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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 19 Oct 2006
Time: 12:00:36 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.42
Dear Jackie, You have reached pretty much the same conclusion that most of the other students who have written comments about this article, i.e., that it is best to ask a client how he or she prefers to be addressed. In at least one or two responses, I mentioned some potential down sides of doing that. I just reread my own article to see if I suggested that...because I don't think we should. In the article, I wrote, " In spite of this, aside from some agreements here and there with our positions, all the discussion has been on 'what I feel' or 'what I think someone else might feel.' That, in my opinion, is precisely what is wrong with political correctness as it relates to any but the most obvious and well-known pejorative or stigmatizing labels, e.g., 'idiot.' For terms such as "stutterer," the validity of the sensitivity shown--or lack thereof--is almost never based on verifiable fact. Instead, it is based on someone's well-intentioned--but according to the data, inaccurate--ideas about what might be construed as negative. Once we start down that road, there seems to be no stopping." Jackie, I don't question your choice of asking your client, since your conclusion is now apparently now tempered by some new data and insights. Nevertheless, maybe you can see why I don't agree with you. Moreover, if you think about it, you would virtually never address a person as "stutterer" or "person who stutterers" anyway. You would address him by his name! You/he might use the term when introducing him to someone in a therapy activity. "Hi I'm John. I'm a [stutterer/person who stutters] and I am talking to people as part of my therapy." Even so, I doubt if you would do that in a social situation. "Hi Mary. I'd like you to meet John. He's a [stutterer/person who stutters]." Not likely. Right? The only place you would use the term is in a report or lesson plan. For my part, I can't imagine being upset if I read my medical chart where it said "questionable hypochondriac" when the doctor told me that he thought maybe some of my physical problems were due to excessive worry. I hope you get the idea even if we have to agree to disagree. Ken