Had to share…..
http://www.paulakluth.com/2011/06/24/kacie’s-“ooh-la-la”-inclusion-success-story/
I loved that blog post. I think when I had Sophia signed up for Italian classes for 2 years people thought I was nuts. I could hear their silent criticism, "Why would she pay for Italian classes when her kid can barely speak English?" Anyway, our relatives visiting from Italy last summer surely got a kick out of it!
As far as Life Skills and Inclusion and Fighting the Fight….
Sophia is currently in a 6/7/8 Life Skills Class (she is a new 6th grader at local middle school). I agreed to the placement after much angst about the middle school transition in general. Plus, I was not made fully aware of what our district offered even after repeated requests for this info. Needless to say, I am mad at myself and have no problem admitting I made a mistake. I am a work in progress :)
It is not that Life Skills is bad. They offer some wonderful things for students who will obviously benefit from it. But if Sophia stays in it, I will never know what she could have, would have, should have done in a regular classroom.I go back to the quote from the mom in the blog ,"None of this would have happened if I had allowed Kacie to be sequestered in the life skills classroom."
The only time she Sophia is not with the Life Skills students is gym and an "elective" (family and consumer science) with typical kids. Other than that she is doing all of the Life Skills curriculum which the district tried to convince me is similar to the typical 6th graders. Not. I am trying to get her into the special ed classes which really are the 6th grade curriculum, just modified. I think that is a good starting point and then I can worry about conquering French in High School. As far as Sophia her favorite class is…you guessed it…Family and Consumer Science. Here is an email I got from Sophia's Family and Consumer Science teacher "Sophia is doing great in class. She is an active participant and gets along well with her class mates".
Coming across this blog post was a blessing! I hope you enjoyed it :)
Jessica
