Individual Stories - Cynthia

Our eldest child attended a special school for most of his primary school years.  As a member of STAR Victoria, information on a range of topics expanded our horizons and expectations.

We learnt that we had the right to send him to a regular school. Coupled with State Government recognition that integration was a social justice issue and with the encouragement of supportive individuals,  we began the process of finding a regular school that would permit his enrolment- initially part-time (all that I was game to request) and subsequently full-time for another three years.

 In the beginning I maintained that if integration didn’t work, that he could go back. The special school predicted that “he would be persecuted into the ground and be back in the next 6 months.” At his new school the teachers’ anxiety that ‘we’re not teaching him anything’ nearly brought about this prophecy. He was almost a failed integration statistic.

 Yet as his parents, we could see him experiencing a huge learning curve and argued for him to stay, drawing up a long list of skills he had achieved, just by being there, amongst which were that

• his language and the ability to make and maintain eye contact developed expeditiously.  His classmates all used more than a few word sentences and engaged in  the usual range of adolescent social interaction  and this had a  major impact on his development and emerging individuality and maturity
• being in a class on time and organising his belongings became important to him and he learned responsibility and the consequences  of not being prepared  or organised
•  the realisation that he had a memory and could demonstrate (verbally) that he retained factual information increased his confidence  and enlightened and encouraged him and us 
•  by purchasing items at the canteen, he learnt ‘money’ and maths concepts that previous specialist teachers  had struggled to teach him
• personal hygiene issues (such as marking his underwear) were resolved because his classmates disapproved, and his emerging sexuality ( at that time becoming a concern) was steered onto a path of normality, self awareness and respect for others