Opening ceremony included dc with SEN

[mariammariam]

Yep, I know this is rather late, but no-one else seems to have noticed! The children's choir signed as well as sang (and some only did one or the other, which suggests genuine inclusion). The NHS/GOSH dc jumping up and down on the beds were a happy, motley crew, some with visible SN. And there were wheelchair using dc in evidence here and there.

What I liked was the 'normality' of it. Here's a bunch of our lovely dc, representing our country (and some do have SN, but we're neither hiding nor patronising them)

Yes I thought it was lovely.

yes I only just saw that bit last night at about 2am, so far so good, watching it in installments lol

I dunno. I'm on the fence on this one. While I am happy to see children with SNs included, I'm not horribly keen on them being trotted out as a showpiece either, in the sense of "see how lovely we are to our poor unfortunates?" I've heard a bit both ways from people, and I'm a bit mixed tbh.

sigh... I think I'm just having a bit of a time of it right now. A few back-handed threads lately, along with the stress of the holidays, has worn me down.

I'd prefer them to be 'trotted out' than not included, TBH. Any publicity is good publicity in my book. The more children with SN are seen as being part of our society the better. It may be tokenism but that's a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. I just wish the camera had spent more time on the signing choir during the national anthem.

I liked the inclusion.

As I said, I'm a bit mixed. Some good from it, but slightly uneasy as well.

I guess that's the rub for me. I'd like them to be included without getting the impression that there were "trotted out" IYSWIM. But it's all semantics, really. That they were included is certainly better than nothing, I agree.

It's like positive discrimination, though, isn't it? You actually need some positive discrimination to get past the years of negative discrimination, even if the Daily Mail gets it's knickers in a twist about positive discrimination being unfair. A few extra black or Asian policemen being recruited is just to even up the years of no ethnic minorities in the police.

I can understand your ambivalence though, Triggles.

I liked the comment on the Guardian website which jokingly said how mean it was to have kept all the ill children from GOSH up so late and made them jump up and down on their beds!

I liked it. I understand the tokenism argument though too Triggles. I hate the 'Children in Need' -aaarhhh look at all the disabled kiddies pity party.

I think, on balance, in the context of what was trying to be achieved, this was very positive. Danny Boyle very clearly wanted an assertive show of diversity which and I think that is very welcomed not least cos it pissed some Tories off and made others feel obliged 'stand up' for diversity in response (even though it probably makes them gag!!)

Oh and my boys noticed the choir which was very positive til DS (9 with AS) said 'at least if your deaf you don't have to listen to the songs your made to sing if you on't like them'

They were shown as active and contributing, rather than as passive objects to pity.
Small steps, but I see it as progress.

plus inclusion is exclusion for some and those with severe disabilities wouldn't of been able to be 'included' in small scale never mind as large as this.

The severe will still go un-noticed.

Point taken devient.

I noticed not just the children, but at various times you could see people with visible disabilities, including some of the athletes. A big show like that will always be 'tokenist' as it is just a slice of the UK population, but they did try to make it pretty diverse in many ways.

I take the point about the extremes being excluded, but did think that Mohamed Ali (he's a celeb, so it's different) did show that even though they effectively stopped the show for him to hold that flag for a few moments, indicated that they did want everyone included.

I also liked that the children's choirs looked like 'normal' children, not cathedral choirs in uniforms etc. There definitely seemed to be an agenda to include people, rather than parading the elite 'best'

I agree. I think they pulled it off.

Not sure what Shami 'soundbite' Chakrabati was doing with the flag though.

I know one of the GOSH children who were introduced and were waving on the mound. He has been very seriously ill and still is. He and his parents are so proud and honoured to have been included. It will be a memory for a lifetime - even if his lifetime is shorter than the average. I think it was fantastic :)

lol Ben10 but nice twirling anyway!

I don't think it was tokenism. There were a mixture of both NT and SN adult and child performers.

For example, Evelyn Glennie is a fantastic musician in her own right - I don't think anyone questioned why she was leading the drumming more of her and less of Macca would have been good. So why not also have an integrated choir for children.

have to say I thought the choir was fab, I especially liked the fact that it was the national anthem they were chosen to sing, ( a kind of really official bit of the ceremony, rather than doing something less central IYSWIM) I also liked the fact that Kaos choir is (I believe) an established group not one pulled together for the olympics, so it validated what they had been doing...

I too would have liked to see more of them,

Still thinking about devient and triggles' points. In some ways, the fact that (to me) it was a mainstream-inclusion event made it less accessible for some. A video link or footage clip could have included more severely disabled dc, but then the tokenism and parading would have been unbearable. Unless it was linked to the Victorian charity satanic mills / deserving poor bit... hmm, maybe a video link to a benefits-cut-so-now-in-workhouse satire, starring the dc who couldn't have made the do in person. Pah, £27m? MNSN can do your ceremony scripting for a fiver!

While the inclusion of the choir seemed obvious (could it not be obvious unless the choir wasn't included at all?), I noticed the odd dancer in a wheelchair in the crowd (which included people of all shapes, colours and sizes) during the pop culture section.

There was a healthy absence of a sense of people not being sufficiently photogenic or able to perfectly choreograph with others.