Last Day of School

The kid's last day of school was today. Yeah, I know it's late. And we didn't have any snow days, either. I really don't know why school starts late and runs late in Washington state, but it does. For Annie, the end of school also marked the end of her time in Miss Amanda's class, the primary Life Skills classroom, which includes severely mentally or physically disabled children from kindergarten through about 2nd grade. I guess I should know the details about the specific grades in her class...but I store the things I need to know in my brain, and delete the things I don't. And, of course, that's subjective, because I'm sure that some people think I delete things I should store. My brain has only about 3 gig, though, so I need to purge questionable stuff often so I can make room for important things like what is Annie's sodium level today, and, did Stanley McChrystal ever read Proverbs 17:28?*

So--about school. I have learned over the last three years that it's a good discipline for me to remain flexible about all things pertaining to Annie-and-school. She belongs to an educational demographic that is by nature often in a state of flux, i.e., kids often are moving in and out based on health needs--or their physical progression (or regression) precipitates adjustments in the child's education plan. The bottom line--things change. Kids change, teachers change. So next year, Miss Amanda is moving to a new school to teach a new class, and Annie is going to another elementary school within the district, and she'll have a new teacher. We will miss Miss Amanda very much. She is a particularly gifted special ed teacher, and not only helps the kids in her classes work hard to attain their goals, but she has been a great mentor to me in learning to navigate the special ed program in our district.

But that's not all. Miss Moira, Annie's nurse, is also moving far away to another state in the midwest or in the next galaxy, whichever comes first. I've known about the impending move for a long time, and you'd think I would have come to grips with it, or somehow accepted the inevitable. But Moira was Annie's one-on-one nurse for two and a half years, and has been her other mother-para-educator-nurse-therapist-teacher all rolled up into one. The. Best.

The last day of school. Sniffle.

Jean

*Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;

when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. Proverbs 17:28