WAYS TO SPEAK UP

Dear Persons,

It seems almost frivolous, in these turbulent times, to think about or do anything that doesn’t directly contribute to the healing and health of our communities, our country, our world. 

I’d planned this post before the inauguration, as a natural sequel to SHOULD I HAVE SAID SOMETHING? Despite near-paralysis over the ceaseless cascade of unthinkable political disastrophes we are all witnessing, I am following through, largely because the topic - ideas on how to safely and effectively stand up to discrimination, injustice, even unintentional/unconscious/well-meaning bias - is more relevant now than ever in our lifetimes. Worse, children today are more vulnerable than they have been in decades due to this administration’s stances on special education, transgender bathrooms in schools, environmental protections, etc. 

In other words, there are now very real risks to not speaking up.

We ALL can do better. In our words, in our actions - and in our responses to the words and actions of others. I myself got schooled after the above post by a wonderful elder who informed me I was guilty of ageism! I’d avoided responding to my neighbor’s ableist slur partly out of “respect” for her being “elderly.” I was told in no uncertain terms that I’d been biased, and that, in addition, “We are much, much younger than you think we are!”

….RIGHT? Right! Good news for those of us who aren't getting any younger…

Now, you know I love a list….So here goes:

WAYS TO SPEAK UP

1. The Make Up Speak Up:

Let’s say you, like me, find yourself ruminating on a situation in which you did not speak up, for whatever reason. You’re still alive, right? How about speaking up now, now that you’ve had time to really figure out what you need to express?

Here’s what I did in just such a context: I wrote my neighbor from the incident described in SHOULD I HAVE SAID SOMETHING?(Speaking up doesn’t have to be verbal or even face to face - there are many, many ways to speak up, as I explore below!)

        Dear [Neighbor],

I hope you are well. This is your neighbor at  ___, [Full Spectrum Mama], writing. We had a conversation a few months ago in which you told me that your granddaughter works with autistic kids . You talked about how hard it is for her, and said she’d have been better off working with animals. 

I should have mentioned at the time that my son is autistic and I myself am also neurodiverse. This means that both of our brains are wired a bit differently than those of the “average” person. But we are still human beings, with feelings and dreams and a lot to offer the world.

As hard as it is for your granddaughter to work with those children, I can guarantee you that life in a world that was designed entirely for “normal” people is harder for them. I hope that despite these difficulties for all concerned she can see the good in each child as an individual. 

Sometimes, sadly, people who are “different” from us might seem not quite as human as the people we know or more closely resemble. So I hope, also, that now that you know that [G] and I have something in common with those students you will be able to see a little bit, through knowing us, that autistic people are equal and worthy human beings - just like anyone else. 

Thank you for reading, and hope to see you around soon,

[Full Spectrum Mama]

Something wonderful happened after this: my neighbor called me and we had a great talk! She explained that as hard as her granddaughter’s work is, she loves it - and even plans to pursue a higher degree in the profession. I am so glad I “spoke up” as best I could.

2. Speaking Up Directly:  Some people are able to come up with eloquent, convincing, strong-yet-not-confrontational ways to respond to discriminatory statements and actions as they occur. If you are one of those people, have to it! (Just be sure, dear reader, that you keep yourself safe in the interaction. Are there other people around? Does this person/do these people seem threatening? Sometimes - just sometimes! - it can be wiser to be indirect.)

3. Speaking Up Indirectly: Know your rights and the rights of your loved ones. NO ONE deserves discrimination; we ALL deserve to be treated fairly and recognized as human beings of equal value. Here are some ways to indirectly speak up and enact progress toward justice.

a. For Justice in Education: When you encounter discrimination in a school (or school district), or think a school could be doing better in some area(s), write, fax, call, or email (we all have different strengths and comfort levels with forms of communication: choose your medium!) school administrators (consider a variety of levels here - state, district, local, individual school), teachers, and helpers, as well as fellow parents and/or students. Here’s something to get you fired up about education: http://www.loevy.com/blog/education-part-special-education/. Most people get into education because they care about children and students - so, chances are, members of your school community may be receptive. Even if they are not, or if their hands are tied in the matter at hand, at least you’ll know you’ve done your part - and there may be less-obvious or more long-term positive repercussions that result from your efforts. 

