I love this so much, when I saw it in the "DS circles", I had to post it right away on my blog. The boys and I are HUGE fans of Laura Joffe Numeroff's series of books (for example, "If you give a mouse a Cookie") and this writing follows in that vein. It also speaks very eloquently for those of us who often have to fight the educational system and their expectations (or more often than not, their lack of expectations). I'm quite fortunate that we've had wonderful educators in Ryan's life so far, but I know a lot of other people who have been told blatantly and subtly that their kids just "can't do that".
If You Give a Child An Appropriate Education - by Lori Miller Fox
If you give a child an appropriate education, he's going to ask for opportunities.
When you give him the opportunities, he'll probably ask you for support.
When he works very hard, he'll ask for recognition. Then he'll want to look at his accomplishments and make sure he isn'tdreaming.
When he looks at his accomplishments, he might notice he doesn't have many friends. So he'll probably ask for a group to fit in with.
When he's finished getting comfortable, he'll want some friends to help him have fun. He'll start playing. He might get carried away and play with every child in his class. He may even end up making a playdate! When he's done, he'll probably smile. You'll have to get him back to his school workwith coaxing and encouragement.
He'll refocus, concentrate on school work and smile a few more times. He'll probably ask you to challenge him more.
So you'll rewrite the goals on his IEP, and he'll ask to do more and more. When he does more and more, he'll get so excited he'll want to do harder things. He'll ask for you to believe in him. He'll try his best. When he's done, he'll surprise you with accomplishments.
Then he'll want to know he has approval. Which means he'll need acceptance.
He'll look for acceptance in your eyes and stand back to find it. Seeing your acceptance will remind him that he's the same as everybody else.
So...he'll ask for opportunities. And chances are if he aks for opportunities, he's going to need further education to make the most of them.
Posted by LoriFox on November 28, 2005 at 07:00 AM
4 comments:
Love that too! I printed it off and put it in my portfolio. Looking forward to the cottage...Yay!
Lisa
I really liked this - I think I might send it to the district ;) Hope all is well at your house - keeping your family in my prayers!
okay...I know I need to start blogging...been telling myself that for 2 years. I think this finally convinced me..a good thing to start with..I love this Annette...cause we love the give a mouse a cookie, moose a muffin books too ;) Was so good to meet you in Atlanta...think of you often and keep you in our prayers
That is so cool. It's funny we just borrowed "If you give a mouse a cookie" from the library. I'm thinking I will also be printing this off for Brant :)
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