JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 21, Number 4, Spring 2001 Page: 810
733-962 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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research paper on this topic, to find out just who, how, and how many got
those parking spaces. My plan was that once he found out how compli-
cated it was to get a handicapped parking permit and also how many
nondisabled people abused the system, his anger would subside and he'd
be out there, in parking lots across America, leaping to help anyone who
rightfully parked in that blue-symboled, front-row space and shaking his
angry fist at those who slipped illegally into those spots.
Well, he did his research. He found out that it was fairly complicated
to get a special blue-symboled tag for your car-but not nearly compli-
cated enough, he argued. He found out that yes indeed there were quite
an astonishing number of Americans who used and claimed they needed
these permits either permanently or temporarily. But this is the problem,
he argued: the system is soft; anyone can get one if he or she is smart,
sneaky, and/or persistent; there are too many cripples out there who
shouldn't probably be driving in the first place. (His next paper, in an
assignment asking students to extend further the ideas from one of the
previous assignments, was on the national shame and danger in senior
citizens driving-and how our disability sensitive attitudes had only
added to this shame and danger.) And he counted. He kept track of how
many handicapped spots on central campus weren't used over a week's
time and compared that to how many cars were turned away from several
OSU parking garages each day when the "full" sign came on, and he
determined how many student cars in a given hour circled around and
around some of the prime surface lots. He had an e-mail exchange with
the OSU Director of Traffic and Parking, who claimed that, sure, too
many good spaces on campus were "given up" to handicapped spots.
"What a shame," he wrote. The student took note of how empty the
handicapped spots were at his favorite mall one weekend. (Some were
taken, some weren't. "This privilege is a massive waste of taxpayer's
money," he wrote.) Oh well, I sighed, at least this student learned how to
do good research. I was learning some things too.
I also learned some lessons when Nancy Mairs came to read and
conduct a workshop at the "Enabling the Humanities" colloquium in mid-
quarter. Most of my students chose her from among the five available
"attend-an-author-reading" options. We'd read half of her essays in
Waist-High in the World by that point in the class, and although the
students didn't always agree with her, they liked her simple style, her
directness, and the fact that she wrote fairly short essays. And while most
of them did actually hear-and some of them even liked-what she had
to say in her workshop and reading, they also wrote unabashedly of howjac
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Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition (U.S.). JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory, Volume 21, Number 4, Spring 2001, periodical, 2001; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28634/m1/86/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .