Special Education

We just spent 4.5  hours in a special education mediation meeting. I can’t write about the details now, but let me just say that if I had all the money in the world, I would make it my singular mission to change the system in our country. Or at least in Anne Arundel County to get started.

I’ve written about Delrey School before, I think, but it’s worth it to mention again that in the world of special education for severely disabled kids with cerebral palsy, they are top shelf. They are consummate professionals who genuinely care about these kids – and not just the ones paying tuition for their school.  This is what I wrote to the team that helped us in the mediation:

You are each rays of hope in a system that is so broken it is disheartening. You each have a joy and radiance that grows from your souls and touches these kids and draws them out. You relentlessly find the one tiny glimmer of light shining from a kid and you work tirelessly to open that hole and let the light pour out so the world can see. These are perfect souls trapped in broken bodies, and you help their souls shine. It is refreshing to know that one candle can erase darkness. You are each candles. Your school shines so brightly with your candles and the light you open to the world in your students that it scares places who can’t possibly shine that brightly – much like it would hurt your eyes to look at the sun. Keep shining. On the days it’s tough – on the days you have doubt – know deep in your soul, at the very pit of who you are and what you do in the world, that you are brilliant. And each kid that gets to come through the halls of Delrey for even a moment is blessed and changed forever. Shine on, Delrey. Shine on.