Heartwarming...

A few weeks ago we went to a variety show at Hayden's school. His school is an alternative school that is standards based- meaning that there are no letter grades- you must be proficient in something like 800 standards in order to graduate. This means that no child leaves the school with anything less than a B in any standard because you cannot move on to the next standard until you are proficient in the one that comes before. I LOVE IT!!!

Hayden played guitar and read a poem- slam poetry style and he was awesome!! I spent the whole 2 hours marveling at how lucky these kids are to have a place to be themselves without judgement. You see, most of these kids would be considered nerds or geeks at any other school. I am sure most of them would not have the courage to be themsevles for fear of being mocked.

Every single one of those kids touched my heart but most of all were two girls. One who has cerebral palsy- she did a comedy routine and was really funny. Most touching were the boys who quickly and with skill helped her on and off stage. She walks with one of those walkers with wheels and a little basket and you could tell that the kids were used to helping her- it was amazing. The other girl had autism. She sang beautifully and was cheered on by all the kids. My heart felt as if it would burst watching the loving kindness of all these teen-agers.

Ken and I are major homebodies both with some social anxiety issues- it takes a small miracle to get us to social events and Ken was not really looking forward to going to this. He ended up being so touched that it was brought up in conversation for days afterward. I am so thankful that Hayden has had such a positive experience with high school and cannot believe he will be graduating and heading off to college!!