Thinking about parents – As I get ready for a new school year, my mind often goes, not only to my little students, but their parents as well. I thought I would share something I wrote for our Early Childhood Special Education PTO defining the word, “special”.
I have been a staff representative for the Early Childhood Special Education PTO for about 20 years now. You would think that I would move on to other committees in our program, but none have moved me like the PTO. So I stay and continue to be blessed by the dedicated parents who give their time to make our ECSE program a better place.
Parents of children with “special” needs are truly very special in their own right. In my opinion, the word “special”, as it is used to describe our students in ECSE, does not equate to something that is “wrong” with our kids. Quite to the contrary, I see “special” as being exactly that. The children in our program are so uniquely special in the ways that they learn, accomplish new goals, and tackle new activities. But if you are looking for other people who are “special”, look at the parents of our students.
I looked up the word “special” in an online dictionary and some of the synonyms that came up were: superior, exceptional, distinctive, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, unique, and different.
