within this article Zola “explores the importance of language in the naming of people with disabilities (Zola 500). He also draws similarities and differences with other oppressed groups within the United States. “Negative language inflicts the subconscious of most...people from the time they first learn to speak” (Zola 501). What a powerful quote Zola makes in the very first few lines of his article. Young minds are like sponges, I know this because I’m a Preschool Teacher, and they absorb everything you’re teaching them. We need to shape and mold our young children’s mind in a positive and encouraging light right from the start. We want to ensure that our children understand that words and what they say is very powerful. When we model the behavior and language we want to see the children in our classroom achieve, we need to make sure it’s the example we are setting is a good one. In my classroom, I’ve come to see how dependent these children are on me. They look up to me. I am not only their teacher, but I become their mother, their nurse, their hairdresser, their therapist, and their stylist. I wear so many different hats
The language we use and how we use it to define and describe people is so very important. It’s sad to think that children with disabilities are looked at by their disability. Simple all the things they cannot accomplish. Zola makes a reference to this when he says, “characters with a disability, are often referred to by their disability”. The disability, in my opinion, doesn’t define a child. All that tells me as a person, and a teacher is that they might experience some struggles. Maybe they struggle academically, or socially, or behaviorally, or maybe all of the above; however, there are a million other positive characteristics about this child that mean so much