Because April is Autism Awareness month, I feel like I should contribute. But I'm not feeling horribly wordy about Autism at the moment. So I asked my friend, Ami Chopine, if I could repost something from her blog. She is one of my neighbors, and was Thomas' teacher at church last year. I really liked this post (especially the end!):
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At church today, I sat with my class of kids in sharing time, when lots of classes are together doing music and having a short lesson. These lessons are basic, but this doesn’t mean adults can’t get something out of them.
Today the teacher held up a poster board with several simple pictures on it. The room was supposed to look at them all and then remember them when the pictures were removed from view. I know I didn’t remember them all. But between all the kids having looked at them, every single picture was remembered.
It occurred to me at that point that this is how we work in real life. So much more gets done when we all support and value everyone. Of course that isn’t any big revelation but I love it when we get reminded in little ways like this.
There was one picture, the last one, that only one kid remembered: the one in our group with autism.
This isn’t just about team work, workplace productivity. I think it has a lot of implications to the great search for truth. We all find different parts of it and we all gain more when we come together and share what we’ve learned. Everyone’s voice is important.
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Guess whose kid that was at the end? Yup. That's my boy.
I really liked this post because (it's just so true and) because it's about more than awareness, even more than acceptance, but the fact that we need each other. Every one of us.
Thanks, Ami!
