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A Global Village
Del Mar Heights School, located in north coastal San Diego County, is one of five elementary schools in the Del Mar Union School District. Our school educates 450 students in grades K-6 within 23 regular classes and two Special Day classes. Our teachers and parents have high, clearly articulated, academic expectations for each child and our API scores reflect the success of our students. We are especially proud of our 12 point increase in the 2005 API score that resulted in a score of 929. However, our focus reaches beyond the academic achievement of all students. We strive to educate and inspire children who are not only intelligent, but who will make wise choices throughout their lives.
At Del Mar Heights, we strive to create an inclusive environment in which our students are tolerant of and enriched by association with people who are different from them. These differences include not only those existing between people of different nationalities and cultures, but also differences resulting from presence of physical, cognitive, and/or emotional disabilities. As part of our efforts to teach tolerance in our global village and in the world, we will be instituting a program that will enable our children to learn about individuals who are affected by disabilities. This unit will be integrated into existing standards-based curriculum as well as incorporated into a service-learning project.
The goals of "Understanding Differences" are:
1. to offer an awareness program to our children about disabilities and the challenges faced by those individuals,
2. to help children understand, despite differences, underlying similarities exist in all of us, with and without disabilities,
3. to teach children appropriate responses to people with disabilities including helping, showing kindness and respect, and pursuing friendships,
4. to create a Global Village in which our students are tolerant, supportive, and enriched by association with anyone different from themselves and where every student feels accepted and valued as an integral part of the school community.During the month of January, students at all grade levels will be learning about disabilities. They will all have an overview to raise awareness of all types of disabilities. Then they will study a specific disability in depth. Students in kindergarten and fourth grade will learn about motor impairments. Students in first, fifth, and sixth grades will study vision impairments. Second and third grade students will explore hearing impairments.
To encourage children to become more comfortable when interacting with people who are different from themselves, they will have an opportunity to experience simulations, listen to guest speakers, and participate in activities in the Science Lab.
We encourage our parents to support teaching tolerance and understanding by talking with their child about disabilities. Some suggested discussion questions are:
• What are the challenges people with disabilities face?
• In what ways are you similar to those with disabilities?
• How can you stand up for disabled students?
Wendy Wardlow has been a teacher and administrator in schools throughout the United States. She notes, "I have realized my lifelong dream to be the principal of the best little school in the world, Del Mar Heights: a Global Village. Every morning when I arrive at our campus and gaze across the Torrey Pines Reserve and the sparkling Pacific Ocean I marvel at my good fortune to work with a "world class" staff who inspire children to explore, create, and ultimately understand the world around them and who help our children to make their own dreams come true."
Wendy Wardlow can be reached at wardlow@sdcoe.k12.ca.us
This article is in the public domain and can be freely copied and used in trainings as handouts at parent and community meetings, and in creating your school or district programs. (Please cite all sources of materials you use.)
This information is provided by:
Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Special Education
P O Box 47200
Olympia, WA 98504-7200
(360) 725-6088
Fax (360)586-1631
E-mail: dgill@ospi.wednet.edu
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