Catholic Schools

[Guest guest]

,

Thanks for your response. Parochial schools were a huge issue for me as my

whole family including myself have been educated in parochial schools. When

Rose was ready to go to high school, I went to the principal of the school

that her two older sisters, father, aunt, cousins, etc. had attended and

asked if they would include Rose. The arguement that I used was that if we

as a church preach that all life has value, then we can't say " oh, but we

can only educate some people " . They agreed and really were terrific for

four years. I won't say that it was a perfect program but everybody tried

very hard and we had lots of successes. Rose's behavior was a challenge for

everybody and one that we were less prepared for than the academic

challenges. I was just beginning to try to understand these behaviors that

I now see as ASD. The truth is that I hoped that getting out of a

self-contained special ed. environment and into an accepting inclusive

environment would make her a more sociable soul. I'm still learning on that

one.

One other point on the Catholic School issue. We got a grant( essentially

from the diocese) to allow the special education teacher training program at

the local Catholic college to provide training to the parochial school

teachers in inclusion and curriculum modification for all special needs

students.

Mardi, mother of Rose (20)

PS They did an article in the local paper about the college program which

included a photo of Rose with the caption that she was the " first student

with Down Syndrome at Assumption High School " . She focussed right in on it

and now introduces herself to people as " the first student with Down

Syndrome " ! She is quite sure that she is totally unique!