Renee Manfredi Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger Blog #4: School Reflections — The Power of Inclusion
By Renee Manfredi
I love movies. Maybe I understand life through movies. I love quoting movies. The parts that make me laugh are my favorite parts. These are the parts I like to quote. As I grew older I quoted movies to help me feel calm. School was always moving too fast for me, so I often spoke movie lines out loud without realizing it, trying to keep myself calm. This was one of the “things” that got me picked on.
In school, I couldn’t do all the things the other kids could do, and I knew it. I couldn’t understand all the instructions, they went so fast, it was so much. I was confused a lot. I always knew I was lost. If I messed up, the other kids yelled at me. I was lonely a lot. I really wanted to be friends with my classmates. I truly had no idea WHY they ignored me or made fun of me.
But one year I had a friend. A real friend. She chose to be my friend even though...
Even though I quoted movies.
Even though I got lost in the instructions. Even though other kids did not want to be my friend.
She was as true friend. Cassie. Cassie was with me for 2 years and for those 2 years I felt Alive. Like I belonged. I was included in sleepovers, at the lunch table, for movies, and in LIFE. I thought I had finally outgrown not fitting in. I felt peace & maybe even confidence.
This is the power of Inclusion.
I KNOW what INCLUSION can do because I have experienced it. But I also know the power of Exclusion.
Exclusion happened when she moved away. The group that I thought were my friends would sit at the lunch table with their backs to me. I would try to say something but nobody would turn around to listen. I was no longer invited to do the things they did. I would get scolded if I tried to join in. That was the worst time of my life. I didn’t know what I had done wrong. I thought we were friends. Friends don’t ignore you but my ‘friends’ were ignoring me. I cried every day and I tried every day to be included. It broke my heart to accept they didn’t want me to be their friend and they had that choice. It wasn’t up to me.
I was in 9th grade and alone in a crowd. I felt so small & everyone else seemed so much bigger than me. I struggled to belong. Without my faith I would have given up. Part of what really bothers me now is that there was not any awareness spread about why I was different. Few people understood what it meant to have an Intellectual Disability, including me.
But with the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools Program this is changing. I believe this is the most effective way in which we can spread awareness about what it means to be an individual with an Intellectual Disability in our society today.
The goal is not merely understanding. The goal is to spread Acceptance and Respect, to create friendships, because we are people with value.
By encouraging students to promote acceptance, respect and dignity for their peers with Intellectual Disabilities, we can create this unified generation, where everyone is accepted & where everyone is Included.
If my schools had had a Unified Program, I believe my whole childhood and Transition would have been easier & I would have been more prepared to be a contributing member of my community. Inclusion is not just about today, it is also about tomorrow.
ESPN and Special Olympics partnered to create the inclusion pledge which states, “I pledge to look for the lonely, the isolated, the left out, the challenged and the bullied. I pledge to overcome the fear of difference and replace it with the power of inclusion.”
