Today I am at a District Student Services Training for Special Education Teachers and others, which is hosted in the multipurpose room of one of our elementary schools.
There have been marvelous conversations and dialogues around supporting diverse learners, building capacity in regular education classrooms, the importance of differentiated instruction, and universal design, all within a framework of collective responsibility.
I like that… Collective Responsibility
And then, during my lunch break, I was privileged to catch an incredibly profound glimpse into the wonderful culture of this inner city elementary school…
Collective Responsibility…
In the hallway I overheard two little girls, who were heading out the big double doors for their lunch time play. I could only see the backs of their heads, but I caught a lovely bit of their conversation…
My guess is that they were in about grade 2 or 3, and they were speculating:
“I think it was the crowd that bothered him – he doesn’t like crowds…”
“No,” responded the other child, “I think it was the noise – he doesn’t like a lot of noise…”
And with that they were gone…
I was only privileged to hear a tiny snippet of their interchange before they were out the door for their noon-time adventures…
Collective Responsibility
Those little girls get it!
Collective Responsibility
And they got it from someone…
They got it from their school…
Collective Responsibility
They got it from opportunities to discuss and to imagine the experience of another…
Collective Responsibility
They got it from opportunities to hear the language to frame those experiences effectively…
So that they understood…
So that they extended understanding to another… and had the language to discuss it… and speculate… and GET IT!
Collective Responsibility…
and the potential impact that has on two little girls…
and from there – it can only grow…
And that was the best-shiny-star-beautiful-golden-hope part of my day!
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30 Days of Autism is a project designed to fight stigma, promote civil rights, and increase understanding and acceptance for those who process and experience the world differently.
© Leah Kelley, Thirty Days of Autism, (2013)
Thirty Days of Autism 