Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  Rachel has just five more days of high school and two of those are finals.  It has been a journey for sure.  In grade school, each year I  would write a note to her classroom teacher and I said, “It may be cliché’ but I have been praying for you since before Rachel was born.”  That is true. I prayed that God would put the right teachers in her life, and He has.  In these final days of her public school experience and while frantically going through at least a million pictures for her grad party, I have reflected a lot on her teachers and the difference they have made.

A few weeks ago I had a meeting with the superintendent of our school district. He is in his first year.  One of my school board member friends encouraged me to set up a meeting because she wanted him to hear my thoughts.  Some would say this was an opportunity to go down my list of train wrecks. There have been plenty of those.  As I try to do with all advocacy, that is not the path I chose. I chose an honest path that mentioned there had been many train wrecks that we had managed.  I mentioned but a few of those.  I mentioned that I believed our district needed to do better to be the district we profess to be.  We profess to be an inclusive district, but some of the data and stories tell a different story. I believe you have to walk the talk.

I also said that Rachel would graduate with a diploma like her friends. This is something we don’t take lightly because we have many friends across the country who have worked for all these years, who will walk away with nothing or only a certificate of completion. Rachel also loves her school district and her school and is fiercely devoted and loyal.  She thinks it is the best place in the world. That is the way we want it.  More than once in this very blog, I have said that I would manage the train wrecks and she would be the student who embraced being included and learning and being part of the student body. Mission accomplished.

In my time with our superintendent, I tried to make my main focus  Rachel’s excellent teachers and her excellent case manager/resource teachers because in my opinion, that has been one of the most importance factors in her success. Now, not every teacher has been excellent.  That is life, and I believe an important part of life for all of us.  We learn skills that help us navigate life when we work with those who are different, sometimes those who don’t get it, and sometimes those who just challenge our thinking.  We only had one teacher we had to totally punt.  Principal and case manager both agreed that we needed to punt. I wrote a blog about her.  She was just not going to budge and it wasn’t an area we wanted to battle so we just moved to a different spot. Then, there was that famous special education teacher from the early days who said “Rachel can’t function in a general education classroom.” Oh, I have stories, but for this conversation with the superintendent, my focus was excellent teachers.

I know that many of my friends across the country and right here where I live have not had very many excellent teachers. That makes my heart sad and reminds me of our blessings. I also know if I start to name them, I will leave someone really important out and I don’t want to do that. I told the superintendent the names of a few of the excellent teachers we have had in this district and said, “They need to be conducting the in-services that teach other teachers how to meaningfully include kids with intellectual disabilities.” I still contend “good teachers teach all children.”  I do want to share just a couple of stories from our excellent teachers though.

• Rachel’s third grade teacher, the one she had the first year we moved here, challenged Rachel as much or more than any teacher Rachel has had. She is often my go to person when I’m wanting a teacher’s perspective for a presentation. It seemed totally natural to her to include kids who were differently-abled.  Handwriting has always been hard for Rachel. We had all agreed there was no need for her to learn cursive except for a signature and to help her to read other people’s notes in cursive.  Around my birthday that year Rachel came home and pulled out a paper that had her signature on it.  My eyes got big and I exclaimed “Rachel you wrote your name in cursive.” She told me that Ms. R had been helping her and it was my birthday present. Ms. R believed all children could learn and had high expectations.  Best present ever. PS – She did a lot more than that but indulge me. I love that story.
• Her eighth-grade team spent her transition to high school meeting sharing with the team all the ways Rachel had been successful in their classrooms. They were emphatic that they meet with the next team because they knew it would  hep them understand how to meaningfully include Rachel. I didn’t know they were going to go this in-depth, and prior to the meeting didn’t fully grasp how devoted they were to Rachel.
• At the end of the year, her tenth grade English teacher sent me this: I just wanted to tell you personally that Rachel totally rocked her final and only missed one question. I am so proud of Rachel and how she has academically excelled this year. She has been such a sweet presence to have in class and her ability to be confident and join in discussion is impressive. I have loved getting to know her and her awesome personality and I thank you for allowing me to teach your daughter. I know I have definitely grown from this experience! 
• One of her teachers called me at the beginning of her freshman year and wanted to know if I could come in and meet. She went on to say she had never worked with a child with Down syndrome and was afraid she would fail. Could I help her? I wanted to hug her because I want the teacher who is willing to admit she/he needs help.

Through these 13 or 16 years of school, we have truly had some of the best teachers who really believed all kids could learn even though they all learn differently.  Rachel is living proof of that. These many educators have believed in Rachel. Some immediately embracing our high expectations, others who were skeptical but now say “I am a better teacher and a different teacher for having taught Rachel and worked with you guys,” and others who never quite got there but they didn’t stand in the way.  I want to say thank you to each and every teacher and paraprofessional and therapist and social worker and counselor and yes, even those psychologists, for investing in Rachel and hopping on our high expectations train.

Rachel’s success has not been one thing. It has been a combination of many things.  I am not a pie-in-the-sky type person. I am a “planted-in-reality” kind of mom.  I know deep in my heart that Rachel has been blessed with some excellent teachers and that has made all the difference.  Thank you to each and every one of you and thanks to all the teachers out there who work tirelessly every day to teach all children. Happy teacher appreciation week and never forget the difference you make!