Ms. Laura Silverthorn’s CWMP Allied Health classes learn what it’s like to live with various different diseases and disorders due to an interesting project.
Tuesday, September 20 started off like any other school day. The typical school day activities were occurring and like always there was a lot of learning going on. But, for Ms. Laura Silverthorn’s Allied Health classes, the learning was a little different that Tuesday. It was a bit more hands-on.
The CWMP juniors and seniors in Silverthorn’s Allied Health classes are partaking in an experimental project in which they each had the challenge of portraying a specific disability for a day. The students had to act as if they had their designated disease, abiding to all the symptoms and molding their school day around the handicaps that go along with their disease. This challenge lasted for the entire day of school on Sept. 20, meaning that students attended their classes normally, with the addition of a few obvious obstacles, proposed by each disease.
Junior Elisa Gomez portrayed a victim of a rare disease called Polymorphous Light Eruption (PMLE).
“For the entire day, I covered myself from head to toe in various clothing, including sunglasses and a scarf for my face,” Gomez said. “I did this because people with PMLE disorder are allergic to the sun.”
Meanwhile, junior Morgan Lorenti portrayed the disorder Aspergers for this day. The disorder is a branch off of Autism. Aspergers is the appearance of a lack of empathy and emotion. It goes along with severe awkwardness in social situations.
“Throughout the day, I refused to make eye contact with people, expressed little or no emotion, and acted socially awkward,” Lorenti said. “Everything had to be routine. I freaked out if anything was messed up on my desk.”
Lorenti, stepped up to the challenge by staying in character all day. She ate her lunch with the company of only herself.
“I couldn’t just slip up and act like I normally do because it was for a grade,” Lorenti said.
Other students in Silverthorn’s Allied Health classes took on the challenge of undergoing a day of school with a wide variety of chosen disabilities. The disorders and diseases ranged from blindness and deafness to obesity and partial paralysis.
But, the project didn’t end when the day did. The students are required to make a PowerPoint, video, or a series of pictures to display what happened to them during their day on Sept. 20.
Then, on Monday, Sept. 26, students present to the class how they felt during the day, what it was like to have the disorder, and how people treated them.
“The purpose of this project is to realize the pain that people go through day-by-day and for us to put ourselves in their shoes,” Gomez said.