eSpecially Ben

Many years ago, I heard this story: A father and his small child are riding in a hospital elevator with another person, not known to them. The child was acting up. In close quarters, it was very disruptive. The father did not address the behavior, did not seem to even notice. As the elevator doors opened, the stranger in the elevator, made a snide comment about the child's improper behavior and lack of parental discipline. The father replied, "I am so sorry. I am just not sure how to tell him that his mother has passed away." This summer, there were two times where I made assumptions about a situation without having all the information. Although I try to keep the above story in mind when assessing any situation, being human I sometimes jump to conclusions without having all the information. Ironically, in both situations, it was not obvious to me that people with special needs were involved. Luckily, in both cases, a positive connection was made. After I figur...

Many times during our life, if we are truly challenging our own personal growth - we will come face-to-face with our own prejudices. I have had several in my 39 years – one of the first was when I moved to the south when I was 17. I had some fairly strong stereotypes about Southerners – and very quickly at the university I attended, those stereotypes were laid to rest. In my more recent history, I was struck by my prejudices about children with special needs. When first researching classroom environments for Ben, I definitely had the notion that he would only benefit from being in an inclusion class. There are many reasons parents want their child in inclusion – it is more “normal”, curriculum is rigorous and if your child is going to learn from their peers, you want those peers to be typical. When it was all said and done, Ben’s best placement was in a self-contained classroom, a class with a teacher trained in special education with two assistants and 9 children, all with differi...