If I Could Change Something

Mark Baggley: Reflections


Mark was born in 1960 in Hull and grew up in Scunthorpe. Mark went to his local primary school and then was sent to a residential special school in Lincolnshire at the age of eleven. From there Mark went on to a residential special college in Coventry.

Here Mark talks about the legacy of low expectations

Transcript

And I do think now, if I was going to school today, then I wouldn’t be thought about for special school. I think I would be put into mainstream without a problem really. But I still think for too many people it doesn’t change. And you’ve got a whole generation of people who are sat there, aren’t doing anything. I mean we’ve had people ring us up here, saying, 'I can’t work, I’m in a wheelchair'. You know well you might not be able to work for more than one reason, but that isn’t one of them. And I would have liked to have been able to do more different things, I think, I really do love the media and I think if I'd had the opportunity, certainly radio, which I really loved doing, I did the hospital radio for about four years and I loved it and you sat down at a desk and I loved doing interviews, all that kind of stuff and I think if I’d have said to somebody at special school or even college, I want to work on the radio, I don’t think anybody would have took me seriously.

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