Reverb 10 December 24 Prompt – Everything’s OK:
What was the best moment that could serve as proof that everything is going to be alright? And how will you incorporate that discovery into the year ahead?
(Author: Kate Inglis)
I remember when I lived in Los Angeles there was a talk radio show where the hosts would use the expression, EGBOK. It stood for "Everything is going to be ok." Usually I believed them.
This year was fraught with the stress of transitions and the frustration of incompletions followed by... wow, momentum is building and sliced loops are knitting themselves together due to work I had done just because it was work to be done. Not that I was being overly strategic or trying, I had simply built blocks and taken steps one-at-a-time and as 2010 came to a close, these blocks started to stack up. I had numerous moments of "Everything is going to be ok" and dare I say, exceptional moments of relief and "everything is going to be more than ok."
The biggest, though, involves Samuel and his educational needs.
Since Fall, 2007, the tenuous nature of Samuel and "Free and Appropropriate Public Education" has consistently played in the background of my mind.
The public school system failed him, miserably, during kindergarten and when I pulled him out of first grade and insisted they do better, I didn't make many friends at first. I look back at the reports that were written then and they make me sound like a certifiable quack parent. I don't feel compelled to catalog the system's failure at this stage, but let's just say from my perspective many unforgiveables took place at my son's expense.
I am not sure when the "a-ha" happened that the three year recertification was due ~ this is when the system comes back in and decides whether or not your child still qualifies for Special Education services. Samuel wasn't using much in the way of Special Education services. He is mainstreamed full times, has only rare behavior issues and besides some on-going language processing issues which are being addressed by his speech/language specialist and his general education teacher who has a background as a developmental reading specialist, he doesn't receive services.
Yet the place where he had been in school since first grade, the support network we had created - it all was working.
The previous year there had been talk about pulling him back into our neighborhood school, which may have been fine but it was unfamiliar territory and I didn't have a positive history with the place.
I went as far as to make an appointment with the Principal there to see the classrooms and discuss Samuel's educational history with her.
When the School Psychologist called me to chat about the assessment, I immediately went on alert from my scalp to my toes.
The alert lasted from the first phone call until the IEP eight weeks later.
This man sounded so reasonable, it just didn't seem real. The educational psychologists I had known unfortunately didn't have such poise and certainly didn't ever seem to have Samuel's best interest in mind. I have one school psychologist in our district who gets visibly shaken whenever we are in the same room. He is afraid of me. It is strange, since I am normally a very easy-going person. This man, however, did harm to my child. I am working on forgiving him, but it is still difficult going. Perhaps in 2011 that will heal as well.
At the IEP this new-to-us school psychologist's reports had me in proud tears at first. Samuel's math scores were way above grade level. He was in the ninety seventh percentiles. He was a personable child. He was liked. He was devoted to his own learning.
And then he went on to discuss his weaker areas ~ and his success beyond what his scores showed. He shouldn't be doing as well with his reading comprehension as he is, but he surprises the results.
He works hard and is mindful when he works. He doesn't break down in tears of frustration in the classroom like he did last year.
The psychologist agreed he was doing wonderfully AND he was concerned about the details: his handwriting, his sensory integration issues that resulted in Samuel's one annoying behavior.
The psychologist double teamed the occupational therapist not to pull away services but to add services. The psychologist said, "This program is working. I see no reason to change it."
This decision means Samuel will end his elementary school experience at the same school he has attended since first grade.
I could not be happier.
The next night I sat at the Winter Concert and watched Samuel playing Saxophone and participating in a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." To an outsider, it was impossible to tell he was on the Spectrum. The girls that surrounded him during the reading knew to give him the slightest extra direction, but as I have watched girls and boys in this age group, this is normal behavior whether one is neurologically atypical or not.
Things may be challenging along the way, but with the confidence Samuel is continuing to develop, I know everything will be ok for him.
The other momentum builders: the rewards for the step-by-step, continuing and consistent work I have been doing, also tell me things will be fine and even better than "just alright." The increased professional opportunities as a Teaching Artist, my performance schedule, my blossoming visual arts creative exploration and the February opening of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are all further evidence.
I am grateful. EGBOK, many times over.
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