My Passion

Woke up for summer school today. Packed my bags and put my game face on. Arrived at Fairhaven about 10 minutes early. 9:05 am rolled around and still no student. Sent a text to her babysitter and she thought her mother told me she went to the hospital for surgeries due to a seizure fall. My prayers are with her and her family right now.  This is at least the third time this year.

I didn't even get dressed yesterday. I woke up late and ate all three meals in my pajamas. I didn't have any where to be or anything to do and it felt great! I did get around to watching The Help. Fabulous movie. I won't go into too much detail, but my heart was heavy throughout the entire movie.  The movie was centered around "The Help", which was a group of African American women in Jackson, Mississippi, during a time when the Jim Crow Laws were in full affect.  The movie did not primarily focus on racial segregation, but the lives of the African American women who worked in white homes raising white babies, cooking and cleaning.  The movie was about their stories and how one white woman, Skeeter, gave them a voice.  I'd like to think if I was around during the time of segregation I would be like her. Skeeter was brave.  She stood out among many as someone who believed in equality, not separate but equal.  She showed respect and gratitude for The Help and pushed boundaries during a time when she could have been arrested for interfering with the law.  It's difficult to put into words what equality means to me.  I have so much passion and drive to fight to make sure that all people and things are treated with respect, dignity and given equal rights.  I can remember learning about Brown vs Board of Education in college (I'm sure we learned about it in high school, but not as in depth as in college) and realizing that creating desegregated schools was just the beginning of the journey of giving equal rights to all.  Brown vs Board of Education opened a door for not only equality of races in education, but later led to the education of children with disabilities with the authorization of IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Renamed IDEA, Public Law 91-230 and EAHCA recognized a specific learning disability "SLD" as an eligible category to receive special education services and funding.  SLD is defined in IDEA as a "disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia." Before the law, students with disabilities were not given special resources to succeed and not even a chance to learn in the general curriculum and those with profound disabilities were placed in institutions without a chance to learn at all.  And, thus, I thank the individuals who were passionate enough about equality to take a stand to make things better. If it wasn't for them my students would not have a chance to become passionate learners and be considered important functional members of society...and I would never have the opportunity to learn what my true passion is.

I love my job.

~Wendy