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This end-of-year letter from Lakeview's principal is getting national attention....Andrea Wipperfurth just printed it in the Madison Area Down Syndrome Society e-newsletter..... 

 Dear Lake Bluff Community, 
>> 
>> We had a good year but I want to talk to you about something more 
>> important and then get back to that. Perhaps you are the parent of a 
>> special needs child? If you are not, for the sake of this exercise, 
>> please imagine that you are. 
>> 
>> Here goes: You want your child to have all the joy and personal 
>> development that a play date could bring, so you speak to the mother 
>> of a classmate whom your child talks about frequently. You ask if her 
>> child could come over to your house on Saturday morning. The parent 
>> you ask looks a bit surprised and tells you that her child is busy on 
>> Saturday but promises to call you to arrange a future date. Your child 
>> is disappointed about Saturday but is excited about a future play 
>> date. The trouble is, the mother never calls and even avoids eye 
>> contact when you see her later. Every time your child asks about the 
>> play date your heart breaks. 
>> 
>> Do you think the situation I just described is rare? I'm afraid that 
>> it is not nearly rare enough. We are fortunate to have our children 
>> attend a school where human diversity is in full flower. Our children 
>> are in classrooms where there is no commonality of race, gender, 
>> ethnicity, religion, income, and ability in its many forms. We have a 
>> perfect setting in which to help our children develop empathy, 
>> understanding, tolerance, and acceptance. But these essential 
>> qualities must be developed in the face of the natural human 
>> propensity to affiliate with people most like ourselves. If left 
>> unchallenged we tend to aggregate ourselves along economic, racial, 
>> ethnic, cognitive, and physical stratifications. Civil and 
>> compassionate people recoil from any official policy of segregation 
>> but consider all of the unofficial segregation we have in our lives. 
>> 
>> In our increasingly interconnected world the qualities of empathy, 
>> understanding, acceptance and tolerance are basic survival skills for 
>> the human race plus they make our lives richer and happier. I would 
>> urge you this summer to take opportunities to push your child out of 
>> her/his and perhaps your comfort zone. Sit down with the school 
>> directory and ask your child to invite someone for a play date that 
>> he/she normally wouldn't invite. Think especially about those children 
>> with challenges who tend to get passed over socially. Make the world 
>> of our children bigger this summer by making it more inclusive. Thank 
>> you for thinking about this. 
>> 
>> Kirk Juffer, PhD. Principal 
>