{"id":277,"date":"2010-06-24T08:50:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T08:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html"},"modified":"2010-06-24T08:50:34","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T08:50:34","slug":"new-school-new-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html","title":{"rendered":"New School! New Friends!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_5009.JPG\"<\/a><\/span>Penny’s last day of school was last Thursday. In typical over-the-top fashion, her teachers put together a family picnic complete with food and drink in a shady spot and a variety of games. Penny’s
\nfavorite event was the sack race (especially, per the photo, the part where her
\ndad picked her up and took her over the finish line). She loved chasing her
\nparents as we pretended to be bunnies. She was not that big a fan of the pi\u00f1ata.
\nAnd she didn’t understand why we–her parents, yes, both of us, and all her
\nteachers–were crying at the end of it all.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

She’s got a great attitude. “New school! New friends!”
\n(Note: she never says, “New teachers,” so perhaps she has decided that they are
\ncoming with her.) I am having a harder time with the transition. <\/p>\n

On one level, I know that I would be sad about leaving Penny’s
\nschool under any circumstances. But the fact that she has Down syndrome
\ncontributes to my sense of loss. I realized, as I thought about why I was so
\nupset, that I’m not just sad to leave the school. I’m also afraid of what’s
\nahead. <\/p>\n

Of course I hope that Penny’s new school–the teachers, the
\nadministrators, the therapists, the students, the other parents–will be just as
\ninclusive as those at her old school. But it isn’t a guarantee. No one at Penny’s old school ever talked about her
\nin general terms. No one ever said, “Well, kids with Downs…” They always
\nreferenced her as an individual. An individual with disabilities, yes, and they
\nreferenced their training with kids with disabilities. But they didn’t see her
\nas a part of a category first and as her own little person second. Rather, it
\nwas the other way around. And when people see Penny as Penny, and only then as
\na child with Down syndrome, it allows her to be who she is rather than fit into
\na set of expectations for kids “like her.” <\/p>\n

So I’m thankful for the team of people who believed in our
\ndaughter and who have allowed her to be who she is–a little girl who tells
\nknock knock jokes without a punchline, who couldn’t care less about winning a
\ncompetition, who loves to pretend to be the teacher during speech therapy. <\/p>\n

In the end, I trust that Penny will speak for herself, and
\nwill be known for who she is in this new school. I’m trying to follow her lead.
\n“New school! New friends!”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Penny’s last day of school was last Thursday. In typical over-the-top fashion, her teachers put together a family picnic complete with food and drink in a shady spot and a variety of games. Penny’s favorite event was the sack race (especially, per the photo, the part where her dad picked her up and took her over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\nNew School! New Friends! - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New School! New Friends! - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Penny’s last day of school was last Thursday. In typical over-the-top fashion, her teachers put together a family picnic complete with food and drink in a shady spot and a variety of games. Penny’s favorite event was the sack race (especially, per the photo, the part where her dad picked her up and took her over…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-24T08:50:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/IMG_5009-thumb-250x559-15568.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New School! New Friends! - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New School! New Friends! - Thin Places","og_description":"Penny’s last day of school was last Thursday. In typical over-the-top fashion, her teachers put together a family picnic complete with food and drink in a shady spot and a variety of games. Penny’s favorite event was the sack race (especially, per the photo, the part where her dad picked her up and took her over…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2010-06-24T08:50:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/IMG_5009-thumb-250x559-15568.jpg"}],"author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html","name":"New School! New Friends! - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/IMG_5009-thumb-250x559-15568.jpg","datePublished":"2010-06-24T08:50:34+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-24T08:50:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/IMG_5009-thumb-250x559-15568.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/IMG_5009-thumb-250x559-15568.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/new-school-new-friends.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New School! New Friends!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}