Children of God

Today I was able to witness something beautiful, and what made it beautiful was not just the act, but the unaware simplicity of it. 

New to ICS this year is a middle school LifeSkills program for students who have special needs and are not able to learn in the regular classroom.  The class has two 6th grade girls and I am privileged that they are part of my homeroom.  God has been preparing ICS for this for many years, and my own heart as well, as I've had the opportunity to work with students with special needs in different settings and contexts in the last 9 years.  From inclusion classrooms to rooms for students who are cognitively impaired (the new term for mentally impaired, wait 5 sec and they'll change the lingo again) from preschool all the way up through post-high school to a middle and high school magnet program for autistic students to working with a very special student in Argentina when no program existed for him I have been blessed to see many things that are possible when we open our hearts and our school to all kids. 

The truth is, we all have our limitations, but most of us are better at hiding them.  Even as I write this, I am preparing another post about my limitations- my physical and emotional and spiritual limitations and how God is using them to stretch and pull me into deeper knowledge of him.  People with special needs don't usually have a choice about revealing their limitations, while we can often skirt around ours.  But it doesn't mean they aren't there.

But for ICS, this was all new. I wasn't really worried or concerned about it, mostly because I have seen it work, but many people worried about how this would affect our school, our current students, and our academic standards.  There were concerns about how the students would respond to their new classmates.  But I know ICS kids, and I knew they would rise to the challenge.  Over the past four months I have seen my homeroom (and many other students) reach out and include those who are different in many kind and gentle ways.

Today, one of them blew me away.  A potential new student to the LifeSkills program was visiting, trying things out for the day.  So while I was teaching math first period, their class walked past in the hall and I could see my kids noticing someone new (and different) out there.  I took a minute to explain who she was and encouraged the kids to say hi when they saw her.  As the bell rang and everyone packed up, one girl stayed behind to talk to me. 

"Are they (the LifeSkills girls) allowed to eat lunch at the tables outside?"

When I said yes, that they were welcome to eat anywhere the other middle schoolers could eat, her face lit up and she pulled both her fists back into a triumphant "YES!". 

Little did I know, when she left my room she immediately walked next door and invited all three girls to eat lunch with her and her friends at their table outside.  A few hours later, as I walked into the cafeteria they were all walking out to the table- smiles a mile wide.  And once they were done eating, I saw the whole group running and playing together- taking the hand of the new visiting student to make sure she stayed with them (she can be 'a runner' a times)- a group of girls from four countries with a wide range of weaknesses, some hidden and others not, just being children of God together.