Hey Dad

We spoke with Daniel the other day about what subjects he would like to elect for next year at school.  Daniel is in High School now and is in the process of selecting what subjects he would like to study for next year (Year 9).

The school has been amazingly supportive of everything that Daniel has tried his hands at, and although Daniel throws himself at everything with reckless abandon, there is always varying degrees of success.

On a physical level, the school has  always left it up to Daniel to choose which sports he would like to play – you can imagine our surprise when Daniel came home one day to announced he had enrolled himself in European Handball!!!

Don’t forget that he has moderate CP, makes use of a wheelchair and can’t hold himself still most of the time, so Penny and my reaction was, of course, somewhere between disappointment and disillusionment!  As a reminder,  however, I have also mentioned in several of my previous blogs how Daniel constantly surprises us with his ability to achieve in areas we thought impossible.  Sure enough, he surprised us again.  He rose to the challenge and spent the entire term playing European Handball with his peers – even his therapists could not believe it (see the blog posts, Never Say Never Part 1 and Part 2).

The school has always worked with us to develop ways for Daniel to participate at a physical and logical level  along with his peers. This allows him to be evaluated against the standard curriculum and achieves the fairest outcome for his educational measurement.

Just recently, we faced another one of those hurdles where we debated over whether or not we should intervene – choosing his electives for year 9.
Daniel loves art. Strangely enough, the topic that requires the most hands on work, and arguably the greatest level of precision, is the one for which he has a flair and the strongest desire.  In his last year at Primary School, with the assistance of a teacher’s aide, Daniel produced an astonishing piece of art which earned him high praise throughout his year.  The teacher’s aide on the other hand, who had to hold the pencil, pen and brushes, almost went berserk due to the constant instructions, corrections and directions which Daniel outlined in intense detail.

Although Penny and I were immensely proud of his achievement, every attempt to congratulate the teacher’s aid for assisting him throughout this four week long ordeal resulted in a glazed expression, a persistent eye twitch and an immediate loss of bodily fluids.

Needless to say, his painting hangs proudly at the Clarke Family home!

As he is in Year 8 and we are at the stage where kids need to choose their electives for Year 9. Daniel has chosen visual arts as one of his electives (and for those of us fairly removed from educational classifications present in modern day schooling, this is art).

What do we do?

Visual arts encompass working with tools and materials that are sharp, or hot, or pointy enough to take an eye out. At Primary School this was a new experience for everyone, however, in High School it really steps up a grade as the demands on applying a greater level of effort to achieve a higher quality result means the teacher’s aide will end up doing 98% of the project.  It also means there are occupational health and safety (OH&S) considerations for the teacher’s aides as they are not necessarily skilled in working with these materials.

So again, what do we do?

We decided that ultimately, we have to let Daniel make the final decision – he has to learn that he needs to take responsibility for the outcome of his decisions. We have, however, agreed with him that he must listen to Penny and I first so he understands our position on this topic.

As for the teacher’s aide predicament, this is not for us to decide.  If Daniel makes the decision to do this topic, then it is up to the school to decide as to whether they are able to resource it.  Of course, if they cannot resource the aide in supporting Daniel in this topic, then we need look for either alternate ways to resource this requirement or work with Daniel and the school to choose another topic.

This whole process leaves Penny and I a little ‘flat’.

As parents we watch the struggle Daniel has between his mind acting upon what his heart desires, and yet his body cannot achieve.

I will let you know how this goes!