Remember when whole language activities were the thing in our public schools? This was during the time when I wasn't teaching and wanted to so very much. Well, yesterday, we had a staff development which emphasized "Say, Write, Do" and I thought to myself, isn't this what whole language did? The school systems have spent so much on phonics programs and scripted curriculums, they literally forget the most important: listen to the children. Give them the experiences they need so they will want to write, to read more, and they will learn to think.
In speaking with our one blind child yesterday, he taught me one thing in a brief two minute conversation: imagination is worth more than curriculum. Here is a child who truly believes he can ride a bike and see a blind person in a wheelchair......(he truly doesn't even understand the concept blindness since he has never seen what we see). He has many behavior problems but why........is it because we continue to send him down a traditional public school path? Are we refusing to listen to his true voice? He is a child who marches to a beat we can never follow......
My oldest student did something yesterday on the way out to his van he really had never done on his own. He waved and said, "Bye, Horsley". I was pleased.......for we have grown up together over the last 6 years.
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