Seeing Beauty

         So often we are distracted by what hovers and floats upon the surface of the severely or profoundly challenged: deformities, oddities, and abnormalities; never noticing the intricate and beautiful world right before our eyes--just beneath the surface.

Too often our eyes and minds become locked and focused upon the surface. It takes time and experience to see beneath the surface to discover a person's inner beauty and perfection of spirit.

I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to see beauty with a different set of eyes--eyes that see perfection in the flawed, brilliance in the broken, and intelligence in the imperfect. 

Beauty--however flawed, broken, and imperfect--surrounds me. It beckons me to come near, to spend time, to admire.

--Allen Lujan

Vulnerability and Trust

In my classroom, medically fragile students tend to hold back their trust until they know you are trustworthy. Over time they will carefully observe your actions and behavior. You are always being observed, judged and evaluated. They notice your tone of voice, your emotions, your pace and speed of movement, and most of all your consistent demeanor. 

Once they know you are safe and on their side, they will give you their complete trust and begin to rely and depend upon you. There are very few people they can trust and depend on. 

From the time they were born, most of my students have been closely assessed and observed; they know what it means to be poked, prodded, and tested. Because they have limited communication skills and abilities, they begin to trust only those who consistently stand beside them. They respond best to those familiar people who show evidence (and desire) to know them better for who they are--a complete person capable of giving and receiving trust. --Allen Lujan

Learning Might Be ...

 Learning might be different than anything you’ve ever experienced before. 

Learning might be as simple as making eye contact 

or smiling during peek-a-boo. 

Learning might be laughing when others are laughing 

or rolling over . . . or holding your head up.

Sometimes learning is scooping with a spoon 

or being able to drink from a straw or a sippy cup.

Learning can be sounds that communicate (but aren’t words) . . . 

sounds that speak volumes to those listening;

Volumes to those who have invested hours and lifetimes

training their ears to hear . . .

Listening and interpreting 

Guessing and … learning

From those who have been the teacher all along.