It is so important to believe in people.

A couple of weeks ago, I was faced with one of those uncomfortable moments for a parent of a child with cognitive disabilities. There in my son’s backpack was a stapled sheet of paper with the words “Models and Designs Project: Sixth Grade Science.” I stared at the words in dread. It’s no secret that the school seems to be tailored to the good kids, the kids who get good grades, the kids who make the basketball team… 

What could my son possibly do that would not be a dismal failure?

Assignments like this seem particularly designed to show off our inadequacies. But, that would not make the assignment go away… so slowly, with skepticism, I scanned the list titled “Project Options.” There were six suggested options including things like “invent a household device”, “create a musical instrument”, and “create a self-propelled vehicle.” I knew that being a designer maybe I could concoct something for these areas, but no one would ever believe that my son could do it… even with help.

Suddenly, I saw it… “create a piece of artwork using a medium of your choice”…

Oh, thank God! We’re saved! As a graphic designer, I’ve taken a lot of college art courses… and this project was one that John could maybe do… with a little help. They won’t be great, but we can make some paintings with some old tempera paint from the closet… and my colleague in fine art offered us some nice Arches paper. But even so, in all honestly, I never expected what would happen. My son, who can’t talk, has barely written more than his name, and who has severe impulse control and attention issues… sat quietly, mesmerized by the act of painting. 

But what was the most shocking, was that he painted like a painter. Not like a 12 year old kid with cognitive disabilities… but like a painter. He would move the brush across the page and deliberately make marks with the paint… bold, amazing marks. What’s more, the compositions were balanced in form and color. As he painted, he would sign and vocalize with regard to the colors that he was using… and gently tap his foot to the music on his i-pod.

In his final science project report, I quoted the philosophy of the famous art critique Clement Greenberg. Greenberg said that painting was about understanding and using the properties of paint — things like texture, viscosity and color — as a form of expression. Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Motherwell championed this new form of art which they called abstract expressionism. Just like those painters… my son’s thoughts and emotions — which had never been spoken in words — were given form through the visceral properties of paint.

One science project, so loaded with the potential for failure, suddenly opened up tremendous hope.

Painting #7, Tempera on Paper

But I was the one who learned the most important lesson… even in my own son, I had only seen his disabilities… never a possible ability. I had been filled with dread over what his future might hold… or not hold… the mindless sorting and cleaning work relegated to people who have no future. But in everything there is a lesson and in this science project the lesson was that everyone has potential. I guess the purpose of this take home assignment was to let parents tap into the tiny, unformed dreams in the minds of their children.

Fortunately, my lesson came at just the right time. My graduate students are brainstorming and designing what I call enabling technologies… Information technologies for persons with cognitive disabilities. We are targeting people with things like autism, epilepsy, or Alzheimer’s Disease… and talking about the impact of age, culture and gender… and the role of style and beauty… what makes this technology cool? In essence, the kind of technologies that empower people and extend their abilities in ways that give them greater independence, increased safety, and a better quality of life. The kind of things that make us feel really good.

Everyone deserves that.