b. In Your Community: Write, fax, call, or email local and national organizations to speak up on issues and situations you care about. Join a community group. Heck, form or host a community group. What’s your issue? What do you most care about? 

c. For Political Justice: Write, call, fax, or email your local, state, and national political representatives. As a highly phone phobic individual, I’ve found a sort of speaking-up niche in editing this weekly publication which tells you how to do just that: https://jenniferhofmann.com/home/weekly-action-checklist-democrats-independents-republicans-conscience/. 

d. Participate in Other Ways:  volunteer, make art, write (call, fax, email…) your local newspapers and beyond, march, protest, discuss the issues you care about, share your personal experience(s) with loved ones and others you encounter who might be receptive…

You never know how much your positive, proactive acts - however small they may seem - may impact others. I promise you, we are - sometimes very quietly, often slowly but surely - moving mountains, together. 

4. Advocacy: Advocacy is a slightly different way to speak up, in that what we are usually doing is trying to get something specific out of an organization  (usually a school, but not always) that already claims to be “doing its best.” I’ve written quite a lot about advocacy over the years here and here and here and here. You can also search for other posts that include references to advocacy on the search button at right. Here, I discuss some tricky issues around wanting people to change - and how one might speak up about that, too.


5. Speaking Up about Harassment: If you see someone being harassed and want to help, this cartoon, which happens to be about anti-Muslim harassment,  offers the best advice I have ever seen: https://www.facebook.com/themiddleeasternfeminist/photos/a.565332650209980.1073741828.565316806878231/1117370921672814/?type=3&theater; if you don’t do Facebook, here’s a link through HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/islamophobic-abuse-advice-bystander-hate-crime_uk_57c83652e4b09f5b5e3596fb.  Imagine finding safe ways to just be by the side of every person we ever saw being hurt. Imagine!

6. Speaking Up With Forethought: I’ve thought about how I might’ve spoken up in several situations where, if I’d had the words ready to go in my head, I might have been able to do so. Finding the common thread of humanity that runs through all interactions - yes, even those where we encounter those who bully, discriminate, belittle… - seems key. Working on the above letter gave me a little bit of a template for what a pre-planned response might look like. For starters, I’d include a gentle appeal to the inherent, perhaps very “underlying” or “subtle” good nature of the person(s) I was addressing. Then I’d be sure to draw their attention to the humanity and inherent worth of the person(s) being discriminated against. Some people don’t think everyone is equal. We are probably not going to convince those people in one interaction. But if we don’t speak up somehow, we haven’t tried. Our words might just be the turning point from discrimination to awareness and acceptance.

7. Paralyzed? Oh…that’s just me? When you don’t feel up to speaking up, but know you truly should, try this: IMPROVE/APPRECIATE/CONNECT/PROTECT.

If you google that phrase, you will get a whole lot of different links, but it’s really just a very simple concept that doesn’t need a ton of padding or explanation. Doing one of these things will help! I am not sure where I first saw this suggestion for healing and presence, but I wrote it down on an index card that I keep around as a reminder. The practice has stayed with me because it is truly effective. When you feel paralyzed (whether from depression, rage, sadness, horror, feeling overwhelmed, procrastination, helplessness, hopelessness [I could go on…]…), try taking just one of these words and find even a very small project which engages with that sort of action. For example, looking just in my immediate vicinity, right now, I might IMPROVE by putting away the scattered dog toys, APPRECIATE by looking out the window at the melting patches of snow and tiny bulb shoots, CONNECT by petting my cat, or PROTECT by taking my dark chocolate stash further away from the edge of the desk to be sure my puppy doesn’t get his paws on it.  

In these ways, bit by bit, we gain the steadiness and strength to speak up and do what needs to be done. 

Hope this helps.

Thanks and Love,

Full Spectrum Mama

Welcome to Voices of Special Needs Blog Hop -- a monthly gathering of posts from special needs bloggers hosted by The Sensory Spectrum and The Jenny Evolution. Click on the links below to read stories from other bloggers about having a special needs kiddo -- from Sensory Processing Disorder to ADHD, from Autism to Dyslexia! Want to join in on next month's Voices of Special Needs Hop? Click here!

An InLinkz Link-up

TEAM FRIENDLY FACE AT HIGH SCHOOL ORIENTATION

Dear Persons,

Team Friendly Face (links: http://fullspectrummama.blogspot.com/2014/05/team-friendly-face.html and http://fullspectrummama.blogspot.com/2014/06/team-friendly-face-update.html), convened at the beginning of Middle School, was represented the other night by a few friendly faces as I walked apprehensively into the orientation for parents of incoming ninth graders.

