Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495665
25 Unity SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2023 Maud Muscat Department of Youth and Community Studies IN 1973 Rev. Dr Alfred Darmanin introduced a programme for the Development of Skills (PDS) since he maintained that an education based on savoir (knowledge), sa- voir-faire (skills) and savoir-être (attitudes and values) is impor- tant. Later on, in the early 1980s a great deal of concern was felt in the Maltese Islands over a report about drugs drawn by Nick Dorne. There was an awareness that drugs had become a social problem. It was this that prompted the first train- ing course for teachers to deliver Lifeskills in schools. The course was held in 1986 by Caritas as part of their drug prevention programme. It was facilitated by four persons coming from different backgrounds of social work, psychology and edu- cation. The course was coordinated by Prof. Maureen Cole who eventu- ally was the first Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. The subject known as Lifeskills was then introduced in two Church schools and later on in state and pri- vate schools. At present, it is a com- pulsory subject on the curriculum and the training of Personal and Social Education skills teachers has been ongoing at University since 1992. Interpersonal and Intraper- sonal skills courses also form part of the component of other courses. A crucial aspect of the practice of Personal and Social Development (PSD), as the subject is now called, is that students have the opportu- nity to reflect upon and clarify their own attitudes and values. At times it also facilitates seeking profes- sional help in dealing with issues which surface due to the greater self awareness promoted by personal skills sessions. When students embark on a B.A. (Hons) in Youth and Community Studies course, the Personal Skills course is one of the first units they come across. This is no coincidence as one of the main aims of the course Core Skills 1 is to enhance personal growth and to promote group cohe- sion. In fact, I retain that the course on core skills is for life not just for youth work. Hopefully, the students will integrate skills which will em- power them and help them to cope better with life's challenges. The methodology used in Core Skills 1 has strong democratic roots and embraces empowerment at every stage of learning. The learn- ing takes place through an active process and involvement of the whole person. The participants are learning from experience. This course, because of its very nature, promotes emotional literacy as well as examining attitudes and skills. These are skills we use every day to survive better in a healthy demo- cratic community. This has always been stressed upon and sessions are held in groups of not more than 15 students in order to ensure that students are given the environment to truly learn experientially. The classroom is arranged in a circle or a horse-shoe formation such that each participant can view each oth- er and will equal time and attention to individual participants. Each session consists of stage cy- cles: the choice of activities that stu- dents are interested in throughout the educational experience, a gen- eral problem to address that choice develops in the session, information and observation to deal with the problem is provided and present- ed, suggested solutions elicited and opportunity to test, to clarify and to discover for themselves the validity of a solution. This elicits learning from the participants' own expe- riences, be they real or simulated through an activity – for example – role play. The exercises would be pointless if not followed by and incorporat- ed within reflection and discussion, which we call processing. Any exercise or activity carried out during a personal skills session needs to be followed and conclud- ed by processing. Without correct processing, the students would not be able to integrate and internalise what they have experienced during the particular exercise, and hence will also not be able to transfer the learning to real life. This would impede true personal growth and change, thus defeating the aims and rationale of a personal skills session. Moreover, students participate and enjoy the sessions. If students do not enjoy what they are doing they will not benefit fully from the teaching. Interpersonal and intrapersonal skills for youths Prof. Anne-Marie Callus Department of Disability Studies FOR those aged 50 and above, a reference to autism is quite likely to bring to mind Barry Levinson's 1988 film Rain Man. In this film, Dustin Hoff- man plays the role of Ray- mond Babbitt, an autistic savant who has spent almost his entire life in an institution before he is abducted by his brother, Charlie (played by Tom Cruise), who wants his share of the three-million dollar inheritance that their recently deceased father be- queathed entirely to Ray- mond. Hoffman's role landed him an Oscar for Best Actor (playing a disabled character quite often guarantees an Os- car). But, without taking an- ything away from Hoffman's accomplishment as an actor, the character of Raymond leaves much to be desired as far as autistic people go. Understanding what is problematic about the por- trayal of Raymond and why it should not be taken at face value is the type of task un- dertaken by an analytic ap- proach that brings together disability studies and cul- tural studies. Undertaking such analyses is important as many people are likely to en- counter disabled people only through the media, rather than getting to know disa- bled individuals as persons in their own right. Consequent- ly, passing representations of disability found in films, and other types of narratives and in the media more gen- erally, through a critical filter can help make people more aware of what is based on ste- reotypes and misconceptions and what is a more authentic portrayal of the lives of dis- abled persons. This knowl- edge can, in turn, help us gain a better understanding of how these persons experi- ence living with a disability. What, then, could be cri- tiqued about Rain Man? First off, it gives the impression that all autistic people have a phenomenal memory, just like Raymond. In reality, it is around 10% of people with autism who have such exceptional abili- ties. Reinforcing this aspect feeds into the idea that disa- bled people – including those who have autism – have out- standing abilities that some- how compensate for their functional impairments. But it does not work like that. Like the rest of the popula- tion, disabled people have a range of abilities and com- petencies. Some are excep- tionally gifted – for example Stephen Hawking – but most are just like everybody else. Secondly, for someone with autism who has lived in a structured and institution- alised manner since infan- cy, Raymond's adaptation to the hectic and unpredictable world outside is highly unre- alistic. Thirdly, the film does not in any way take contem- porary social changes into account. The film was made in the late eighties, two dec- ades after the start of deinsti- tutionalisation in the United States and the relocation of disabled people into commu- nity-based supported living services. With at least a mil- lion and a half dollars at Ray- mond's disposal, there was a golden opportunity for him to live within a community. Instead, the plot sends him back to his institution at the end of the film. And, final- ly, Raymond's sole purpose in the narrative seems to be to teach his brother a lesson about what is important in life and to help him become a better person. Intersecting disability stud- ies with cultural studies can help us appreciate all the implications of how the rep- resentation of a character with autism in Rain Man, and many other disabled characters in various narra- tives, are problematic. The main issue is that they are based on too many stereo- types and misconceptions for them to be authentic. In turn, these representa- tions serve to reinforce mis- taken ideas about what it means to live with a disabil- ity. Thankfully, nowadays there are depictions of char- acters with disability that are more true to life. To stay with a focus on autism, one can refer to the films I Am Sam and My Name is Khan, the television series Atypical and The A Word, and the cartoon series Pablo, for example. Analysing cultural rep- resentations of disability from a cultural and disability studies viewpoint – or read- ing such analyses written by others – can help us appreci- ate what lies beneath the sur- face of these representations. Ultimately, the most impor- tant thing to keep in mind is that we cannot assume that we know what the lives of disabled persons are like simply by watching a film or reading a newspaper article. However authentic the rep- resentations that we encoun- ter may be, there is no substi- tute to listening to the direct life experience of disabled persons and being attentive to their personal perspectives about their own lives. Analysing cultural representations of disability