Comments on: This Is Not A Test

By: Marilyn Lenkowsky

Marilyn Lenkowsky — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 13:42:48 +0000

Love all your posts Amy and lovvvve above comments. My son with ds is 37 and I RELATE(wish I could put that in bold). Transitional years were tough for us (me) <3

By: Sandra J. Marinella

Sandra J. Marinella — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 16:46:01 +0000

The ongoing story you share is poignant and meaningful. The journey of being a parent is filled with both challenges and joys. Thank you for sharing your story. And Sophie’s story. Well done!

By: Tricia Parker

Tricia Parker — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 15:52:01 +0000

All the PSAT does is cherry pick National Merit scholars, a very small percentage of teenaged human beings who also happen to be test taking machines (and some of them, in my teaching experience, also very intelligent, intuitive, and kind humans, but not all, not even most).

I teach 100 percent marginalized kids, “disabled” in many other ways, if not genetically. None of them took the PSAT either, even the really bright ones who would have done well, because they had no idea what it was when it was announced and that it is something they could/should sign up for. And maybe because they didn’t have the $16.

The industrial education complex is rigged. We all know that.

I have often felt sorry for myself for missing out on a fancy liberal arts college experience. I’ve envied others. I went to community college — twice. I had a beautiful experience (twice) and some of the best teachers I ever met. I had a tribe there. Sophie will, too.

College Board be damned.

By: Morgan Medeiros

Morgan Medeiros — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:05:34 +0000

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how was that experience for you as Sophie’s mother? I often think of the stages of grief that come with having a loved one (in my case, a brother, 30- I am 28) with an intellectual disability.

I find that, for myself, I am by and large in complete and total acceptance. And yet there are still those natural moments of regression where it hurts- and I’m ok with that, because I’m able to recognize that much of it is my grief, and not his. AND that he has a very wonderful life, in many cases a better life than many neurotypical people I know.

In other instances (areas where he knows he’s not having a “typical” experience) this is much more difficult to accept. I have to continually remind myself that he’s allowed to have the normal human experience of sadness/anger/grief without my having to save him from it, but sheesh, it’s hard.

By: Cindy Anderson

Cindy Anderson — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 19:58:01 +0000

My daughter is 33 and this post brings back so many memories. Sophie is growing up, just like we all do, but on a different path. Not the wrong path, not even a bad path, just different. And I expect she’s going to have a wonderful life!