One of the reasons I have loved being a teacher, was viewing the classroom as a microcosm of society. The classroom represented a mere atom in terms of the universe, but the irreplaceable value of that "atom" was worth fighting for as a teacher and adapting for as a person.
As students walked into my classroom for the first time they seemed so young, so much the same, but within moments I looked for how they were different. I wondered what they needed from me and over time, I wondered how they would change me. When I look through my album of class pictures, I can tell you at least one thing I offered to them and one gift they gave to me.
When I have a child with a special need come into my life, my perspective zeros in even more. Sometimes I have to make a bigger commitment to get to know them. Maybe they cannot communicate in the traditional sense and I have to focus and observe with more intention. Because I am using a more powerful "lense," I will see their abilities and disabilities, their gifts and their struggles, their confidences and their fears, their joys and their sorrows.
The time with children with special needs or challenges has been a gift. It has changed my perspective on all children. All children have abilities, disabilities, gifts, struggles, confidences, fears, joys and sorrows. Because I had to observe with commitment, I have learned to discover more about all children. This, in turn, has helped me pay attention to all people with greater regard. In some respects we are more similar than we realize and in other respects, we need to celebrate the differences a little more.
When you broaden your perspective after looking so thoughtfully, you start to see all people differently. We all need support. We all have gifts to offer and we all need to be welcomed, no matter what our abilities and gifts are to the community.
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