Teachers of New Jersey: Patricia Golden-Gartner, Abilities Awareness Teacher at LADACIN Network School
I volunteer at Shoreline Dance Academy. They brought their students to my school to do presentations. I call it ‘Dancing with the Stars’ because they are stars. Some kids are nonverbal, and they’ll speak with their devices, but I bring them to schools, like to Manasquan High School in September. I also worked with a little girl and helped her write a book. It’s called, Everything Except Brussel Sprouts and Lima Beans. She’s in a wheelchair, and she loves everything about her life except brussels sprouts and lima beans. It’s a celebration of differences and inclusion. Monday night’s Dancing with the Stars is a weekly occurrence at Shoreline Dance Academy in Neptune Township.
I bring my special students to different high schools. They do speeches and these high school kids sit there and take it all in, and it’s great for them to learn. You know, we all complain about forgetting our phones and these kids need help with everything. So, it’s great to bring them to a mainstream school so that mainstream students can interact with the more special needs population. It teaches them about inclusion. It teaches them about kindness. I call my special kids ‘The Champions of Kindness’. In high schools, we hear about all of this bullying, and it’s our way of making a difference.
Some of the high school students are a little bit uncomfortable at first, but we break through with them, and the more we interact with them, the more comfortable they are. But I just believe in getting them out into the public as much as possible because they have so much to share, and they have learned so much. I tell the students, you might just get one of these children in your classroom, but you need to communicate, you need to know how to communicate with them. The high school students will later send us emails, and they will say, ‘Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us.’ And that just means the world to my students. They really are making a difference, and I can’t say enough about them.
Interview by Gregory Andrus
Portraits of the Jersey Shore
