Area man teaches students about disabilities
North County Tribune
About 200 students from Lewis Middle School attended the first of three “Character Education through Disability Awareness” presentations by teacher and motivational speaker Marty Mimmack earlier this month.
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| Teacher Marty Mimmack demonstrates a variety of mainstream adaptive devices to students in Carol Barker’s special day class at Lewis Middle School. Photo: Mary Kedzior photo: |
Not knowing how to respond to Mimmack, who was born without arms, some students giggled, while others sat quietly, in awe of the man shorter than many of them, standing on the stage in front of them.
After a brief introduction, Mimmack announced that his first lesson of the day would be on perseverance. Pointer in mouth, Mimmack proceeded to try to turn the pages of a book on an easel. Each time he tried turning a page, the pointer would slip out from under it.
After a few tense minutes Mimmack gave it one last flip of his pointer, revealing a new page with the word “perseverance” written on it.
Students and teachers, who were sitting on the edge of their seats, breathed a unanimous sigh of relief.
“How many of you think I should have asked for help?” asked Mimmack, a substitute teacher in the Lucia Mar Unified School District.
Less than half of the students raised their hands.
“I could have asked for help, but I didn’t,” said Mimmack, who later admitted that he didn’t plan for this to happen, but was glad that it did.
“There are positives and negatives to asking for help. You get to meet people if you ask for help, but you never learn the value of perseverance if you always ask for help.”
The youngest of six boys, Mimmack was born without arms, with deformed hip sockets, and one leg that is longer than the other.
“My mother had five boys without disabilities, and then she had me,” said Mimmack. “Do you think it was a shock to my parents when I was born?”
After allowing students to reflect on his question, Mimmack said, “I think that they were very shocked.”
Mimmack credited his parents, who are deceased, with instilling in him the self-confidence and independence to live alone, hold two jobs and drive a car.
”We don’t know why I was born without arms, even though my mother didn’t drink, smoke or take drugs,” said Mimmack. “My parents didn’t shelter me. They didn’t say ‘We’re embarrassed.’ When I was four or five they sat me out on our driveway and said, ‘Go and play with the other kids.’ It gave me the confidence to stand up here in front of a group like you. When I was in the sixth grade my parents said that I better get a job so that I will be able to pay for things that will cost me more because of my disability.”
Mimmack, who steers with his left foot, and operates the gas and brakes with his right foot, said that it cost him $8,000 to pay to have his car equipped with adaptive devices.
“These are all mainstream adaptive devices,” said Mimmack, pointing to several items on a table, including a shirt with velcro tabs where buttons used to be.
Students leaned forward to get a better look, responding with “ooh” and “wow.”
Mimmack said that people like him are like missing links. “You don’t often see us, and knowing how to respond is important,” he said. “I was denied the constitutional right to bare arms.”
Mimmack, whose presentations are sprinkled with light humor, said that one of his goals is to make students feel more comfortable around people who are unlike themselves. “If I’m curious, do I go up and ask a person with disabilities, ‘Did you break your arms?’ No, I say, ‘Gee, I noticed you have some disabilities.’ That way I can explain to you my disabilities.”
Making sure he had the students’ undivided attention, Mimmack said, “Having a disability is no party. I focus on ‘What am I going to do with the cards that were dealt to me.’”
When Mimmack asked if anyone had any questions, one student asked him how he graded tests. He answered by picking up a pencil with his mouth and writing his name on a big sheet of paper, which resulted in thundering applause.
Mimmack’s presentations were made possible because of the efforts of Dawn Maiorino, a senior at Cal Poly, whose senior project was to kick off “Disability Awareness Month” at Lewis Middle School. “I think it’s wonderful that Dawn, Dr. Oyler (Dr. Rick Oyler is principal at Lewis) and Mr. Hockett (Tracey Hockett is Assistant principal) have seen the value of these presentations.”
Maiorino, who has a son with cerebral palsy, said, “I think that when students see these presentations, it will make them sensitive to people who are different than they are.”
“We have two different severely handicapped classes on campus, and they’re on campus all day long,” said Oyler. “It’s important that they be made to feel at home here. Marty, being a teacher, does a real good job of showing what it’s like to be disabled. Part of what makes our school the place that it is--a place to grow and learn--is having these kids (with disabilities) here.”
“I hear kids talking about the things he (Mimmack) was able to do, like open a jar, and put on a shirt with velcro,” said Hockett. “They are amazed at how he could solve these problems by being resourceful. There was a real power there, and they got the message.”
As part of her senior project, Maiorino asked students what they had garnered from Mimmack’s presentation.
“I can’t get mad anymore,” said Kevin Smith, a sixth grader at Lewis. “I need to calm down. I should try practicing what Marty’s been doing.”
“It (presentation) helps kids that are disabled that they will learn to do things when they grow up,” said sixth grader Kristopher Whitcomb. “It’s not their fault they were born like this.”
Evan Perry, also in the sixth grade, said, “Disabled people are the same as other people. You should treat them the way you want to be treated.”
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