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A Lesson in Compassion, Understanding and Patience
Lessons From A Special Needs Class
Promise me you’ll always remember… you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you know. ~ Christopher Robin
It was the 1995–1996 School Year, my Senior Year with all its hopes and promises, a new school but not unfamiliar to me, and a new promise, the year would be life changing in many ways. That year I took R.O.P Childcare and would be blessed with a life changing experience, working in a classroom of severely handicapped children, those with more severe cases of Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, those with Autism and one particular little girl, who had the mentality of an infant, and the pension to bolt at the most dangerous of times, she had to have an individual aide.
I would be sitting with a girl, probably thirteen or fourteen, who was working on simple math, helping her to understand in the best way I could, at times she’d drop her pencil to the desk, and lay her head down in frustration. She was probably one of the more advanced in this class, more aware of her differences, but she was nourished too, loved her teachers, her aides.
While we’d be working together with her simple for me work sheet, we’d watch as the girl prone to bolting would make her way to the door, it was a dangerous…