The auditorium was significantly less full than I would have expected, given the size of the incoming class of first year high school students. To this casual observer, it emerged that there were basically two types of parents who chose to attend this event. Both sets looked keyed-up, nervous. But one set looked excited, too, whereas the others, my Friendly Face peeps, looked TERRIFIED. We know how hard transitions can be for our kids, both for individual reasons, such as anxiety around new things, executive function challenges, and so on, and for larger-scale reasons, such as the inevitable jostling and alienation that come with new social situations and groups. (Guess who’s usually targeted in high stress situations? People who are different? Yup.)

The future  AP parents, the ones who indeed legitimately signed the Honors English agreement that was in the million-page high school transition packet – the Honors English permission form that I’d signed because, why not? Hey, my kid is GIFTED, and...um...honorable – kept asking questions about things like “prerequisites for calculus.” The rest of us cringed, kept quiet. Sure, the school administration and teachers seemed welcoming and nice, but we all knew our kids might need a slightly different – probably more extensive - set of guidelines.

After the presentation, I felt shellshocked. Team Friendly Face member J came over to me, crying. I felt a migraine descending. We tried to prop each other up. Team Friendly Face members K and C reminded themselves and us that our future ninth graders have such a gift for finding the good in every situation. That our fears don’t always manifest – and often go blissfully unshared by our children...

Then my shy, sometimes uncertain, Team Friendly Face friend J walked up to the Special Education representative and, before my eyes, turned into an articulate, assertive Warrior. While I stood mutely by, gazing through narrowed eyes, trying not to sway or vomit (migraines are fun like that), she introduced herself (and me), asked some really smart, important questions, and just basically advocated her butt off for her son. I was so proud of her! And a bit ashamed that I’d just written a whole post on advocacy...But then sometimes we need to lean on others when it gets too much. I was super grateful for those Friendly Faces at this event! I know I will be getting plenty of chances to advocate in the next few months and, thanks to J, some of my questions have already been answered.

   

It was also a comfort to know I could jot down some reflections on this ordeal in my 300-page and growing Full Spectrum Mama draft file. I publish only a fraction of my writing, but somehow the luxury of writing things down, along with the opportunity to process this writing provides, and then – when appropriate, when I have the time to polish the writing, etc. -  I am grateful to be able to have a part in the wonderful blogosphere phenomenon of letting others know they are not alone.

That being said, I’ve always seen THE COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT as a place where ANYONE can share their experiences. I will be publishing a plethora of COMPLAINTS in the upcoming yearly post. Please email me your tisk-tisks, your triumphs, trials, tribulations, tales of woe and so forth at jineffable@gmail.com. 

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama

FOURTH ANNIVERSARY LISTS I: ADVOCACY

Dear Persons,

Every year, this time of year, I get to indulge in a series of posts that use my most beloved mode of thinking and organizing: LISTS.  The first in the series has always been on ADVOCACY, a subject central to most everything I believe, ponder, and do, as a mother and as a writer.

I’ll be heading into both three-year IEP evaluation meetings and high school transition meetings in a few weeks. Considering the week I have just had, where I

1. noticed on page 27 of a 40 page IEP informational packet that G’s services were being cut from 24 hours per week to 11 for this fall when he starts high school;

2. noticed that G was once again failing several classes and had to engage intensively with him and his teachers and paraprofessionals and case manager* to get him back on track, mostly around executive function matters; and

3. travelled 45 minutes to an away basketball game to watch G play, having attempted a four-tiered system to help him remember his gear (for the record: written list, email, lecture at breakfast, and quiz in car) only to find that he’d forgotten his shorts.**

            ...this was a great time for me to review my advocacy lists and get prepared for what’s to come! As my Meeting Friend can attest, this sort of schedule of minor disastrophes is all too typical for we atypicals, so any time can be a good time to sharpen our advocacy skills.

Here are my previous anniversary posts on advocacy, chock full of tips for success (and some choice “don’ts”) in delightful list form:

Links:

http://fullspectrummama.blogspot.com/2013/01/first-anniversary-lists-i-advocacy.html

http://fullspectrummama.blogspot.com/2014/01/second-anniversary-lists-i-advocacy.html

http://fullspectrummama.blogspot.com/2015/01/third-anniversary-lists-i-advocacy.html

You can also use the “search” function at right to find more posts pertaining to this important subject.

