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epitome of incomprehensibility
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So there was this prof at Brock who said, to my face, "I've never had a *grad* student who needed accommodations before."
But Brock was also the place where I got to have meetings every one or two weeks with a counselor from the students with disabilities office. No exaggeration, she probably saved my degree. I don't have anything exactly like that now, at Concordia.
There were these coaching sessions I had this fall through an external source, but I'd get distracted trying to describe them.
Anyway, in my experience, that kind of support is most helpful for me, followed by flexibility with paper deadlines. Longer times on tests, which is the only thing that's official for me here, hasn't been something that I needed...except when learning another language, I found out. Takes me longer to process things, to write.
Now, I have no idea whether that's ADHD-related or just a thing my brain isn't as good at. Or is slower at. I do all right at writing assignments - it just takes me longer than most people. (It IS cool if Noam_Chomsky is super quick at reading, but fast doesn't automatically equal smart and vice versa. And smart doesn't mean good or effective. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, though - offered to talk at Concordia for free, for instance. Gah, I'm getting distracted).
Anyway, my point: official accommodations aren't always tailored to specific situations - that's what I'm getting at.
...
And I started this idea-for-a-blathe thinking about something other than myself (for once!). But content warning for murder and tragedy and strange ideas.
An Ontario surgeon whose specialty includes operating on patients for a rare bone condition was jailed for murdering his wife. The article I read went into better-than-usual depth about the impact this had on his patients. The condition was a chronic one for which no cure has been found yet, so the surgeries just improve quality of life without stopping the slow deformation of bones and other tissues. Many people said they were able to go about their life more easily after the surgeries - it made the difference between being bedridden and mobile, constantly nauseous and not, pain-wracked and less so, etc. Plus, not many other doctors know enough or have enough experience with this condition to perform the surgeries.
As I read this, I was struck by how sad everything was, and I had a weird thought: why automatically remove him from his job? Let his past be known, sure, so that people can decide not to have surgeries with him if they're afraid or morally opposed, but make it easier by keeping strict watch on his work life. Have it a condition that he's allowed some freedom as long as he doesn't engage in any abusive practices, at work or out of it (he isn't said to have done violence to any of his patients) AND have it mandated that a large percentage of his earnings goes towards causes preventing/alleviating intimate partner violence.
It probably wouldn't be ethical to have ALL of his earnings taken away - too much of the existing jail system is institutionalized slavery, as noted in the "prison" blathe - but a basic living wage is much less than what a surgeon normally makes.
People - such as my brother - would probably say, "No, you can't do that - you're too idealistic - that's not how things work." (And I say the same to him sometimes with other of his ideas.)
But I think some accommodation can be made for the situation without rewarding a man for killing a person. He's uncontestably terrible for doing that, no matter what good he did elsewhere, but why should other people suffer? At least give him some time to train another surgeon in his specialty. But perhaps medical licenses are revoked completely for crimes, even if non-job related? I am no lawyer.
...It just seems that many large-scale systems aren't set up to be flexible.
Maybe the better *specific* point is that justice in mainstream North America is most often punitive rather than restorative. Although my reasoning in this case may not actually be reasonable and other people might have better ideas.
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