Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Collective Bargaining

C has been branching out in his efforts to embrace self-advocacy. As a follow up to his recent plea which he felt was not heard since he has yet to be out for recess, he wrote the following today:

Dear Mrs. Teacher,

I am on strike for non fair recess practices and the only way to get me off strike is to let me go outside for recess.

The morning is the worst because I have to go to the games room and I hate the games room. I hate it because it is boring

I know everyone says the field is muddy and I have to wait but I don’t want to wait. Other kids don’t have to wait.

Please let me go outside

Sincerely,

C.

Now THAT is a letter! I helped him type it but the words are all his own. I am so proud.

As a backstory, there is a lot of talk of unions and strike in our house and community lately so where he got this terminology is pretty clear but I love how he figured out how to apply it to his situation.

3 comments:

  1. allie8:55 PM

    Curious, why doesn't he get to go out at recess if others do? Are they punishing him for behaviours that aren't fully under his control, or for legitimate reasons? And how is keeping someone contained and not letting them burn off energy...helping them cope with school life and its stresses?

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  2. Allie - it's a long story but basically it was partially because YEARS ago he could get aggressive when not accommodated properly and the principal at that time was very punitive. Then the next Principal came along and became a champion but seemed stuck in her ways as far as how to "manage" kids with special needs and recess and lack of supervisors during that time. We tried to "fight" it several times but there were always so many issues to tackle it kept getting pushed back. Add to that C didn't outwardly seem to mind and that compounded how hard it was to fight. Now he's embraced it as his fight and we will support him. Stay tuned - there are some good updates coming.

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  3. allie6:12 PM

    I look forward to the updates. I expect with him on the case now, things will start to progress. I can't see a letter like that being possible to ignore!

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