Since I’ve been blogging awhile now, I’ve more and more had the privilege of being asked for advice and support from near and far around advocacy. It’s probably the thing I get the most queries and referrals about, and I am pretty sure that’s because we all get intimidated as well as confused by powerful, sometimes-inflexible, institutional systems that are larger and more complex than us, and full of people who have their own agendas, not to mention the need to become well-versed, quickly, in completely new subjects...All the while dealing as individuals and/or parents with navigating a world that is not always welcoming of difference.

I’ve come up with this handy-dandy three point list to summarize the key aspects of advocacy as I see them, after almost a decade of advocacy:

1. INSIST!

2. PERSIST!

3. EXIST!

...And now for a little elaboration:

1. By INSIST, I mean, to go with what you know is right, whether anti-bullying or pro-services and –adaptations(–accommodations), whether at school, at work, in the larger world...Oftentimes you might not even know what the law or rule or adaptation/accommodation or service or policy is...but you know in your heart that you or your child deserves better. Is your or your child’s neurology, sensory profile, or other difference significantly impacting or impacted by your/their school (or work, or...) experience? Then something needs to change. Part of this step is finding out what can be done – finding a way to make things better – and then INSISTING upon it.

2. By PERSIST, I mean: don’t give up.  Sometimes our efforts at advocacy are flat-out exhausting. Sometimes they don’t help us or our children but they help others down the road (laws, do I have examples of this). If possible, keep trying: sometimes it might just take one more call, or google search, or email to another parent or a friend to push things over the line to full or partial success. Yes, there are a lot of things working against progress (on both smaller and larger scales), but there are good guys out there, and rules and laws that are meant to support equality and fairness...we as individuals can make a difference in the creation of and changing of attitudes and laws, too, but it takes time. PERSIST, dear reader, and find these people and these policies (or be/create them!) and let’s level the playing field!

3. By EXIST, I mean: you are a person! Yes, you! Take care of yourself. I don’t do this. None of us do. But we should. Especially when the world needs MORE from us, and we feel we’ve Nothing left. Sleep. Good, nourishing food. Taking a break sometimes and just reading or going for a walk...Am I ringing a bell here?

Life can sometimes feel like a roller coaster, all the more so when you and/or your child has/have atypical learning styles and/or neurology and/or abilities. When I contacted G’s case manager* to review his grades from the depths of a reasonable yet debilitating funk, she responded on that subject and then, later, sent me this:

I forgot to write it in my last email but...I have been meaning to let you know how amazing [G] was during his Socratic Circle in English class with [teacher]. He related the poem 'Kindness' to his negative experiences in [pre-move, reason-we-moved, elementary] school with bullying and was able to speak to how it made him understand kindness more. He also said that because of this experience he has become a more compassionate person. I was so impressed and moved by his thoughtful input. He was serious and thoughtful. It was just wonderful!

...This email kind of made up for the other disastrophes that week, my point being: take joy/comfort/light where you can...you may need it! Seeking out and really listening to those who recognize/acknowledge/celebrate your or you loved ones’ real gifts are a part of self-care and feeding of the soul.

You know – roller coaster alert - I had mixed feelings when this (very kind and hard-working) case manager* subsequently told me that “[G] could be in an advanced language arts class if not for his issues with organization and writing.” I mean...what’s not happening for him at school that you are not helping him enough with these very issues (learning differences [a.k.a. disabilities – the language we choose is part of advocacy!]) to realize his potential??? Wait...It’s time to advocate...Ciao!

Next Anniversary List: FOURTH ANNIVERSARY LISTS II: ATTACHMENT DISORDERS.

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama

* Ok, “Case manager” makes my son sound like a “case.” Yuck. Note to self: another advocacy goal for when things slow down....??

**The fact that G is on the basketball team is a subject for at least seven or eight future posts, which I will likewise write when the proverbial things slow down...

