When I was in college I volunteered to live on what was called the “handicapped” floor of my dormitory. They paired up normal kids with kids who had various types of challenges. We lived with our roommates but also helped other kids on the floor get to their classes and assist them in class.
Scott was a star athlete in high school who got drunk and smashed into a tree and almost killing himself. He couldn't use half of his body and had a hard time talking. I had a psychology class with him. He was always raising his hand and asking the professor completely inappropriate questions. The professor could never understand what Scott had asked so he would ask me to repeat the question for the class.
“Scott would like to know which brand of dog food Pavlov used to train his dogs.” Even nearly 50 years ago college professors would still pander to the disabled, so the professor would go into a long explanation about why it didn't matter. The rest of the students in the class blamed me for the stupid questions and gave me a bad time constantly.
I don't remember any spontaneous and sincere discussions about Scott, but the local paper wrote a long mostly fictional article about how great the former football star was doing in college.
Your point?
Are you saying that measures should have been instituted to give Scott a "lower profile?" Should he have been, e.g., somehow "hushed?" Would you have been right to make a judgement call and simply not relay Scott's off-topic or irrelevant questions? Were the other students right to be annoyed? Were Scott's inappropriate questions evidence that he really shouldn't have been in college at all? Are you arguing against this so-called "mainstreaming?" Was it a farce?
Your statement that you had volunteered to be a Personal Assistant to a handicapped person suggests that you felt (and still feel?) sympathetic towards these people - yet your posting seems to indicate that you view their participation in college with ambivalence.
I "get it" that the professor may have been "pandering" by giving undue attention to Scott's off-topic questions - was that the entire point of your posting?!
Regards,