The best revenge is to outlive the "Big Berthas", eh?  True.

You remind me of a physical therapist I had when I was quite young, about
six or so.  She was huge, or seemed so from a short six-year old's
perspective. She was quite stern and would scold me heavily when I was slow
at doing my PT.  Also when a group of doctors would come around and want to
watch me do my exercises, and I'd balk, she would shake me and force me to
do them.  I hated having to strip down to my underwear and "perform like a
seal"in front of strangers.  I was a very shy child.

I now think that was a form of child abuse but didn't know that at the time,
and I was too scared to tell my parents, who thought everything was
hunky-dory at PT.  Of course this also stripped me of any dignity I had as a
human being and reduced me to an object of pity.  No wonder I hated doctors
and PT's for a long time.  If I were a parent and had a disabled child who
was going through PT, I'd insist on sitting in on the sessions and while
doctors viewed the therapy.

In my parents' defence, this all happened at the school I attended, the
parents were not allowed in the school during school hours, and all therapy
was done onsite during the school day, so they were not in a position to
know.  I finally told my mother years later and she told my dad.  Dad was so
angry, one of the very few times I ever saw him lose his temper.  My mother
was in tears.

Kat

----- Original Message -----
From: "Betty B" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 8:18 AM
Subject: Re: self determination


> In a message dated 1/29/2002 12:56:04 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > Also, "scold" is usually construed in my mind as an act performed by
adults
> > and directed toward unruly children! Adults should not be scolded.
> >
> > Bobby
> >
> > Oh Bobby, I was so angry the first time I read that word in Mag's post.
> Just that word conjured up memories of the times I have been lectured by
> people about how to be disabled, get undisabled, how to think (they're big
on
> that),etc.
>
>    I see the woman with that stern look.  She shakes a disaproving
> forefinger.  I had expressed an independent thought, see?  "You're getting
> off on the wrong foot with me Betty!"
>
> ("Really?  Which one is that, you boat-foot, bertha-lookin'...?")
>
> Wait a minute...that was Miss Stebbins, my sixth grade teacher.  She was
> supposed to talk to me like that.
>
> But I'm 43 now, and Miss Stebbins is dead.