MIDDLE SCHOOL* PRAYERS**

(SUBSTITUTION POLICY:

Please feel free to change the terms of any of these prayers** if they feel useful to you! For example: *“Middle School,” might become ANY school or institution or event or transition; **“prayers” might become wishes or hopes or a more formal type of prayer…

This post comes out of our Middle School Special Education Transition Orientation meeting, in which most of the parents were crying – and shared many of these concerns; it also comes out of my own fears about this transition; and from a few things G – who’s playing it mellow on this one -- has said. But I think the generalities and specifics may apply in a lot of situations.

I open with “Dear Universe” because it seems most inclusive and I love how the literal translation -- “one song” – includes and unifies this big ol’ glorious mess of a world. Please substitute God (however you mean this word, or whatever word your faith uses), or any other concept here, including “Dear me, may I do my best to ensure that…”)

Dear Universe,

May our children have a gentle transition to Middle School. Specifically,

1.      May they not succumb to the horrors of Homework –

a.       In the DOING of the Homework, may they not find it such that it is “the last straw” in a day in which there have already been enough struggles to succeed, often in areas of extraordinary challenges,  whether social, academic, emotional, neurological, physical...

May they have time, still, to be kids. May they have time to play with their families, rather than always trying to “catch up” on all these many levels – and rather than their families having to spend most of their time together waging mighty battles in the effort to compel our children to complete said Homework.

May you uplift the brave Mama of the Middle School Special Education Transition Orientation meeting who saw fit to refuse to force her child to do Homework because she chose, instead, to let her child have fun following her child’s very, very hard work during the school day.

b.      And, Dear Universe, even more specifically, in the matter of the KEEPING TRACK OF the Homework, may we all gain skill and patience in this area, for  it is immeasurably harder to get kids who are already at their limit to bring home extensive and organized information about assignments.

While we may take advantage of online and phone resources at the Middle School, may that extra step send neither we nor our children “over the edge.”

2.      May our children be undaunted and unbowed by the rigors and pitfalls of Physical Education --
.

a.       May their PARTICIPATION be unmarred by being always last chosen and barely tolerated…May all games be inclusive – and may the choosing of the teams, if teams there be, occur by fair and just and random means.

May the words of the outgoing principal at the Middle School Special Education Transition Orientation meeting, “We think it’s important for all students to fully experience this social, competitive aspect of middle school,” have been misspoken, for, when they were spoken, you, O Universe, could hear the air go out of the room. You could hear, surely, the thoughts of the people of the Middle School Special Education Transition Orientation meeting and they were: Compete? Really? Some of our kids can’t catch balls. That does not make them “less than,” but listen lady, for most of us P.E. is not gonna be a strong suit for our kids…

b.      May the new ritual of CHANGING for P.E. be less agonizing and costly than we expect. Please watch over our children as they attempt to tie their shoes, maintain a modicum of executive function, not lose EVERYTHING, put on and take off the right clothes at the right time and in the right order, not stare inappropriately, and so forth.

And, lo, though they may not succeed in these efforts, may they nonetheless not get teased in the locker room for these or any of many other possible reasons…:

1.      In the matter of our kids’ UNDERWEAR, may you ensure that nothing too awkward or inappropriate happens during the aforementioned change? Please? One parent asks, as she did of me yesterday, may we ensure that my child does not have little kid underwear on? Also, may the underwear be pulled neither way too high nor way too low? May G, for example, not wear his underwear backwards and in a total wedgie as he is generally wont to do?  

We are not asking for a trade, Dear Universe, but we do agree to do everything in our power to make sure these risks are minimized, such as the pre-departure underwear check; it’s just that the locker room itself is out of our hands.

3.      Bullying. Universe, You know this is a HUGE one for those of us with differences and/or with children with differences!

a.       May our children not BE BULLIED.

Yes, Dear Universe, we know that Middle School is the world epicenter of bullying, and we know that kids who are different get bullied MORE …yet we dare to dream that our prayers that our children not be bullied might be answered, whether by a zero-tolerance school environment, social skills classes, that one cool kid is who so cool he or she doesn’t need to shun someone who’s “weird,” some combination of these, etc.

MAY NO CHILDREN - ANYWHERE - BE VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE FOR ANY REASON, O Universe. And may this particular prayer be as unnecessary as it should be, rather than as ridiculous and unrealistic as it actually is. 

b.      May our children not be misperceived as BULLYING -- or pushed into BULLYING by peer pressure or anxiety, or by being BULLIED:

There is then the type of scenario where our kids act in ways that appear to be bullying when in fact they are just clueless…and sometimes, like my G, really large and intimidating despite being a gentle and loving lambikin.

