While our country celebrates independence, I’m thinking about something just as important maybe more so: INTERdependence.
 

Because needing each other isn’t the opposite of freedom.
It’s how we build something worth belonging to.
 

As I was writing this, I had one of those aha moments. Suddenly, the memory of Jim and I walking hand in hand out of the church on our wedding day, 51 years ago (child bride). The song playing was Barbra Streisand’s “People.”

🎶 People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. 🎶

I still believe that.
 

And yet, here we are. Decades later. Still watching schools treat that very human need for connection, for mutual support as a problem.
 

You’ve heard it too:
“He’d be more included if he could just do it by himself.”

“She’d be more accepted if she didn’t need so much help.”
 

But here’s what those messages actually say:
You’re valuable when you stop needing people.

You belong when you stop being inconvenient.
 

And if your child is always the one being helped but never the one being heard, trusted, or learned from, those messages don’t just hurt.
They sideline your child.

We can rewrite that.

Your child has gifts. Not hypothetical. Not someday. Right now.

When support becomes a one-way street, we all lose:
*Your child loses the chance to be seen as a contributor.

*Their classmates lose the chance to learn from someone who sees the world differently.

*AND our classrooms lose the richness that comes from real connection.
 

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said:
“A person is a person through other people.”
 

Let’s start building spaces where that’s not just a quote but a new way of being.

🦠 What to ponder:
At what cost to your child are you chasing this idea that independence is the end all, be all?
 

🫟 What to ask:
How is my child seen, as someone with gifts to share, or just gaps to close?
 

💎 What to do:
Interrupt the story being told. Lead with your child’s strengths even when the system doesn’t.

Thank you for showing up for your child, for all our kids, and for the belief that schools can be places of real belonging.

We're going to press on!
 

P. S. If you’ve been holding your advocacy together with late-night Googling and scribbled notes on the back of envelopes... you’re not alone.

During the summer I have more time where we can have a private conversation about what you are worried about and what some next steps could be for you. 

If you're interested, here's the link to my online calendar. You can pick a day and time that works best for you.
You don’t have to figure it out alone.
P.S.S. Please remember I'm not attorney and can't give you legal advice.