Sitting in the common area of Portland's Breakwater Elementary School this Tuesday morning, I was impressed by reading the wall plaque dedicated to Eleanor “El” and Frank Costa, founders of the K-8 school on Brighton Avenue. The school was founded in 1955, to appreciate the potential of ever child. Moreover, the website says....". a school should provide...comfort and security for children while they are learning the skills, concepts, and knowledge that will optimize their ability to navigate the rest of their lives. "
The Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness was warmly welcomed by the grade 3-8 school administrator Cheryl Hart, who helped to organize the 3 and 4th grade programs presented today by two instructors in The Cromwell Method (R), Dede Bennell and Renee St. Laurent.
Lady Bird Johnson, former first lady and wife of President Lynden Johnson said, "Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them." This quote reminded me how The Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness and The Breakwater School are striving for some similar educational goals.
Cromwell Center educational programs teach children, with an interactive curricula, about the importance of being inclusive and accepting of one another. Instructors help children to recognize the particular gifts all of us bring along life's journey. When children are taught disabilities awareness with The Cromwell Method, the intention is to help them understand, accept and respond positively to the potential in every one.
When we raise children to be aware of how to respond with openeness and inclusion to people with visible or invisible disabilities, we are likely to see them live up to what we teach them.
Thanks to the Portland Breakwater School for your mission about children and their potential!
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