2018 TASH Conference

This personal experience story will include vignettes from Pete's 14 years in the general education classroom and often, the general education curriculum. For teachers, Pete, a 28 year old self-advocate, will explain why students with disabilities need to be respected and expected to do their jobs at school and in extracurricular activities like Scouts. He'll explain his use of a laptop, before everyone had one in school. For families and individuals with disabilities, Pete will reflect a self-confidence born of hard lessons, self-reflection and self-talk, as well as his parents oft heard "Man up!". Pete will define what it means to him and others to have Down syndrome and he'll show you why and how, he's already IN. Pete's mom, an educator and director of a federal postsecondary education grant, will provide her own reflections on teaching and 'letting' Pete be self-determined; on strategies in school that worked and didn't work, and; how Re-visioning her dreams for Pete and teaching Pete to dream himself are vital to a self-determined life.