 |
Business Directory |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coupons |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Classifieds |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| | Author | Messages | |
HSSpedMom
Posts:7
 | | 11/10/2007 5:31 PM |
 Alert | Well, t here is nothing new or productive here, so I will leave most of this alone - it is - after all, your opinion, to which you are certainly entitled.
I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the purpose of trips to stores and other common places of business. They have absolutely nothing to do with seeking employment - these are life skills - teaching students how to calculate best value, make informed purchases, learn how to make change.
Some of these students may be mentally handicapped or autistic. Please know that parents have been teaching these skills over the course of their young lifetimes - but with many of these 'challenges' reinforcement must be continually 0 where you learned this as a young person - these students do not always retain the learning - it is also meaningful to have these experiences with someone other than the parent, who has and often remains their primary caregiver for life.
When I see handicapped people or challenged people in stores in groups - whether in Maricopa or anywhere else - I see opportunity, hopes of independence, confidence, dreams of some piece of normalcy.
I am sorry for you that your experiences cause you to interpret this with such negativity. | | | |
|
| | Chuck
Posts:60
| | 11/12/2007 12:26 PM |
Alert | Posted By HSSpedMom on 11/10/2007 5:31 PM
"I am sorry for you that your experiences cause you to interpret this with such negativity."
I'll assume you're speaking of someone else because working with this young man is enriching for all of us. Since coming to work for us he has made a more earnest effort to get his own drivers' license {he already has a car}, another step toward his own self~reliance. He spent a lot of Friday helping the other guys which allowed him to learn to do a few more things. He still has to work under supervision when he's helping but at least he is seeing how his contribution makes a difference. Right now he's out at a job site and is well integrated into that three man crew {that three includes him}.
I understand the reason for the trips to the grocery, I only feel trips to businesses such as ours could be beneficial to the students as well as prospective employers. I spent a a couple hours on the phone this weekend with an old friend who works psych ward at a VA hospital back east getting from her as much as I could before my battery died. | | | |
|
| | HSSpedMom
Posts:7
| | 11/18/2007 12:14 PM |
Alert | | Good to have that cleared up, the earlier posts sounded like you really did not support him or my requests for the schools to support their SPED kids, blamed his parents, wanted sped people to become invisible - like they were when I was younger - and resented his ability to bear children. It is good to hear that he is being successful to the best of his ability and that you have a good understanding of his value to society. I must have misunderstood your meaning <img src='http://www.85239.com/desktopmodules/ntforums/images/emoticons/smile.gif' height='20' width='20' border='0' title='Smile' align='absmiddle'> | | | |
|
| | Chuck
Posts:60
| | 11/18/2007 2:37 PM |
Alert | Thanks, I think. I will continue to beat the drum that the schools cannot be all things to all kids and that while we have come to be more reliant upon the schools and ergo our government it is really up to each and every one of us to make up for what isn't otherwise available. I'm no whiz in this area and rely primarily on my gut to work with this young man, and others like him in the past. Yeah, I read a lot including feedback from this and other forums but it all comes down to how I can best help this young man overcome obstacles I have no real personal experience with. When it comes time for him to begin a family he will at least know there is more support for him than just from his own family.
As far as other businesses, those that can either do or should if they don't. Yes, there will always be limitations to what these young people can do, at least for the time being but that limitation should not come in the form of societal stigmas. | | | |
|
|  |
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
ActiveForums 3.6 |
|
|
|