Guest Post: One Youth’s Thoughts on Acceptance and Inclusion

Great post!

I am proud to share this post, which has been written my daughter. It is comprised of a series of paragraphs she wrote for her English class. She is a teenager and presents her perspectives on how we sometimes view kids who behave unexpectedly, as well as how we “do” inclusion. I believe her voice is important, and I wonder, when we are asking our youth their thoughts on education, are we remembering to ask their thoughts on inclusion? Because their answers just might surprise us. 

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Author: Courtney Copeland

Fictional scenario

The room full of children screeching and yelling was deathly loud. Sadie sat still and emotionless. She could not focus. Her tiny legs started to bounce up and down as her eyes trailed around the black and white room. A room that was once full of colour. While her thoughts wandered from topic to topic, the prickling sensation in the…

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A Letter My Fiancee’s Daughter Wrote To Me Tonight Before She Ran to Bed

This is so touching!

Kindness Blog

Reddit User, ‘poolesso’, shared this lovely photo of a letter he received.

For context he added…

“My fiancee has 2 girls, one 10, one 3. I have a 4 year old son. Her ex was abusive and they broke up almost 2 years ago. I met her after and we clicked and got together, and after a while got engaged. At first I wasn’t sure I was cut out to take on two girls, especially when one was already 10 and I’m barely 22 myself. Turned out her Dad pretty much stopped acknowledging that they exist and I tried my best to pick up the slack, she told me that she watched her Dad hit her Mom, etc.

I paid for her to enroll in soccer and played with her every now and then. Watching her at her games, I noticed she was really good at running so I asked…

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New Sesame Street Character with Autism

Wow! This article and the fact that Sesame Street is making a character who has autism. Way to show that this is a normal part of life for many people and part of our society.

Here is more information on that change: Time article. Enjoy!

Laughing at Failure

Honey Lemon and Captain Jack both seem like they would laugh at their failures.

How do you laugh at failure? How do you keep going after your plans are ruined? How can you pick yourself back up and keep fighting for your dreams?

I have often wondered these questions. As a perfectionist, I fear failure immensely. The idea of doing anything wrong horrifies me. After all, why do something if you cannot do it right?

10 Character Traits I Want to Teach My Children

I love this list! If I ever have children, these are items that I want to teach them. Reading, independence, working hard – what a wonderful list.

TIME

To be independent. I want each of my children to have the ability and confidence to live an independent life, making their own choices based on their own values, and not feeling limited by their own fears or insecurities. I have to remind myself of this when it would be easier for me to “fix” one of their problems, than to let them figure it out themselves.

Nobody with kids has time to read the whole Internet. Sign up here forTime for Parents, a weekly newsletter with only the worthwhile stuff.

To reasonably assess risk. Risk management is a huge part of everyday adult life. So whether it be climbing trees or jumping off of the playground, I fight my helicopter-parent instincts every day in the hopes that by allowing my children to self-monitor their own risk-taking (age appropriately, of course) I’m teaching them skills that will last…

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Growing Up to Be Your Parents

Many people claim that you grow up to be like your parents. This might excite or terrify you. However you feel, just observing other families can show that genes are passed down and shown in different parts of a child’s personality.

If you had parents that you admired, perhaps you always wanted to be like them and looked forward to being in a similar place of life. That can bring great joy for the future.

Listaliciousness: Captain Jack Kindness, Dog Bucket List, and Prank Apology

My friend and I ate this at Blizzard Beach. It was a great sundae!

I am trying not to freak out right now. For the most part, my two days off – today and yesterday – were lovely. Having my hand kissed by Goofy, relaxing in the sun with my friend Daniela on Blizzard Beach, eating a pail of ice cream, faking my way through Star Wars weekend despite not seeing any of the films, meeting new friends from around the world in Epcot…it was all great.

However, I just had a mix-up in my scheduling, my computer mouse is still not working, and my phone has just stopped working too. All of this makes life so much more stressful. I do not know how to fix this all on my own.

Anyway, here is a brighter note: my top ten links! Let me know something that interested you.

Listaliciousness: Weird Al with “Yoda,” Amateurs, and Jealous Batman

Break is officially over for me. Tomorrow, classes begin. I feel mixed about starting on this last part of my journey at this university. Leaving will be bitter sweet although the bitterness has brown lately.

Anyway, here are the links like every Sunday. Enjoy!

What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self?

How often do you look at a little girl and tell her that she is ugly? Do you regularly tell a toddler that he is useless? Normally, we do not tell children these types of hurtful statements that we tell ourselves.

Yet, all of us were children at some point. One of the coping skills that I learned in treatment was to hang a picture of myself as a baby or toddler near the mirror. Whenever I wanted to degrade myself, I was supposed to look at the child that I was, the child that I remained to a certain extent.

Looking back, there are many messages that I wish I could tell myself. With this knowledge, I would have escaped heartbreak, rejection, and physical pain. However, lessons that made me a stronger person might have been lost.

Recovery in the Media: #68. Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story

This story by father and son tells the truth about the struggles and recovery process of schizophrenia.

68. Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story by Patrick Cockburn and Henry Cockburn

Schizophrenia is a disorder that many people know about but few fully understand. People with it are characterized as crazy, murderous, vicious, impossible to interact with, etc. However, there is much more to these people than those negative conotations. Awhile ago, I wrote a review of A Beautiful Mind. For this Media Monday, I decided to focus on another recovery-focused work about suicide, this time a book titled Henry’s Demons: Living with Schizophrenia, A Father and Son’s Story.

Synopsis: What can be worse than receiving news that your 20-year-old son followed the voices instructions and tried to drown himself? Patrick Cockburn and his wife experienced this with their son Henry, who was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. This book, written by father and son, rides the ups and downs of this family’s life with this life-altering illness. Mother and father fight for their son to improve while he tries to convince the world that he is not ill. This and many other tensions fill this fascinating memoir.