Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Article in The Province, Sunday, 10 August

John Fuller from The Province was so kind as to publish my letter to him and send out a photographer to Purpose. I was hoping you'd see photos of Kurtis & Lori-ann, Isabel & Deb, and Elizabeth & Darcy; but there's only so much room in the papers I guess.

Here is the link to the article.
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/unwind/story.html?id=70853862-6f70-4bb3-a6d7-631b4b90a279&p=1,

Thanks to Andrew Sutton for reminding me how easy and effective it is to use the internet to help people connect.

Great job these past six months, Zsuzsanna Balogh. BEST CONDUCTOR EVER, we are going to miss her immensely.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Summer School? Yuck! Or not . . .

As a kid, the concept of "summer school" made me feel waves of nausea. Who in the world would want to be inside 5 days a week doing summer school? Especially with their kid? Essentially, a conductive summer "camp" is summer school. I was at the summer session today, sharing some time with the parents and kids there. It struck me as I was driving home that these parents don't have the haggard, "when is this over?" look on their faces. They looked like people who were content; people who were in the right place. I know the feeling, because the world doesn't go at our pace when there is a disabled child in the family. Nothing, nobody, and nowhere seems to have a clue what is required to build an environment for these kids; but a conductor can and she is doing a fine job of it.

Just watching their faces, I can see that these six trying weeks of conductive education have been worth it. They know the room, the pace, the activities are all custom built for their kids and that is a rare feeling for these parents. I can see it in their faces. I wouldn't say the price was worth it; even though we probably have the lowest cost for summer CE in Canada. No parent should have to pay this much for their kid to be in a productive, effective school setting.