This week, Glee aired an episode (Movin’ Out) that featured a Becky Jackson plot line. The episode featured several characters talking about their post high school plans. As always, most of this was handled with a certain amount of absurdity (one of the characters is up for the Channing Tatum Former Stripper scholarship – I think we could go on for days about how inappropriate that it for a minor), but some of what happened still rang true.
We’ve already seen a group of characters graduate from high school and they’ve had varying levels of success. Among them, one got into her dream school and is now thriving, one rode out west to open a business (it failed), and one dropped out of college after realizing it truly wasn’t a good fit. So, Glee has already shown us that college isn’t the end-all, be-all and that there are varying ways to move on from high school.
There was a bit of sloppy writing on Glee’s part here. Last season, Becky talks about graduating with that group (precipitating the gun incident), but this season, she is still in high school. Consistency is a common issue with Glee, so I’m choosing to see this as bad writing rather than some commentary on Becky’s abilities.
In this episode, a character who uses a wheelchair approaches Becky with information he found while investigating accessible college programs for himself. Becky initially resists, and Sue Sylvester tells him to butt out – that Becky needs to stay where she is, where people know her and care about her, and where she can’t get hurt. But Artie persists, and Becky eventually admits that she does want to go to college but is afraid to do so.
Huge points to Glee writers here. Sue’s reaction is typical to the point of predictable, and that’s ok. It is a fear shared by many people who send loved ones off to college – Down syndrome or not. (Sue does eventually come around and fully supports Becky’s decision.) Becky models an incredibly typical reaction – worrying she’s not ready or not smart enough for college. I think this is something many teens feel as high school graduation approaches. But then Becky also charts her own course. Even after her beloved mentor tries to stop her, she still chooses to investigate college. She is a fully realized young adult capable of determining her own desires and acting on them. I also love that she engages in this discussion with a peer, just like so many teens who talk to their friends about the future.
So, all of that is good. Where the episode trips up a bit is when Becky and Artie visit a program of interest. It’s a real program at the University of Cincinnati (more info here) but the way it’s presented is…not great. It’s shown as a program only for students with Down syndrome (to my knowledge, this doesn’t exist anywhere in the USA) and that they take a full course load of life skills classes.
Say what?
Here’s my quibble: while there are some post-secondary options that are life-skills based, this isn’t one of them. Glee missed a huge opportunity here to show an option that allows students access to collegiate curriculum with accommodations. Instead, it comes off as a rather segregated option, almost exactly like what someone might picture of a person with Ds going to college. This is especially strange to me because Lauren Potter, the actress who plays Becky, attends a similar program herself. All they had to do was ask the woman they had right there in front of them.
But over all, this episode gets it right. Success (and failure) can look like so many things for students, whether they have Down syndrome or not. College is not presented as Becky’s only option for “success,” but it is wonderfully presented as her own version of success. They model peer and mentor support for her own choice as well.
And at the heart of it, I love that it’s simply Becky’s choice. It isn’t some statement about her value or ability that she’s going to college, or a justification that she’s “just like everyone else.”
You see, when Rowenna was first born, I heard a lot about these kinds of programs. The information was offered to me almost like a salve for my raw, confused heart. It was “ok” that she had Down syndrome, because did you know people with Ds can go to college now? (I get it. People were trying to help.) But instead of simply being ok with Down syndrome, it was being justified by offering up this random measure of “success.”
Eventually I started to wonder: what if Rowenna does not have the skills necessary to attend college? (Just like some typical kids don’t have the skills.) Is she then a “failure” as a person with Down syndrome? Does that mean I didn’t do enough therapy or push for enough school services? What if, like many teens, Rowenna doesn’t want to go to college? It started to seem to me just another part of the “more alike than different” machine that I no longer ride. It started to sound like “don’t worry, she won’t be as cognitively impaired as you’re imagining.”
Instead, I long for a future where Rowenna chooses her own metric of success. Job, no job. Her own apartment, or not. College, no college. Whatever her dream and her passion, we will be there to support her and help her figure out a way to make it work, just like we will for the little spark who is on her way. College is a great option, but it doesn’t make Down syndrome ok.
There’s nothing wrong with having Down syndrome, or a cognitive disability, in the first place. And college is not the only way to measure anyone’s success. (Just ask the 60% of American adults who do not hold a bachelor’s degree.)
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