The students planted flowers as part of Special Education Week to highlight each child’s unique character
Students and staff at Indian Mills Memorial School shared kindness and acceptance during National Special Education Week. Each student had a part in the school-wide celebration of diversity with the creation of a handmade quilt and the planting of flowers outside of the school.
According to Karen Davies, fifth-grade social studies teacher, each homeroom made a patch for the quilt, designed with fabric markers, which followed the theme of spring, flowers and gardens. Once the unique patches are sewn together, students will have the opportunity to appreciate the differences and uniqueness of each class, and ultimately each other.
“What we want the kids to realize is everyone is different and everybody learns differently,” Davies said. “It helps our kids to remember we need to accept everybody and recognize differences are good. Together, these differences make a really great quilt.”
Throughout the week, poems with the theme of diversity and acceptance for those with differences were read along with the morning announcements. On May 17 and 18, students and their science teachers garnished the school’s landscape with perennial flowers, representing the differences in each student, and the beauty that comes with that uniqueness.
According to the Shamong school district, the flowers were meant to represent how “we are all different flowers in the same garden.”
The garden celebration received contributions from local businesses, such as the donation of 40 flats of geraniums and three bags of wild flowers from Lowe’s and two yards of topsoil from Oakshade Nursery.
“It really ended up being a community event rather than just us,” Davies said.
Special Education Week is a time to celebrate and honor everyone, despite his or her differences. The Shamong school district aimed to highlight the range of learning styles and abilities within its student body, embrace the differences and promote diversity among each student.
