Merry Christmas, and push your own kid up the hill!

Last Wednesday night, Javy participated in his school's Christmas program with his third grade class. It's great, really, that Javy, as well as the other Special Education students participate with their general education class. I mean, in Alabama, he never really got to, unless it was something that Miss Laura did. So for this, I am very grateful. But here are some general observations that made me go, "hmmmmm." Javy's Special Education teacher was sick so she couldn't be there. So we dropped Javy off with the third grade class and one of the third grade teachers, who Javy was absolutely smitten with, explained that she was nervous about pushing Javy's wheelchair up the hill. I said, Okay, I will help anyway I can, so I can do it. Relief washed over her. Later, when I had a chance to think about this, I wondered, how hard is it to push a wheelchair up a small hill. And do they think that Javy is really that fragile. Now, I don't blame the teacher, at least she was honest. But it brought to my attention something about how people who are not around special needs kids and their perception of them.... For my family, we try to provide the most normal atmosphere possible for him. We let him roll himself down the hill (with an adult monitoring the traffic situation) in our drive way. I let him explore and climb around all the time. I'm not sure how to remedy this because the only way to know is to spend time with kids like Javy. I don't blame people for being cautious. Oh well...I guess that's all of my rant. But here's Javy's Christmas performance.