Down syndrome doesn’t stop me teaching others
Now graduate Mark, 37, is passing on techniques that helped him
A MAN who was born with Down syndrome and graduated college is returning to the classroom to give lessons to teachers on how to educate people with intellectual disabilities.
Mark Smyth, 37, works two jobs, has performed in a production of King Lear, and managed to charm pop star Justin Bieber into teaching him to moonwalk. And for the past two years, he has given 30 teachers from around Ireland an insider’s view into how he learns.
Mark got his college qualification thanks to an EU-wide programme that promotes third-level education for people with intellectual difficulties.
Mark, who works in Tesco and Maynooth Students’ Union near his home in Co. Kildare, now contributes to the Unlocking Freedom Education Programme, which is run by Kildare College and the Disability Federation of Ireland. It is four years since Mark enrolled to study anthropology at Maynooth University. While traditional learning usually involves large volumes of reading, Mark used more practical methods. So, when studying the Easter Rising and the Famine, Mark opted to take a hands-on approach.
‘I was in the cemetery of the people who actually died in the 1916 Rising,’ recalls Mark of Glasnevin Cemetery. And when studying Famine-era Ireland, he went with one of his teachers to the tall ship, the Jeanie Johnston.
Maynooth University asked Mark and another of their graduates, Michael Gannon, who also has Down syndrome, to give training to teachers on how to teach people with disabilities. Josephine Finn, lecturer at Maynooth University, said she wanted to break down preconceptions of what intelligence is, pointing out: ‘Intellectual disability is not in fact an indicator of intelligence.’
Mark is working with a writer on producing a one-man show about his own life, which has seen him take to the stage of Dublin’s Draíocht venue in a production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, and meet famous people including Nelson Mandela and Justin Bieber.
He describes singer Bieber as ‘my main idol’, and they met accidentally in Maynooth last year. Mark even left with a parting gift – a lesson in the moonwalk dance from his hero. Mark was due to take part in a charity lip-sync event, and Bieber gave him a few tips.
‘Michael Jackson passed the moonwalk to Justin Bieber and then (Justin Bieber) passed it on to me and that’s how I won the Lip Sync,’ said Mark.
Ms Finn said: ‘Really, Mark’s power is that ability to create relationships.’
‘Justin Bieber passed moonwalk on to me’