1. Final Research
Paper
Ashlyn Burgess
15, December 2011
ENC
2. Book Summary
• Rachel Simon (the author) has lost her way.
She has become disconnected from her family,
single and alone, and is now a workaholic.
• Beth, Simon’s younger sister, has a mild form
of mental retardation. She spends her days
riding the city buses and talking to the drivers
and their passengers.
3. Book Summary
• Simon and Beth reconnect, but Simon doesn’t
understand why Beth lives the way she does.
• Simon accepts a 12 month challenge to ride the
buses with Beth to gain perspective and
understanding, and to see where she went
wrong in her life, and how Beth, with all of her
challenges, got it right.
4. Cool Beth
• Whimsical, fun loving, colorful
• Lives independently
• Has a boyfriend named Jesse
• Rides the city buses everyday
(except Sunday)
• Knows all of the city bus
routines, their drivers, and
frequent passengers
• Mildly intellectually challenged
6. 1% to 3% of individuals in the world
have some sort of intellectual disability
The National Social Development Institute (Katz, 2008)
7. About ID (Intellectual Disability)
Causes Tested areas of Limitations
• Genetic • leisure time
• Hereditary • Work
• personal care
• Acquired
• home life
• Environmental/sociocultural
• social skills
• Developmental
• health and safety
• self-governance
• functional academic skills
• utilization of the community
11. Where are they learning
this?
• Media
• Parents
• Peers
• Animated movies
• News
12. Rachel
Older sister to Beth
Writer, workaholic
Left a good relationship out of
fear
No friends, no family, just work
Searching to ‘be somebody’
Lost
13. Psychologist Judy Dunn concluded that
“children who live with a disabled or sick
sibling respond with considerable variability:
some siblings benefit from their experience,
others seem not to be affected, and still others
are worse off” (Shuntermann, 2007).
14. A Meaningful Life
3 Basic Needs True Self
• Relatedness • Quality traits pertaining
• be understood by to the meaning of life
others
• Also associated with true
• Competence self
• Autonomy • Find yourself first, get to
• control own behavior know you
15. It is suggested by history that if one
finds themself then they will find the
meaning of life and all that they have
been searching for.
16. The Bus
Challenge
12 months of riding the bus with
Beth
17. What I learned
About mental retardation
Where does the stigmatism and
discrimination come from?
Capabilities of ID individuals
How does growing up with an ID
sibling affect children?
What do people think the
meaning of life is?
What the 12 month bus
challenge taught and changed
Rachel
18. Rachel learned…
How to let things go
Live in the moment
Love unconditionally
Accept people for who they are
Be true to yourself
How to let someone in
Nothing compares to the
relationship sisters have
19. Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't
get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be
there. ~Amy Li
Editor's Notes
The biggest issue with society and mental disabilities is lack of knowledge and understanding.
These categories and terms can from a study conducted with 14 year old students that were asked questions like “What sorts of words or phrases might you use to describe someone who experiences mental health problems?”
Studies showed that children are learning this stigma from the media, parents, and peers, even from animated movies and cartoons. But with some education and direct social contact, that can be changed.
Studies show that children with siblings that have mental illness can be positively, negatively, or neutrally affected. It’s hard to know if Rachel was affected and in which way, but the research shows that it does have an impact on life.
Studies show that people have three basic needs: ; relatedness (understood by others), competence, and autonomy (control own behavior).These 5 studies proved that when the individuals named traits associated with the meaning of life, they were actually naming true-self traits that allowed them to directly relate that to the meaning of life, to have a personal concrete definition
