Inclusion Week

December 12, 2013

Inclusion Week

The kids' school celebrated Inclusion Week a few weeks ago. As the Special Ed PTA rep, I thought this would be a really fun way to celebrate our students with disabilities. Well the teachers, staff and students took my idea and boy did they run with it. The 4th graders ferociously made loom bands in colors representing certain syndromes and conditions. Every student in the school was given a wrist band. In addition we asked them to wear a certain color each day. The kids made videos and signs explaining each condition. They were able to get a little science learning in when it came to genetics.

It was a fabulous week. The kids collected coins as "United For Change" to donate to Jill's House, since a few of the students from the school attend JH. It was amazing to see the kids and their parents be so supportive for this often overlooked group of kids. Instead they realized the importance of inclusion and how they can play a part every day.

Comments

Anonymous said…

We have world language week at my school...this would be better but my school stinks at doing any kind of awareness for those with special needs (evident from the degrading words the kids use). Good for their school!

December 16, 2013 at 7:30 AM

Kathryn said…

This is awesome! Good for their school!

December 16, 2013 at 7:32 AM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.