The usefulness of these stories for helping unhandicapped students obtain a measure of empathy is uncertain. Almost any student will perceive the difference between a "mutant" and the disabled student in the desk next to him. If, in fact, the unhandicapped student does not know the difference, he or she may either come to equate disabled people with "mutants" or expect stereotyped results from them: a blind person with "second sight" or a deaf person with a particularly well developed sense of smell. In either case, the usual result is then to devalue the other person as a person.
Though Asimov is not the author, he can be counted on to select and edit entertaining and insightful science fiction. One possible problem may be that the teacher will desire to use this book because the stories are so well written, even though they may not necessarily accomplish the teacher's objectives. Robertson's summary listing describes the book: "From genetic tampering to a future psychologist's prescription of a friend for an incorrigible child ... to a boy who can write only in a lost language to communicate." These are the kinds of stories very good Star Trek episodes are made of, but they often lie outside the students' comprehension and empathy.
Chelsey and the Green Haired Kid (185 86) is as useful to the teacher's objectives as Chelsey is real. She has a real handicap. She is confined to a wheelchair, yet does not act confined. "this is a younger, and more liberated version of Ironsides episodes." (Robertson 186) Chelsey is also not the stock "born disabled" character but was injured in an automobile accident at age 3. She therefore has the ability to awaken in other students a sense of the tragedy of life: whether a person is good or bad, bad things happen. One must do what one can with what one has and must not expect everything to be given simply because something was taken. Chelsey is active and involved. This will no...