Disabilities Awareness Week @ HTE

Every student has strength and challenges. I often tell parents and students that any weakness can be a strength and any strength can become a weakness. That idea is true for everyone - but the strengths and challenges we bring the table are unique to each person. That is the beauty of being human!

Part of childhood is learning how to relate to others that are very different from ourselves. Naturally, children look to adults as role models - but we don't always have the answers, right? They're in that parenting instruction manual we've been searching for all these years. :-) Being around people who are different from us is challenging, which is one strong reason our faculty and staff set the goal of finding a program that would help children learn how to embrace diversity in a variety of ways...including people with disabilities.

Between November 13-20, each grade level will have one day of activities that seek to educate our students about what it is like for a student to have a disability. They will participate in hands-on-activities that help them understand visual, hearing, emotional, physical and cognitive disabilities - as well as Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Our 1st graders started on Friday - based on what I saw, I think they had a great time. Our hope is that this helps create a more supportive and positive learning environment for all our students. Knowledge is power and our goal is for new understandings to impact attitudes and behavior.

I just came across a wonderful parenting blog through the New York Times. I strongly recommend reading this post written by a dad whose son has cerebral palsy (click here to view). Raising a child with a disability can be quite challenging - I often hear parents and children talk about how isolating and lonely it can be. I am hopeful that our Disabilities Awareness Week will help lower those walls that seem to divide us.