This afternoon I am going to a graduation party for one of my kids. 
As you may or may not know, I teach high school kids that have physical and mental disabilities. Not easy sometimes, but at least the kids (and a sprinkling of parents) are fun. My kids can stay in school until they are 21 if their parents wish. Most of these kids have been in school since they were 3 years old. Why not stay? Their friends are there and for the majority, this is their social life.
What happens afterward? 
For most of society, this is not an issue. You graduate, go to the beach for a week's vacation, come home, get a job, get ready to go off to college or whatever. 
These kids don't understand what the heck is going on. Sure, they put on the cap and gown. Afterwards, they get to open gifts and have cake. Then, they go home. It's really fun for that 5 minutes of life. 
One of my kids that's graduating has a lot of non-communitive issues. With each new year, mom has to go through a new calendar and write the day's agenda, such as, school, home, church. This year in August (who decided August was a good month for school to begin??) there is no school. Boy, did he get pissed!! He came in and greeted everyone with his normal greeting until he got to me. He screamed and shook his finger at me. He did this for a few days and then I found out he had been talking to mom about August. He kept saying, 'school'... mom said, no more school. He thought I wasn't going to let him come back. We had a chat (ok, i chatted, he listened). He's cool now.
The party I'm going to will be for another kid who won't talk about graduation. Other day I mentioned how I thoughthe would be glad when he didn't have to come back to school. He told me to be quiet, he didn't want to talk about it. That's ok. We don't have to talk about it.
I never really thought about graduation how terrible it is for some of these kids until just this year. One day, I wondered how I would handle life if I had been going to school every day since I was 3 and then all of a sudden, I couldn't. Sure, we try to get them placed into jobs, but it's not the same thing as seeing your buddies. You know what I mean.
So, anyway.... Happy Graduation to all the graduates! May you always be happy!
4 comments:
This is actually very sad for these children. There is not some kind of workshop they can go to after graduation? All that they are used to is gone, how sad that is for them.
what a bittersweet commentary. Life is rough when you have all your faculties. Life is rougher when you have a handicap or even multiple handicaps. Glad you're there to understand and ease the trasition.
Although they don't understand what it's all about, they do understand how it affects them. And you handle it with sensitivity... each child is unique, this is true, and it seems you have the intuition to communicate with each one on their level. I always wondered what my kids (4th-5th graders, some EMD, some LD) would do in high school, how they will fare, what they will do when they graduate. It's good to know there are teachers like you who truly care at that end of the educational journey to help guide them. Bea
My brother sister in law had a foster brother and sister who would been in your class.... and I felt so sorry for the boy when he "graduated." He, too, was unhappy about all the changes.
~Meg
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