What could I do to change one thing in the world to make it a more caring place? I believe that one thing I could do would be to change the way some people feel about and treat others who have special abilities. Yes, people with special abilities not people with disabilities.
Sometimes people with special abilities are treated differently because they may look, act, or do things differently than others. People will sometimes ignore, judge, stare and even worse, laugh at them. I sometimes think to myself, “How would I feel if I were treated that way?” I know that I would feel excluded, alone, and singled out as being “different”. It may even be hard for me to find friends or be a friend. I think it would be hard for me to feel comfortable to share my feelings or open up to others.
Sometimes people do not understand how to treat others who might be a little different; they sometimes avoid having any contact with them. It is no different than treating them like they are your best friend. If we help people with special abilities feel included and try to get to know them, we might find that we have just as much in common with them as the next person. For example at school, I know that many students with special abilities are included into regular classrooms. I even know some of these students. Sometimes I have seen them not being asked to do things with others unless the teacher asks. Sometimes students who don’t understand will imitate them or make fun of them.
One simple change that everyone could make including me, would be to choose them first to be in a group or volunteer to be their partner for a project. They would feel more a part of the school community and feel more accepted. I think that is really all they would like—to feel accepted. Not special, just accepted like everyone else. I think it would help others to realize that maybe they do have similar interests, have a lot more in common, and may even become friends.
I think this change would make a caring impact because we wouldn’t look at each other differently. It wouldn’t matter how you look, act, or if you do things a little differently. We would treat each other with more kindness and care more about each other. We would look beyond and see what special qualities everyone possesses and how we all can contribute to society.
When I think about it, do we all do things exactly the same? Do we all look the same? Do we act the same? I think the world would be a very uninteresting place if it were not as diverse as it is.
This would be the one change I feel would make the world a more caring place. If we treated everyone the same, the way we would like to be treated, then it would truly mean that everyone believes that “all means all”, which I have been hearing about a lot lately. To me, this means that no matter what abilities you have or do not have, we are all a part of the larger whole and everyone deserves to belong to it.