I really enjoyed reading your blog. Knowing both of you when you were at Norup Middle School, and working with your mother on advocacy issues, I have such a fond feeling for your entire family. Micah is so lucky to have such a wonderfully supportive sister!! Keep me posted on your future plans when your studies are finished!!

Having gone to college with Micah and helped him as much as I could in his struggle for inclusion on campus I agree with you on almost everything. I also have a cognitively impaired sister who is about to graduate high school and attend Macomb academy in the fall of 11. She hopes to continue on to the Options program at Oakland University one day so she may join me in the chorus at the university as well as have a real college experience. I was astounded that the university denied Micah his rights to live on campus. Because I feel that both he an my sister have the right to experience a real college atmosphere and it is good for them to live on their own. I feel with guidance that both of them will one day live on their own with proper assistance of course.

As an Elementary Education major, however, I am not sure if I agree with inclusion classrooms entirely. I guess it all depends on the person involved. I’m sure you understand that people with any disability require more attention then the rest of the students which takes away from the rest of the class. My sister is in a special ed. class and yet she is just as included as everyone else. She is friends with everyone and sings in the choirs at her high school. When she is in that room, she gets the attention she requires and has grown mentally leaps and bounds.

I am not trying to knock you in anyway. I admire both you, and Micah for your impeccable strength and devotion and I wish you both nothing but the best.

You have done a wonderful job of expressing your feelings as Micah’s sister. Hoping other siblings of children/adults with disabilities will share their stories as well. As a parent of an adult with developmental disabilities it means a lot to hear your perspectives including the mixed emotions of over-protectiveness and excitement, but that in the end you love Micah for being Micah!

I really appreciate your honesty! Siblings are neither saints nor sinners…they’re just kids who have some different circumstances than many of their peers. However, you also showed how very ordinary life is (or can be) when disability recedes into the background and a person’s essence is the focal point of a relationship.

Thanks for sharing your experience as Micah’s sister!

Susan

What a great description of the benefits of inclusion! I was just pondering a new way to describe some of the benefits of inclusion…and I think I will share your post instead of writing something myself. Thank you!

Susan

Thanks, Jan!