A good defense is the best offense...especially for ignorant onlookers

Today, I allowed myself to get angry! Most parents of special needs child try to calm their children down in a polite and quiet way without causing extra eyes to gaze upon them and make them feel more uncomfortable. Today, was not one of those days. As I scrolled through my facebook feed, I paused to see this pictured posted by one of my so called "friends" (I use this term loosely since I will be deleting them shortly.) I was almost shocked to see that someone who knew me and my son's situation would even have the audacity to A. post this nonsense and B. proudly agree and say that they "have been saying this for years." As a parent of a child that is both Autistic and ADHD I took offense and proceeded to tell this person off, but thought better about it knowing that I not only represent myself, but my son, my family, and my special needs community. If this is the message that other people have, what do you say to those that stare at you when you are dealing with a public meltdown, or those that have these types of things to say regarding children with special needs. I'd like to think that people are open minded to learning instead of spouting ignorance and foretelling their stupidity to the rest of the world, but I know in my mind that that is not the case. I almost feel sorry for the people that say that this is a "made up" diagnosis or (my favorite) "why are they just now diagnosis this, back in the day you never heard of this. those kids were just labeled as bad". Well, all I can say is times change and things change. We don't talk about things like polio because we've all but wiped out that threat, but back in the day, that used to be common. Now there are other disabilities to discuss and people can't just roll with the times. They have to find some way to undercut medicine or the special needs community in order to feel better about themselves, and that my friend is the definition of SAD! Sorry Ass Deadbeats who walk around feeling better about themselves by putting others with disabilities down. Well I'm not hiding my family from the public. I'm also not apologizing for having to deal with a mini meltdown or two. As a parent, its my job to teach my children (special needs or not) how to conduct themselves in public and if a teachable moment happens to be in the middle of an eruption, then so BE IT! Society and idiots that choose to live in a time warp bubble will just have to roll with the punches, or grow to be old and HOPE that these children that they are putting down today grow up to be law abiding, wage earning, citizens taking care of the older generation that spit upon them when they were growing up.
I'm here to tell you that you have no excuse. Get the right message instead of purporting the wrong message. As a parent of a special needs child, I am not afraid to conduct teachable moments to random adults either!

Separate but Equal? Philadelphia Charter Schools vs. Philadelphia Public Schools

As I sit here on a Tuesday afternoon, I am compelled to write about the injustice facing Philadelphia parents today and I'm eerily reminded of Plessy vs. Ferguson, the separate but equal case that governed our educational system for almost 70 years. Looking back at this policy, it is strangely quite similar to the setup we have in Philadelphia regarding business or private run schools (charter) vs public Philadelphia schools. As a parent of a special needs child, I am almost shocked that no one has thought to put these two ideas together, but I'll take a stab at it!
Separate but equal was deemed unconstitutional through Brown vs The Board of Education, but it seems that there is a new separate but equal that seems to slowly but surely creep up in this modern age.

Charter schools are a separate form of education that is deemed for everyone, but they are all run differently based on the business or private entity that run them. They have flexibility regarding who they hire and how they deliver curriculum to their students. They seem to be run on a totally different plan than district run public schools. Public schools have a set standard in hiring and delivering of the education to students. Teachers hired have to be certified (not always so in charter schools) and they have to follow carefully constructed criteria (IEPs, etc.) in order to comply and be able to obtain funding. Why are we treating these two streams of education so differently? They are both publicly funded school options for all Philadelphia residents. One appears to be better than the other. In my opinion, it appears that charter schools weren't asking for extra money or extra personnel to keep their children safe, but the public schools were. Why are repeating the same mistakes over and over again with regard to education. I thought the entire message of having charter schools was better access to education and to see if we could model all public education to work for all students. Not to separate them, but for them to work together bettering the education for all students receiving a public education which includes charter school students.
I almost feel like there is a set plan to blatantly shift or pull the wool over our eyes so that we do not see the injustice that is going on her today. As it stands, there is separate but UNEQUAL treatment going on in public education of the Philadelphia School system and NOONE, not even our Mayor is doing anything about it! It is deemed unconstitutional for a reason, and as parents we need immediate help to solve this situation. The discrimination has taken a left and shot right to hell regarding the education of our children here and unless we go further than the state (Governor is not interested in helping us) we will get nowhere. What are your thoughts regarding this modern day injustice?