Absurdities and Realities of Special Education
Absurdities and Realities of Special Education: The University of Vermont Center for Digital Initiatives Collection is a complete set of all of the cartoons created by Michael Giangreco with the assistance of the artist Kevin Ruelle. This includes a total of 335 cartoons from four previously published books and searchable CD that went "out of print" in 2019 and a few newer cartoons. Michael Giangreco created the original ideas, text, and sketches for each cartoon and Kevin Ruelle redrew the sketches.
The cartoons in the first three books all were originally in black and white. That was a conscious decision, both for aesthetic and practical reasons. The cartoons were designed to be easily copied on to overhead transparencies for display in classes, workshops, and other learning environments. A group called Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) requested permission to use one of the cartoons on the cover of their magazine and subsequently colorized it. Prompted by Giangreco’s colleagues associated with ALLFIE, Giangreco and Ruelle began to colorize the rest of the images. In this complete digital collection, we have included a total of 335 different digital images; including the 315 different cartoons from the four earlier books, 12 cartoons that were on the CD only, and eight that were not included in any of the previously published books or CD.
Cartoons from the early books have found their way on to the pages of many newsletters disseminated by schools, parent groups, disability advocacy organizations, and professional associations. They have appeared in books, manuals, and journals; a few were even published in a law journal. The cartoons have been used extensively as projected slides or within learning activities in college classes, at conferences, in workshops, and at other meetings. Parents have framed cartoons that closely reflected their own experiences and hung them in their homes or offices. Other parents have used them in meetings with professionals to help get their points across. They have been given as gifts to people who "get it" and handed out as door prizes. The Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights used them as part of "Disability Awareness Day" at the Vermont legislature. The cartoons can be used in innumerable creative ways.
Showing 171 - 180 of 231 Records
Band-Aid Approach
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows a woman with short blonde hair and purple dress on the left side of the panel. She is a teacher. She is holding a green binder talking to a person-sized Band-Aid who is a paraprofessional. The teacher says, "Here's the deal: we've got lots of kids, too many who need extra help, too much paperwork, not enough planning time, and extensive staff development needs. Thank goodness you're here! Our problems are solved!" The Band-Aid responds, "I'll do what I can, but I can only do so much." The tag line reads, "Band-Aid Approach: Are we expecting too much of instructional assistants?"
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Clearing the Path V2
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows a school with children waiting at the bottom of the stairs for a school custodian to shovel the snow so that they can get into the building. A student in a wheelchair asks the custodian, "Could you please shovel the ramp?" he replies, "All these other kids are waiting to use the stairs. When I get through shoveling them off then I will clear the ramp for you." The student in the wheelchair replies back, "But if you shovel the ramp we can all get in!" The tag line reads, "Clearing a path for everyone!"
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Three Faces of Beav
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon show a boy who is meant to be a parody of the classic character, Beaver Cleaver from the classic 1960s TV series "Let it to Beaver." He is shown with three faces, oriented left, center, and right, as a parody of the classic film, "The Three Faces of Eve." The left facing Beaver looks grumpy as he says, "Cut it out Lumpy! You know how bad you feel when people tease you!" Under this face is the label, "Advocate." The center facing Beaver is smiling and looking up while saying, "You know Eddie, for a sneaky guy, you can be pretty neat when you wanna be." Under this face is the label, "Looking for the good in everyone." The right facing Beaver is smiling and looking up while saying, "Golly Wally, I felt real proud to have you as my big brother when I saw how nice you were to that new kid." Under this face is the label, "Acknowledging others." The tag line reads, "The Three Faces of Beav."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Nth Degree
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows a tee-shirt shop with a person in a wheelchair looking at the different shirts. The sign on the wall is labeled, "Nth Degree." There are three shirts tacked to the wall that read: (a) "Your attitude might be my biggest barrier." (b) "I am, therefore I matter." and (c) "Nothing about me without me!" The person in the wheelchair has a thought bubble that reads, "HMMMM...decisions decisions." The tag line reads, "Peter ponders over apparel to wear to his next IEP meeting." The acknowledgement tag line on the left reads, "Inspired by Dan Wilkins."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Hardening of the Attitudes
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows an overweight, middle-aged man in his underwear sitting on an examining table in his doctor's office. The doctor is standing in front of him listening to the man's heart with a stethoscope. The man says to the doctor, "What is Doc? I can take it!" The doctor replies, "I'm afraid you have a common affliction among veteran educators...Attituderial Asclerosis." The tag line reads, "Harry is diagnosed with hardening of the attitudes."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Flush It!
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows a toilet with four buckets of money being poured into it; each with a different label: (a) Inadequate Instruction, (b) Questionable Curriculum, (c) Untrained Staff, and (d) Inadequate Staffing Ratios. The tag line reads, "Unless you spend enough money to meet a basic threshold of effectiveness, you might as well just flush it!"
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Treadmill Of Change
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows two men running on treadmills with a carrot on a stick tied to the front of the treadmills. There is a big yellow star on the wall and in the star it reads, "Vision: Great Services." The man on the treadmill on the right side of the panel is saying, "I don't get it! I can see where we're headed, we have the skills, the incentives and resources. But nothing seems to change!" The man on the treadmill on the right side of the panel says, "We need a better action plan!" The tag line reads, "The treadmill of change." The tag line on the left reads, "Inspired by Tim Knoster."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
New Scholarship
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows three men and one woman sitting around a table. The man sitting on the left of the panel is saying "I'm sorry, but these materials are totally unacceptable scholarship." The woman sitting in the middle of the panel says, "I concur. They use completely understandable language, are concise, and could be used by people without an advanced education." The man to her right replies, "Plus, they seem to elicit laughter, and we certainly can't have that in serious scholarship." The fourth man is sitting with his back to the panel and is writing on papers. The tag line reads, "University Promotion Mishap #3: New scholarship meets old scholars."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
A Tale of Two Schools
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 1999
- Description: The cartoon has two panels, top and bottom. The top panel shows two people across a table from each other. The person to the right has two large stacks of books next to him. The person to the left says, "Are we ready to include students with more severe disabilities in regular class?." The second person says, "As soon as I finish reading these books on inclusion and draft our long-range plan... We should be ready in 7 or 8 years." The bottom panel has two people facing each other, both holding a piece of paper. The person on the left says, "I'm sure glad we got started including and supporting all our students in regular classes." The person to the right says, "Me too! I know we'll learn things along the way from our success and mistakes." The tag line under the cartoon reads, "A tale of two schools."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
Lunacy
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 1999
- Description: The cartoon shows the full moon with stars in the dark sky and a dog sitting on the top of a hill howling at the moon. There is a building with a group of people that you can see through a window sitting around a table having a meeting. Someone in the room says "Are we in agreement? In order to teach our students with disabilities to function in our community we should send them away to learn some place else." The tag line reads "Lunacy!? After several bad experiences with the lunar cycle, school officials decide not to hold any more meetings during the full moon."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Flying by the Seat of Your Pants