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.

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Showing 21 - 28 of 28 Records

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15 1998 9 1999 4 2000
Miniature of Dictionary of Special Ed Jargon
Dictionary of Special Ed Jargon
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    • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
    • Date Created: 1998
    • Description: This cartoon shows a father sitting in an overstuffed arm chair with lamp on next to him while he reads a book titled, "Dictionary of Special Education Jargon." The tag line under the cartoon reads, "Mr. Green prepares for his child's IEP meeting."
    • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants
    Miniature of Pants Down
    Pants Down
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      • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
      • Date Created: 1998
      • Description: This cartoon shows a special educator sitting at his desk writing and you can see that his pants are down around his ankles. The tag line under the cartoon reads, "Rodney is caught with his pants down -- writing goals and objectives without family input."
      • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants
      Miniature of Incredibly Excessive Paperwork
      Incredibly Excessive Paperwork
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        • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
        • Date Created: 1999
        • Description: The cartoon shows two people in an office surrounded by tons of paperwork. A Man says to Mrs. Snippett, "No. It's 'Individual Education Program'." Mrs. Snippett responds, "You're kidding!" The tag line reads "Mrs. Snippett had long thought I.E.P. stood for 'Incredibly Excessive Paperwork.'"
        • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
        Miniature of Cut and Dried
        Cut and Dried
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          • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
          • Date Created: 1998
          • Description: This cartoon shows a special educator outside on a rural property hanging up laundry on a clothes line. He is using clothes pins to hang up three long strips; each one has one letter on it, I-E-P. The tag line under the cartoon reads, " The most recent computerized IEPs are too cut and dried."
          • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants
          Miniature of Magic Stapler
          Magic Stapler
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            • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
            • Date Created: 1998
            • Description: This image depicts a faux advertisement poster. At the top is says, "You can purchase this Magic Stapler $12.99" It shows the image of a basic stapler and star burst where it had stapled together multiple pages of an IEP, each page labeled with goals of different disciplines: special education, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and orientation and. mobility. The bottom of the poster says, "Comes with 599 magic staples -- no fairy dust required." The tag line under the cartoon reads, "Transform your separate, disjointed, discipline-specific, uncoordinated goals into a team IEP."
            • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants
            Miniature of Home Reality
            Home Reality
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              • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
              • Date Created: 1999
              • Description: The cartoon shows a man and woman sitting and looking exasperated and tired. The mans says to the woman, "We made it through another busy day. Work, dinner, the kids homework, dishes, laundry, bills paid, the kid's baths, bedtime stories‚Ķ" and the woman responds, "Oh No! We forgot to do the 'home therapy program' and to work on 'IEP Goals'!" The tag line reads "Home programming collides with home reality!"
              • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
              Miniature of Looking for Luck
              Looking for Luck
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                • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
                • Date Created: 1999
                • Description: The cartoon shows a man wearing a Fighting Irish shirt, throwing salt over his right shoulder, holding a 4 leaf clover and a rabbit's foot, standing on 2 horseshoes. There is a person in the lower left corner of the panel asking, "What are you doing?" The man responds, "Getting ready for my son's IEP Meeting." The tag line reads "Looking for luck in all the wrong places."
                • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
                Miniature of Born to be Filed
                Born to be Filed
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                  • Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
                  • Date Created: 2000
                  • Description: This cartoon shows a bearded biker wearing a black leather jacket with a skull and crossbones on the back sitting on his motorcycle while placing a file folder in a file cabinet. One file says, "No one's ever going to see us again are they?" Another file folder replies, "Nope!" In the background a rock band consisting of two guitar players and a drummer are signing to the melody of Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, although the words have been changed to: "Get your motor runnin'. Head out on the highway. Lookin' for adventure in whatever comes our way. BORN TO BE FILED!" The tag line reads, "Teammates engage in their annual pot-IEP completion ritual."
                  • Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks