Maybelle and preschool--this one less theoretically exploratory

We just found out today that Maybelle was accepted to our first choice preschool, Trinity Montessori.  Due to this blog's diverse readership, I won't--at this time--explain our thoughts about the fact that it's a church school.  Instead, I want to explain what made this school our top choice.

In my first blog post about the preschool situation, I said we hadn't decided.  I was really pleased with how well the administrator at the school I blogged about listened to what we had to say, and I got a sort of activist buzz that made me think we should go to this school and help diversify it.

In the time since then, I've reconsidered.  Here's the deal:  Trinity Montessori already has two students with Down syndrome who have been there for a few years, so when we told the staff that Maybelle has Down syndrome, they said, "Okay!"  No concerned faces, no questions about whether she'd be able to keep up, no suggestions that we put her in the infant room or hire a shadow to follow along behind her.  It's as if we told them that Maybelle is left handed, or prefers to wear t-shirts with monkeys on them, or makes a mess when she eats jelly on toast.  Their tone was very much, "Yep, we can do that.  Can't wait to meet her!"  They took us to the classroom where Robert and Joe--both of whom have Down syndrome--are students, and we saw that these two kids were fully included in their classes, doing exactly the stuff that the other kids were doing.  No shadows, no weirdness, no iffy vibes.

I do love the activist buzz, and Biffle, Maybelle, and I are going to have lots of activism to be involved in.  But as a friend who has a child with a disability reminded me yesterday, we don't necessarily need to seek these activist opportunities out.  Sometimes it's nice just to relax, knowing that the people taking care of our daughter know what they're doing and don't need our coaching.

I'm just thrilled that we got a spot!