Inclusion? Sure! Sort of....

Pictured above is this thingy that they have at the kids' school; the school has these rules and when a teacher or staff sees a kid following the rules they get this little card dealie that you see; the check marks you see are for the rules he was following at the time he was spotted by a teacher. It's supposed to be a big deal and everybody is supposed to be really happy about it, and then something happens after that, but I'm not entirely sure what because I've never been listening when they talk about this stuff. This is the 2nd or 3rd year they've been doing this whatever it is, and this is the first one of these I've ever seen, so I always just assume I never would, at least not from Child 1 (oh, fuck it, his name is obviously Jacob, since it's written right there in the picture!). I'm quite proud of him, actually, I was thrilled to see him holding this yellow card. I asked him what he got it for and, of course, he wouldn't tell me. He did read it to me, though, and said "these are my instructions." He's adorable.

It's kind of this weird balance, I'm finding, with the teachers at our school. The thing I liked the most about our teacher last year was also the thing I liked the least about him: he treated Jake just like every other kid; he was supposed to follow the rules and go along with the class just like every other kid. I liked that he wasn't treated differently because of his differentness. The problem, though, is that he IS different, and you can't expect that he'll behave like the rest of the kids, even if he can follow the rules once he learns them, so you also need to take that into account. This is why I never thought I'd see one of these yellow cards; he's being responsible and respectful all the time (apparently not safe, though! ha ha!) but it's hard to tell because he behaves so differently from the other kids.

It's been interesting so far, watching these teachers who have pretty much no special ed training; they ask ME for autism resources so that they can learn more about it. I so appreciate how wonderful these people are and how much they're willing to learn so that they can help my child. Last year's teacher told me he had really wanted Jake in his class so that he could learn more about autism and inclusion. But, if our district is really interested in "Full Inclusion," should these guys be getting more training? Why do they have to ask ME, a parent, for help in learning about autism? Kind of makes me think that our district isn't really interested in full inclusion, after all. (that was a joke; of COURSE they don't care about inclusion! How does Inclusion help them with their NCLB Program Improvement Status? Answer: it doesn't).

Anyway: Good job Jake! For whatever it was that you did to earn the yellow card! :)

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