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 301 - 310 of 342 Records
Balancing Act
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows scales. The top bar of the scales says, "Quality Education" the scale on the left says, "Academic/Functional" and the one on the right says, "Social/Personal." There are gold coins on each scale and there is a hand coming down from the top of the panel with another coin to place in one of the scales. The tag line reads, "It's a balancing act!"
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Wavelength
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The cartoon shows a machine with knobs and a speaker that records and displays wavelengths. There are yellow waves crossing the monitor. On parallel (non-intersecting) waves displayed on the monitor are people trying to get to from their different wave lengths on to the same one. The tag line reads, "Team effectiveness requires all the members to get on the same wavelength."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Standards Protest
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2000
- Description: The carton shows people in the foreground picketing with signs that say, "Put your money where your mouth is!" "Students for adult accountability," "Students against revisionist history." "Why, when I was a kid…", "Fairness in standards now!" In the upper left corner of the panel in the background are two men in suits. One man says to the other, "Thank goodness we made it through school before the standards movement!" The tag line reads, "Standards are adjusted after the legislature considers a bill requiring school board members to pass the same assessments given to students."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Teaching Old Logs New Tricks
Skyrocket
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 2007
- Description: This cartoon shows two people outside looking up at a star-filled night sky as they see something bright streaking up and across it. One person points to it and asks, "What's that?" The other person calmly says, "Oh, that's skyrocketing use of special education paraprofessionals." The tag line under the cartoon reads, "Out of Sight!"
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, CD Only
Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 1999
- Description: This book includes 105 color cartoon images that were originally published in black and white in: Giangreco, M. F. (1999). Flying by the seat of your pants: More absurdities and realities of special education. Corwin. (out of print, 2019)
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
4. CD Only
- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-
- Date Created: 2007
- Description: This collection includes 12 color cartoon images that were originally published on searchable CD: Giangreco, M. F. (2007). Absurdities and realities of special education: The complete digital set [searchable CD]. Corwin. (out of print, 2019). This subset of 12 cartoons were part of The Complete Digital Set on the CD that included 327 both color and black and white digital images of all of the cartoons in the three books/subcollections: (1) Ants in Pants..., (2) Flying by the Seat of Your Pants..., and (3) Teaching Old Logs New Tricks. The 12 cartoons in this subcollection were those not previously published in the earlier books.
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education
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
Jargonese as a Second Language
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 1998
- Description: This cartoon shows an occupational therapist handing a ball to a paraprofessional as the therapists says, "Starting from a prone position, he should assume a bi-ped upright posture and grasp the sphere using the upper extremities bilaterally!" The paraprofessionals turns toward the special educator and whispers, "What did she say?" The special educator responds, "He should get off his stomach, stand-up, and catch the ball." The tag line under the cartoon reads, "David translates for Hank who is just learning to speak Jargonese as a second language."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants
Passing the Buck
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 1998
- Description: This cartoon shows a young student with disabilities wearing a deer mask (with antlers) while he is handed from a teacher to a paraprofessional. The tag line under the cartoon reads, "The professional staff resort to using props just so the teacher assistant is clear they are passing the buck."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants
Cave School
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- Creator: Giangreco, Michael F., 1956-.
- Date Created: 1998
- Description: A caveman with a club in his hand is dragging a child by her hair in to a cave which is labeled Cave School for the Hunting and Gathering Impaired. The tag line under the cartoon reads, "Recent archeological evidence suggests that special schools have been around longer than once thought."
- Parent Collections: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, Ants in His Pants