Bathing Babies…A Seagull That Prepared Me For Mainstreaming Into Public High School…Where I Was Taught By A Falcon
Do you remember your preschool or kindergarten years as a child? Would you be able to recall specific days, moments with you and your friends playing on the playground, or specific interactions with teachers? Or, do those memories seem like fragments or snippets of a video? When you attempt to play the video (like a VHS tape 📼 😉), static or white lines appear for a few minutes, then a snippet of the video is clear. Then that static, and more white lines continue.
The latter option is how I remember my early childhood, as a child in special education. At the time, my family and I were living in Long island, New York. New York was my place of birth.. The school’s name and exact location escape my memory. However, I can recall specific moments where I would ride the school bus. I had to be around 4 or 5 years old at the time. I can recall snippets of when the bus would pick me up. I remember on several occasions how I would start to cry as soon as I was rolled on to the bus. As my mother would watch from the outside, and try to tell me that it would be okay. (I would cry often when I realized that I was going to be separated from my mother. Even for a quick run inside the store, and I was in the car. If she was the one going inside the store. As soon as she opened up the passenger door, I would come to the realization that she was leaving the inside of the car, I would end up crying! Yes, I was a mommy’s girl! 🥲)
When I was at school, I can still recall snippets of certain activities. Like when we carved out pumpkins, one of the teachers helped me dig out all of the seeds and the inside of the pumpkin. (Halloween must have been near. 🎃) Another memory I can recall is when we were learning how to “take care of a baby.” I remember each of the students had a bucket of water, and each child also had a baby doll that did not have any clothing on. 😳😉 We put our baby dolls in the warm bucket of bath water, and gently washed, dried, and then I remember we learned to put lotion on the baby. I specifically remember putting lotion on the baby because I was looking forward to that part, for some reason. Don’t ask me why we were learning how to take care of a baby, as we were still babies ourselves! 😅
Another activity I remember participating in at my school in New York; we each had a different shape / color of construction paper that we had to match it with on the wall. For some reason, I don’t know why this stuck in my head over the years, but I specifically remember this little girl, in her manual wheelchair. She had a green square and was holding it with her mouth, while she was pushing her manual chair. Don’t even try to ask me if I remember what shape/color I was holding! 😅🤦♀️
One final memory I will share from my previous School in New York, which I think is the most important for special needs children with physical disabilities, and their parents. I remember that I used to have Physical Therapy at my previous School in New York. I don’t remember anything too specific. However I do remember going to a different room, which I assume was the Physical Therapy room. My memory of physical therapy at this school is only a snippet. I remember lying down on one of those blue physical therapy or gym mats. I specifically remember this, and the fact that the physical therapist was stretching my leg, and my leg was raised against her shoulder while I was laying down. I also remember how she was chewing bubble gum. I remember on one occasion I was trying to pop her bubbles every time she attempted to make a bubble with her gum! (I guess whatever worked to keep me distracted while she was stretching my legs!) 😅🤦♀️
I was about 7 years old when we moved from New York to Florida. And I do not know why, but it took my mother a few years before she finally enrolled me into a school that fit my needs. I was about 10 years old when I was finally enrolled in the Broward County Public School System. The school that I was enrolled in was specifically designed for children with disabilities, all types of special needs and different challenges. The name of that school was called Seagull School. I did not know it at the time, but I would soon call this school my second home. Soon after my mother received assistance from the department of social services, and they were able to help my mother enroll me into that school, I was sadly separated from my mother, and was placed into the foster care system.
Being a child in the foster care system, especially one with disabilities and special needs, I did not know what would happen from one day to the next. But each day that I attended Seagull School, was a day that I did not have to worry, or remember that I was no longer living with my birth mother, nor did I have to remember that I was missing my mother, even if it was just for a few hours during the day. I am not aware of the approximate timeline of my education at Seagull School. However, my classmates, teachers, teacher’s aids, as well as the occupational, physical, and speech therapists felt like family after about a year of attending.
I especially felt a close bond with the teachers’ aides at Seagull School. They were the staff that helped us (the special needs students) during our lunch, helping us with our classroom education, as well as assisting many of the special needs children with using the restroom during the school day. The teacher’s aides at Seagull School took care of us as if we were their own children. I am sure when they went home each evening, they had sore backs, and aching feet. But you would never know it, as each day they would make me laugh and help me during some difficult times in my life. They each deserved a gold medal.
Looking back on it now, I am so grateful that I was able to attend Seagull School. Each special needs student at the school was at their own pace in regards to learning . Each period throughout the day was broken down into subjects such as math, science, spelling, language arts, social studies, history, etc. However, not every child was learning at the same pace as another child. For instance, when it was time for the subject of “math”, each student had their own materials that were picked out by the teacher in regards to what was discussed in their IEP plan for that particular student. So, one student might be learning to count pennies and put them in a jar, while another student might be working in a math workbook, learning Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. This made me feel very comfortable, as I knew that I was learning on a lower level than most kids my age range. And Seagull School made me feel comfortable and accepted at the pace I was going in regards to my reading, writing, math, and vocabulary skills. I particularly remember math being one of my main challenges while attending Seagull School. But my teachers made me feel like I was learning at a regular pace, even though I should have been learning at a much higher level for a regular child, at my age.
Seagull School is part of the reason I am the person I am today. I am so grateful that God placed me there. Seagull School is where I learned to read, write, and string a sentence together like this one! 😉 Seagull School was there for me, even when I was going through some pretty rough stuff that was not related to my education. They helped me learn how to read, spell, add, subtract, and no how to count money. These were all things that a typical preteen should already know. But seagull School helped me do it comfortably, and at my own pace. They got me through the door to what would come next. I did not know it, but Seagull School would be my educational gateway into my journey with CP and mainstreaming into a regular Public high School.
Stay tuned for more! 🙂
