Accommodating and modifying important as we raise the next generation
By Shelly Christensen
Friends of our family invited us to their large and unique family Passover Seder. We asked if we could bring Haggadot, along with the folding chairs. “No, thanks,” they said. “Our Seder will be different this year.”
We arrived, armed not with folding chairs but with desserts. We all congregated in the family room while the children, ages 5-18, performed the Haggadah.
As I looked at all the people joyously participating in the Seder, I remembered the Seders of my grandparents. We used Maxwell House Haggadot. My zadie breezed through in rapid-fire Hebrew, while we tried our best to follow along. The youngest asked the four questions, and heard the story of the four sons. I was pulled back to the moment when one of the teenagers started playing his guitar and singing a song about the four sons while the younger children acted it out.
Our friends modified their Seder to create a participatory and engaging service, one that invited all to participate. Accommodating the range of ages and attention spans meant replacing the actual reading of the Haggadah in order to tell the story in a way that everyone could understand.
Accommodating and modifying are two important concepts as we raise our next generation of Jews.
The North American Consortium for Special Education in Central Agencies for Jewish Education was founded 22 years ago to give communities the support needed to teach children with special needs.
The Minneapolis Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities, a program of Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis (JFCS), is our community representative to the Consortium.
JFCS is pleased to host the 2008 Sky Blue Waters Colloquium, May 19-21 at JFCS. It is open to Corsortium members.
Twenty colleagues from communities such as Washington D.C., New York, Chicago and Atlanta will meet to share the best practices in special education and inclusion.
The benefits of membership in the Consortium are many, and directly impact the way this community responds to the needs of people with disabilities. Besides the annual Colloquium, the Consortium has a listserv, an online resource tool, that gives us a place to ask each other questions and share resources.
The Inclusion Program has shared research, programs and curriculum. When approached to present on parenting young children with special needs, I developed a workshop that was piloted locally. Consortium members used this information to support preschool staff in working with parents of newly diagnosed young children.
The Colloquium will be an opportunity to showcase national Jewish leaders programs in our community.
Sha’arima, a Jewish educational program for children with special needs and different learning styles, will give a presentation about special education services available to day and religious schools here.
PACER Center, a Minnesota leader in advocacy for people with disabilities and their families, will share the latest in adaptive technology. A discussion and training on social skills support for people on the autism spectrum will be held.
People have their unique ways of learning. Mishlei 22:6 tells us: “Teach a child according to his way.” We are obligated to provide the necessary means to support people with disabilities in Jewish living and learning by reaching them in a variety of ways. Our membership in the Consortium gives us the opportunity to reach outside of our community to share resources and ideas that provide those meaningful opportunities for engagement.
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Shelly Christensen is the Program Manager of the award-winning Minneapolis Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities and author of “Jewish Community Guide to Inclusion of People with Disabilities.”
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