Dear Addie,
And just like that summer has slipped away. I know, I’ve still not mastered the magical art of freezing time just yet, and you my dear are now a big 3rd grader - looking every bit of it too. All your “babyness” has melted away and believe it or not we can even wear each other’s shoes! You know Ad if I was into fashion & shoes I could really take advantage of some extra shoe shopping with this - but I’m a flip-flop gal so...
With You, Clara and Gabe attending different schools the transition to get everyone back is slow and staggered. You were the last to head back and just the sight of your backpack and lunchbox the night before your 1st day started to make you anxious. You became clingy (but not in a bad way, more of an extra snuggly way) and sleep was more of a struggle than usual, but again not in an angry defiant way, just more of an
anticipation of change kind of way.
With you showing some of your predictable signs of anxiety, I, however, felt a sense of calm. Not exactly a normal beginning of the year feeling for me, but 3rd grade just feels different for some reason. This is your 3rd year now at your current elementary school (Go Owls!) so you're not exactly the new kid on the block anymore, the loudest perhaps, but not the newest.
There's no complete overhaul of ”newness” to this routine, just getting back to a familiar one. Same dedicated and loving teachers, friendly classmates and amazing school. I anticipated your push back just for the initial day to day change in the beginning, but in no time at all you’ll ease comfortably back into being a rock-star student. The fact that we can even speak of predictable anxiety about heading back to school or a sense of familiarity to the routine is truly a blessing Addie because it wasn’t always like this for families like ours.
It’s only been with years of advocacy from parents before us that were told by doctors to go home and just “have other children” (implying as if in some way their child was broken because they didn’t walk or talk at a certain age). School administrators even refused to accept children who couldn’t perform certain daily tasks as if their lack of efficiency meant they were completely incapable of learning all together. Addie these are wildly inappropriate claims and special needs parents have literally been on this education equality battle since the early 1930’s. Crazy right?! You’d think that education would just be a given for every child, then again there was a time when women couldn’t vote either.
Sadly, even with years of endless advocacy the United States still did not provide public education to special needs children until the early 1960’! Parents had three choices - home school, pay for private education, or accept the fiction spoken of their child’s disabilities (or different abilities rather) that their child would amount to nothing and simply just maintain their existence with feeding, bathing and dressing. I honestly cannot even fathom the latter of these options.
With the continuation and refusal to give up, some very dedicated parents created advocacy groups for their children, working tirelessly setting up meetings with teachers, politicians or anyone who would listen, their voices were eventually heard, and in 1965 Lyndon B. Johnson (36th president of the United States) signed off on laws designed to expand public education and its funding purposes. A huge step in the right direction here, but change doesn’t always happen overnight. It would take another 10 years before the United States would vote to ensure that ALL children, regardless of their differences, should have access to free public school education.
This act today is known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA for short. It helps bring in federal funds to assist in creating these all too important special education programs for children like you who happen to learn differently than the general public. Here we are today, 44 years after that historical vote, and you are starting 3rd grade. I get kind of emotional when I think about it.
Often in parenting we reference a famous quote, “It takes a village to raise a child” that village is usually referring to friends, family, neighbors, teachers, etc. Our village Addie is so much bigger than I once thought. It took many people all taking a similar journey before us. Other parents fighting to give you (and others like you) the educational rights you benefit and thrive from today. Those names we may never know, faces we will never see and “thank you” will never be enough to truly express our sincere gratitude for the battle they fought so we could be where we are today.
Have an "owl"some year Addie! We are so very proud of you.
Love,
Mom
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