Don't know if I can laugh at this one...

Flaired as "humor" because there's no "weep for the future" flair...

Today we had a lesson on Helen Keller in my 10th grade ELA class, and I knew I'd hear about the conspiracy theory that "she didn't exist" or "she's a myth" or "other people wrote for her, there's no way she did that herself." I planned ahead of time to educate them on the matter (while avoiding words like "ableism" or "how dare you" so I don't get a load of pushback from our super conservative community).

Then one of my students had THE AUDACITY to say, "If she was deaf AND blind, why didn't they just take her out? She wasn't able to do anything for society. They should have just gotten rid of her. What was the point?"

My instant response: "Congratulations - you have the same opinion as Hitler."

And the student just shrugged.

SHE SHRUGGED.

I of course went on to explain how Helen Keller was an advocate for disability rights and how society used to treat disabled people in general, and then switched to the reading portion of the lesson ("View from the Empire State Building").

I thiiiiink by the end of the lesson, some of the kids got it. But y'all - my flabbers were ghasted by that one.