BUT, (please no one say I have a big but) sometimes I feel like I spend a lot of my time spinning my wheels, exhausting options that aren't a good fit.
By Golden Ticket syndrome, I mean, sometimes I feel like Verucka(sp?) Salt's dad -in the Johnny Depp version of Wonka- having all those people digging through millions of boxes of to find the bar with the golden ticket. And didn't she end up turning into a blueberry, anyway?!?!?!?!?
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Hi Incog,
I think that the work of figuring our kids out, and the work of making actual changes to help met their special needs is big strong work. I've never faced a challenge of this magnitude in my life, so even though I've overcome my "smart=easy" confusion to a great degree, there are still a few lingering cobwebs that keep me from seeing exactly how big a job this is, at the present time.
So I get impatient with the wheel-spinning, and 'trial and error' approach, and worn out by my OverExcitable reactions to each of the above. But I suspect that if any of us had been raised with big-enough challenges on a regular basis, and the scaffolded support to overcome them, then we would feel exhilarated by the challenge, instead of exhausted. Aren't we always wringing our hands that our kids don't know how to bear down and keep plugging when things get the hardest? Is it just me, or isn't this what we mean when we say we want them to learn how to learn?
Example: I sat in meetings about "what to do with poor DS" for 3 years at school 1, and was denied even subject acceleration. At school 2 the full grade skip went through in 10 days. I feel that every failed attempt at school 1, helped build the conditions for the success at school 2. Plus, Luck and Prayer, and many many things outside of my control.
So my guess is that things are going just as they should be, and that the feelings are lagging a bit behind the actual progress being made. The feeling, and the complaining, are part of the process. Have you noticed all the "Yippee!" Responses I've been posting lately? As a group at least, there is quite an amazing forward movement going on, right now. So complain away, be dissapointed and angry. Because you are so right that in the big picture, this isn't the way things should be! For the Grandchildren!
((Hee Hee - Dottie, is there anyway we can challenge the YSP email list to a friendly competition over %advocacy success? I think we'd hold our own pretty well, don't you? I'd let you be the number cruncher and judge.))
As an aside, you have us, digging through the millions of possible ideas and suggestions to find the bar with the Golden Ticket. And you don't have to pay us minimum wage like that factory did.
We do it for the amazing pay off of actually being of use to each other. What a thrill to be able to use our gifts for good! Every child deserves to be 'thought about well.' And we here know things that make that possible for this little segment of children. Being able to use what we have learned is so gratifing and such a relief to me.
Smiles,
Grinity
