Ableism and Being Four, The Big Lie

I’m running into this again and again. I suspect most homeschoolers do. The four year-old kid’s not allowed to do something because, “What if other parents found out your four year-old was doing it? Then they’d all want their four year-olds to do it too.”

If they don’t know the four year-old I hang out with, the adults first tack is to tell me that four year-olds aren’t capable of whatever the given activity might be, (today it was focusing while learning to swim.) Once they determine, or believe the kid can, or if they know the kid and therefore know for a fact she can, then they inevitably fall back on, “What if everyone wanted to do it?”

First, I have a question. Is this some sort of public school thing I’ve simply forgotten? Asking “What if everybody?” I have vague memories of this sort of argument, but it’s so sweeping and obviously false that it seems comical? The lie is in the argument. What if all four year-olds could focus on learning to swim, so their parents brought them here to show them how to swim during lap swim when the shallow end of the pool is empty? What if all four year-olds could follow complex instructions for over an hour completing an art project with other students? Then, there parents would want them to take these art classes as well.

What they always mean is “I don’t believe a four year-old can, so what about the ones who can’t?” And the answer is simple. Don’t let them participate. The thing you’re doing to the four year-old here, right now, do it to the four year-olds who can’t. Assuming you find one.

Because, four year-olds can! Damn it! I know I’m leaning on the same issues that face many, many other groups, but for God’s sake! Let people do the things!

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