And there’s the scenario where someone who is already struggling is forced over their sensorial or social tolerance limit to a point where they lash out in what feels like self-defense.

The overall high levels of social awkwardness and hierarchical jostling that accompany this transition make these kinds of mixups more likely and we pray, Dear Universe, that our children be kept safe from these dreadful possibilities.

4.      May the issue of varying levels of Maturity – Or lack thereof -- …combined with hormones…oh dear.

May we somehow help our children navigate this particular minefield with aplomb.

Or at least a minimum of outright disastrophes.

G and his peers on the autism spectrum may by definition have developmental delays and those, combined with certain physical developments, make for a complicated mix.  Other non-spectrum-y kids in Special Education may have similar issues, including challenges around judgment and impulse control.

Heading into a context where almost everybody is a seething mass of hormonal, social and mental changes will be…interesting at best.

Dear Universe, you’ll recall when I was a VERY young 12. Curious about sex, hormonal, but very, very innocent. G is similar, but, if it’s possible, even more oblivious. What G lacks in commonsensicals, he certainly makes up for in heart-of-gold, but I am not convinced this combo will serve him well for the next year or two.

Therefore, in your infinite wisdom and harmony may you at least try to help him and the rest of our children entering Middle School to not embarrass themselves unduly.

Please watch over our children and prevent them from seeming to be stalkers. 

We beg - beg! - that you not let them be taken advantage of. 

Also, please see that the age of their bodies and the age of their minds and emotions correspond at least slightly, both within their own beings and amongst their friends.

And may they find friends, O Universe. Even just one friend. One who doesn’t care if they still like playing, for instance, pokemon.

5.      May our children operate their Lockers –

Dear Universe, can you see our kids being really great with the whole locker thing? The whole make way directly to locker/remember the combination/get the thing (or things) that was needed from locker and/or place the thing (or things) that was no longer needed in locker/close locker/find way back to where supposed to be thing?

Yeah…no. We can’t either.

Well what about the part where someone goes with them and oversees the whole thing – we’re so sure that will go over great in Middle School. Not.

Or maybe we could give them a list of the above steps to follow (read: give them a list to lose on the first day of school)?

Dear Universe, can you please O please manage this one somehow for the sake of our dear children?

Because this is one where our fear is mighty and legit, albeit probably incomprehensible to some.

6.      May our children learn Self-Advocacy –

For we are not omnipresent – and we are sometimes, we admit, exhausted. As well, mortal.

           

If possible, may they begin to integrate, for themselves, some components of self-advocacy development, however small, however basic: what questions will I need to ask to complete this assignment? Where will my challenges be and how can I access the help I need to be successful? What are my rights and responsibilities -  here, now?

If possible, may their Executive Function improve such that they are developing in awareness of what they need and how they may best be served in their own actions and in the resources available to them…

And, whether or not our children are mainstreamed or in more specialized programs, semi-independent or not-,

7.      May the help they are given be Helpful and not Non-Helpful –

Over the years there have been periods where I would begin to see some or all of G’s work and assignments written out in someone else’s handwriting. Dear Universe, as you are no doubt aware, G is able to write. Does it take him longer to write something than the average student or adult paraprofessional? Yes. Does he have dysgraphia and other learning differences around writing? Yes. Yet having someone do all his work for him is unequivocally NON-helpful help. I suspect the paras in question were trying to be kind, or to speed things up, make things easier for all parties…In any case I know they were not intending to deprive my son of a learning opportunity. But that is just what they were doing.

Dear Universe, some of us fear that in the larger Middle School context, it might seem easier to just sort of pass our kids through the system, using precisely this sort of non-helpful (to our children) help. This would be a great loss for our children.

May our children instead benefit from Flexible Support, where sensitive teachers and helpers recognize when help is truly needed but pull back to allow students to fly on their own where they are able to fly; sometimes, when necessary, fluffing up their feathers and wings, and, the rest of the time, letting students make their own, probably imperfect but unique and rewarding flights…

May we, the staff, their peers, and their teachers balance our children’s overt needs – for security, for routine, for “success” and success – with the myriad of wonderful possibilities for new experiences and learning out there in Your Universe, Dear Universe.

Big thanks.

Love,

Full Spectrum Mama