What Matters Most: Toward a Future of Flourishing
This reprinted article appeared in START Connecting in November 2017.
START is welcoming Dr. Erik Carter, Professor of Special Education at Vanderbilt University, as the keynote presenter at the 2017 Fall RCN Leadership Day. The following article was reprinted with permission from TASH Connections. In the article, Dr. Carter highlights the investments we need to make to enable young people with severe disabilities to truly flourish through high school and beyond. Please enjoy this preview of the inspiring work of Dr. Carter to promote employment and inclusion of youth and young adults!
Adulthood—with all of its opportunities and challenges—is coming. Children with disabilities grow up. Our collective efforts as a field must much more closely reflect and better support this recognition. Because it is the expectations we hold, the opportunities we provide, the services we deliver, the supports we arrange, and the relationships we forge that will make the difference between those young people who find a future of flourishing and those whose aspirations go unfulfilled. Our investment—individually and collectively—is an important part of what matters most to the young people we serve. As we help young people with disabilities navigate these transitions, what commitments should characterize our efforts? What investments should we make to enable young people with severe disabilities to truly flourish through high school and beyond? Let me highlight ten modest ideas.
1. Universal Aspirations
The first may be most important: We must be led by the aspirations of young people. Our starting assumption must be that there is no separate set of dreams for young people with severe disabilities. Put yourself back in high school. And think about how you might have answered that perennial question: What are you looking forward to most about life after high school? As young people on the brink of adulthood, we all had great excitement about the future. And probably some nervousness about what comes next. But I bet you had hopes of living the “good life,” however you defined that for yourself. You envisioned a future of flourishing. The very same is true for young people with severe disabilities. Here is my very simple point: The presence of a disability is not a reliable predictor of people’s aspirations for their lives.