NJ elementary students learn about disabilities

From The Record in N.J. In the picture, Rebecca and Wendy trying to button shirts while wearing tube socks to simulate disabilities.

WAYNE, N.J. — Matthew Gould, 9 years old, sat facing an auditorium full of classmates, taking questions.

"When you look in the mirror," one girl piped up, "do you see the wheelchair or do you see a regular person?"

"I just see a regular person," Matthew responded. "The wheelchair is invisible."

And so it went for a few minutes more. Matthew, who has cerebral palsy, and his "regular" classmates, invited to be curious and thoughtful. It was a confident appearance — and exactly the perspective that disability program organizers at Randall Carter Elementary School want to spread. Matthew and others like him are just regular kids, who can play sports and be friends.

On Friday at the school, breaking down barriers and getting children to see past their differences were driving principles behind Disability Awareness Day. In a lesson in empathy, regular education students spent the day experiencing the lives of their disabled classmates. Students walked wearing vision-distorting goggles, tried to button shirts with tube socks on their hands, wove wheelchairs through an obstacle course, and tried to read from cards with the letters written backward.

The program is just one of many around the state shaping how children see their disabled classmates. Its ultimate goal isn't just tolerance. It's to help disabled students build friendships and have the same opportunities and experiences as their regular education peers. And that means acceptance.

About 1,000 of the 9,000 students are classified as having special needs in the 14-school district.

The special education budget for 2009-10 is more than $8.8 million.

Federal and state funding aid in 2009-10 for children with disabilities exceeds $6 million

"For special ed kids, it's more of an opportunity to make their peers aware of what it is like for them on a daily basis,'' said Beth Marmolejos, president of the Special Parents Association, which collaborated with teachers and administrators to organize Disability Awareness Day. "And for the children who are in general ed, it is training and awareness to open up a path for this generation to accept and support kids with different disabilities, say, 'I understand what is a disability now, let's be friends. … They are not different. They are kids.' ''

Marmolejos and other parents wanted Friday's event to be the start of a series of programs to help their children be accepted. Their association invited principals from the district's other elementary schools to Disability Awareness Day in hopes that the program would spread.

The parents also are working to start an after-school program that will pair special ed students with general education peers to play sports and games. And they're working with Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale to start a Junior Police Academy program for disabled students.

Statewide the number of programs that promote acceptance and awareness of children with disabilities have been growing. The Department of Education's Core Content Standards include these principles. And the state also is working with The Center for Applied Psychology at Rutgers University to introduce the national Community of Caring program in selected middle schools and test its success.

The families of disabled students and the children themselves "don't want to have separate lives,'' said Roberta Whole, director of the Office of Special Education Programs in the state Department of Education. "They know they should be full members of society and what does that mean? What does that mean for a typical child? Those same opportunities should be there for children with disabilities. Society has emerged to look at students in an inclusive way as full and contributing members in all aspects of society.''

Big education strategy aside, it's the kids themselves who can be the best teachers.

Along with talking to his classmates, Matthew also gave them a demonstration of his favorite method of painting: He ran his wheelchair through paint on a canvas on the floor.

Meanwhile, teacher Kim Gould, Matthew's mother, told a third- and fourth-grade art class to imagine they wanted to be artists, to paint, draw or color, but they couldn't use their hands. The students were then given paintbrushes that they put in their mouths to create works of art.

Besides Matthew, 11-year-old fifth-grader Gary Stack, who has Asperger's syndrome and some motor-skill difficulties, took the lead on Friday.

While students tried to button shirts wearing tube socks on their hands, a teacher tried to explain to students what it's like to have motor-skill problems. "Like me!" Gary interjected.

"I wasn't afraid to say that, and I want people to know,'' he said later. "Now they understand why I don't do some of the things they do. They understand more now, so I feel a little less different.''