84 days before - End of the Year

You may think, given that I am counting down the days until I begin graduate school next year, that the current school year is over. It is not, at least not for me. My brother, Jeffrey, is done with classes and graduates from high school this coming Saturday. As such, we attended the Senior Breakfast/Award Ceremony (very) early this morning. It's exactly the sort of thing you want to attend at seven in the morning, because it's basically the presentation of about forty or fifty scholarships presented by people with speaking abilities ranging anywhere from fair to abominable. And because I live in rural Ohio, about half the scholarships are agricultural. We even have a Coon Hunter's Club Scholarship. I love my area . . .

I have two IEP (Individualized Education Program - basically students with special needs who require outside tutoring) students, one of whom I finished with this past week, and the other I will be finishing with this week. So I've been working now to make sure things will be ready for them next year when I'm gone. I attended a meeting this afternoon to start to plan things for the student who is beginning fifth grade next year, and I'm hoping to get the other student set up for high school.

Unfortunately, while I have support from the parents of the students and the school, the members of this community seem to care very little for these students. If you follow my vlogs, you know this already, but the school system that these two students attend is horrible for students with any kind of physical disability. The elementary and middle school are both three story buildings built in the twenties with absolutely no handicap accessibility. The middle school is especially bad. We've been trying to get a bond issue passed to get new buildings, but it has received little support from the community, most of whom clearly did not benefit from any kind of education. They figure that since the schools were good enough for them, they should be good enough for these kids.

Grrr. So, how are you wrapping up the year?

-Matt