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Students Dare to be Different on Differences Day
Can I try that? … Oops! … What do you want me to do? … I can't do that! … CRASH!
Though these sounds may often be heard in Haldane's small gym, they were being made for very different reasons on April 12. Haldane and Garrison third graders participated in Differences Day, a disability awareness program sponsored by the Haldane and Garrison PTAs. Students were trying to do everyday tasks - with a twist. They tried to negotiate a hallway in a wheelchair and to carry a lunch tray while using a walker. They tried to read when the words appeared to be backwards and to hear when speech was inaudible. They tried to see without sight and to communicate without speech. All in all, it was a very challenging morning for local 8-year-old students.
Sixth grade students also experienced something new last week - an eerie silence in the classroom. Silence prevailed while Bob Smith, The Right Thumb Poet and a man with severe cerebral palsy, shared his personal story with students. Mr. Smith visited Haldane to share his tragedies and triumphs. Mostly, he shared his desire to be simply seen as a man - not as someone with a disability. Students listened thoughtfully and asked many questions. Perhaps some even came away with a willingness to see beyond a person's physical abilities and to recognize the humanness in everyone.
Differences Day, in its eighth year in the Haldane and Garrison schools, helps develop empathy in students for those who are differently-abled. Offered to the local schools through the effort and support of school parents and community volunteers, Differences Day is a Common Threads project. It receives support from both the Garrison and Haldane PTAs, along with the Haldane School Foundation and the Garrison Children's Education Fund. Common Threads is a multi-cultural and tolerance initiative in both local schools.
For more information about Differences Day or Common Threads, email
CommonThreadsPTA@aol.com.
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