Jonathan passed away this summer.
I first contacted him in 2020 to ask if I could use his poem (shared below) in the introduction to my book Music, Sound and Vibration in Special Education, published by Routledge.
His reply confirmed what I had long believed while working with children labelled as having complex needs: behind their eyes, there is always more within them, waiting to be shared — if only we can find the key.
Jonathan showed the world what is possible when we refuse to accept low expectations. In the video above, he explains how he used an E-tran frame—a low-tech communication tool that enables people with speech and physical difficulties to select symbols or letters using only their eye movements.
In my books and magazine articles I also refer to high-tech eye gaze computer systems, which many children use with great success. But Jonathan’s eyes moved too quickly for those systems to register. That never stopped him. Instead, he harnessed the tools available to him, proving that determination and the right support can unlock potential that labels like “PMLD” too often try to write off.
When I asked to include his poem, Jonathan graciously replied:
“Dear Angelique, Thank you for sending your introduction. I am happy for my message—that all children should be taught to read and write regardless of their educational label—to be included in your book. The pernicious label PMLD, as you point out, is used to reduce expectations, and very few people with that label are given a literacy education. I only learnt to read and write because I was taken out of my special school to be taught literacy by my mother, and I continue to campaign as a voice for the voiceless so that other PMLD students can be taught in school.”
Jonathan went on to found the charity Teach Us Too, giving a platform to the belief that every child has the right to literacy, communication, and high expectations.
I was honoured to include his poem in my book, and again in a magazine article I wrote in 2023, with his permission. Most of all, I feel honoured to have connected with such an extraordinary young man whose legacy continues to inspire. Here is his poem.
PMLD
We are not capable of learning
So do not tell me
There’s something going on behind the disability.
Treated as useless handicaps
Minds with nothing in there, tragically
Stuck in a wheelchair,
Disabilities visibly crippling –
Just incontinent and dribbling,
We are not
Academically able.
You should make our minds
Stagnate in special education!
We cannot
Learn to read,
Learn to spell,
Learn to write,
Instead let us
Be constrained by a sensory curriculum.
It is not acceptable to say
We have the capacity to learn.
School should occupy us, entertain us; but never teach us
You are deluded to believe that
Our education can be looked at another way!
NOW READ IT AGAIN BACKWARDS.
Please visit www.teachustoo.org.uk to find out more about Jonathan and his charity.
