World Record

I think we just set the record for the world's shortest IPP meeting. Ever. Well, at least the shortest one I've ever attended in 15 years of being involved with special education.

The funny thing is how I walked out of the world's shortest IPP meeting feeling quite good about the whole thing. Better than I have in the past 3 years of IPP meetings, in fact. And that after half an hour as opposed to the usual 1.5 - 2 hour meetings.

The reason, you ask? Might shorter, in and of itself, actually be better?

No. No, not at all. In fact, we have another IPP meeting scheduled for next week (minus the subject teachers who were present today but with the addition of the autism specialist) that I am sure will run much closer to what I am use to.

No, here, my dear friends, is the difference. Today's meeting was (finally) chaired by a Resource teacher that gets it.

Previous Resource teachers, although extremely experienced, who should have (and, no doubt, did) know their stuff, were so stuck in their ways of doing things that there was absolutely no room for anything different.

Did I mention there was no room? Because, really. There. Was. No. Room.

I'm sorry, but the term dinosaur does come to mind. While they may have been very good at what they did many years ago, they clearly couldn't (or, I'm thinking, more likely wouldn't) adapt to the times. It was their way. Or the highway.

But our current Resource teacher, while relatively new to "Intensive Resource", has family members with disabilities and he really seems to get it. To get the importance of life skills for a young adult like the Blue Jay. To get the importance of life skills for so many of the students in that class.

I can actually see him building a resource program that will be so much better than what this school previously had. I can actually see it benefiting so many more students. My only real complaint is that the Blue Jay didn't have access to such a program three years ago, when she first entered high school, as she should have.

Well, that and the fact that when our previous dinosaurs teachers ruled the land, nobody (and I mean nobody) seemed to have any issue with the way things were done or the way they insisted things had to be done. They were backed up all the way.

Nope, nobody had any issues with them. Nobody except me, that is.

Interestingly enough, now that they've retired, I am finding people starting to agree with what I've consistently been saying (and thinking) for the past couple of years - that things didn't have to be (and, in fact, shouldn't have been) done their way. That, dare I say it, these particular teachers were the problem.

Apparently, now they are. But then they weren't. Go figure.