Makes sense.
I’m about 10 years older and have never heard the term in person, only in lefty online communities like Lemmy. I even took an ASL class from a deaf person (highly recommend, though maybe my teacher just rocked) as an adult with my SO, and we didn’t even use the term “ablism,” but instead just “hearing” to describe people who aren’t deaf (so the concept, not the term). That would’ve been mid to late 2010s, IIRC.
Couple that with the claimed suspension in 4th grade, and I have serious doubts any of this happened. To get suspended, you need to be starting fist fights or something, even cussing or intentionally insulting people would probably only land normal detention.
Kitathalla@lemy.lol 4 days ago
Elementary school teachers are also more likely to crack down on any sort of insulting language in general. I remember when I was a kid in the 4th grade, our teacher would punish us for asking, “So?” So was short for ‘So what?’ At the time it was (sometimes properly, give me a break, Mrs. H) a way to insultingly say that someone else’s statement was meaningless.
It wasn’t because it was ableist, or anything else you could point a finger to except insulting, and teachers head that sort off interaction off early.