Is this wrong or am I being too pc...

[sillyoldfool]

Dd1 (6-Y2) did an assembly yesterday for 'jeans for genes day' all lovely, school raised money for a good cause, brilliant.
The assembly was about genes and what they are/how they affect us.
They explained genes as being like a recipe, then said 'sometimes someone has the wrong ingredients and the recipe goes wrong, if a person has the wrong ingredients they might have to use a wheelchair or a hearing aid or take lots of medicine'
I thought that was the wrong way to teach 6/7 year olds about disability, I'd be mortified of dd told someone in a wheelchair they were made with the 'wrong ingredients' it's just not true!
I feel as though I should say something about it, but am I overreacting?

I was watching it so can't be blamed on kids dodgy recollections I'm afraid.
Will have a quiet/friendly word with the teacher on Monday I think.

It's a fair cop, gov. I've just looked at their website and the money raised goes to supporting groups who deal with genetic disorders in ways that improve their lives (including my favourite theatre company).

It's just when you've spent the last 14 years with a child you love being told by various people from polititions to neighbours that he shouldn't exist, should have been shot at birth, is a drain on resources, is a spakka, mong, retard, etc, you occasionally get a little sensitive to these things.

I still think the head's explanation was pretty shit though and I'm saddened to see it was modelled on information Jeans for Genes provided. I think you're right to have a word, OP.

Interesting.

Dd2 was born without her hand (not genetic as far as is known). She is happy to tell people that it went wrong when she was being formed inside my tummy.
But describe her as different and she'll be in floods of tears.

I quite like the way it was thought of, but it could have been explained a bit better.

Like a cake, the sugar was not added the cake is still delicious but just a bit different and may need custard to sweeten it up.

Tall, I don't know whether it was based on the Jeans For Genes schools info, the piece I quoted was from 2009, and they produce a 'for schools' presentation, relevant to each year group, every year. The recipe analogy is used a lot i think, as i say our genetics nurse used it with us, and if you look down this page from the DDD study, it uses the recipe analogy all the way through to describe deletions, inversions etc.

It is tricky, I try to explain to the dds about ds and why he can't speak and has problems with his muscles etc, and it is a difficult thing to do, without it sounding as though something has gone 'wrong' - less so about the lack of speech, but when it is to do with seizures or why he gets pneumonia and has to be in hospital, it is hard to do that in a way that is positive.

I think one of the good things about Jeans For Genes, is that it does get children talking about something which is difficult and complicated, but which affects so many children, whilst also raising money for practical and emotional support for the families affected.

I think we are dealing with such a wide spectrum of genetic disorder here that one word doesn't describe all.

If the disorder (in itself a negative word, but that's what it is) causes severe medical problems, leading to early death, as with CF and MD, then 'different' is so inadequate as to be almost insulting. There are no positives in such a situation, except that the child is still here. Children are used to the concept of bodies going wrong, something the matter with some part or other, needing medicine or an operation to put it right.

As someone upthread said, they are on the verge of a breakthrough for CF and also MD, using gene therapy. So it is possible not only to say that something is wrong, but to hold out the hope of being able to make it right.

i can completely understand why De We's daughter doesn't want to be described as 'different'.

Wiv I don't know why you conflate geneticist with 'eugenics', with all its nazi connotations. For the life of me, I can't see why a world where no one had to suffer from CF, MD, sickle cell, Huntingdon's, even some forms of cancer, wouldn't be a good thing. Which is not to say, of course, that everyone currently suffering from those conditions should not be treated with the utmost love and respect.