I never really thought before that a lot of my attitudes were formed when I was a kid, and my mom voluntold me as a scorekeeper for the Special Olympics--I just got it impressed on me that these are people with names and personalities and ambitions and emotions (and I had no power over them). By now I know that I respect people with mental disabilities as people, but working with them isn't a job that I find fulfilling in a career-ambition sense--I know I want to work with different populations. I do it anyway because it was part of a university program, I still do good work, and I'm at a workplace that really values me as a staff member. But that still doesn't mean seeing the kids I work with as less-than.

But a lot of people are in helping professions because they want to be-the-person-who-helped, and they get really frustrated when people don't magically blossom under their tender care.