Dear Gaynor Community,
October is LD Awareness month. It is a time to recognize and support the 1 in 5 people in our country who have learning or attentional challenges. It has been 50 years since the landmark Rehabilitation Act of 1973, that guaranteed accommodations for all students with special needs. A decade earlier, Stephen Gaynor School had already begun providing our young learners with opportunities to reach their full potential. This month is a great time to celebrate our incredible neurodivergent students. While this is an everyday endeavor for our Gaynor families and staff, it is nice to take the opportunity to acknowledge our students as advocates.
Our student advocacy program helps our students understand themselves as learners, including both their strengths and developing skills. This foundational understanding of themselves enables our students to identify their most effective learning strategies and how to advocate for themselves. As our students move through the Intermediate to the Upper Division, they are tasked with not only articulating their learning style but also being able to ask for support or accommodations. In preparation for their next school, students practice approaching a teacher to ask for an accommodation. Not easy, but our students do it with the knowledge and confidence that we all have rights.
These LD advocacy skills also apply to supporting their peers and are one of the core tenets of our diversity, equity and inclusion program. Our DEI mission states that we are dedicated to promoting and advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion within our school community. We celebrate many types of diversity, including neurodiversity, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, ability, religion, sexual orientation, family composition, language, and gender identity/expression. When our students fight to level the playing field for themselves, they are also learning to fight to level the playing field for everyone.
To help celebrate our incredible students and everyone with learning differences, I encourage you to follow our social media and share our LD Awareness Month posts (Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn). You can also check out the resources page on our website and read through the Gaynor Glossary for a deeper understanding of terms typically used when talking about learning differences and education.
Thank you for joining me in celebrating neurodiversity this month and always!
Sincerely,
Dr. Scott Gaynor
Head of School
