Metro

A Valuable Tool

Disabilities activist promotes learning through failure.

RONELLE GRIER

Special to the Jewish News

T

he best thing we can do for
our kids is give them more
opportunities to fail, says
trainer/therapist and disabilities
activist Norm Kunc.
"What one person sees as failure,
another person sees as the first try,"
said Kunc. "Failure is not something
out there, it's our own perception."
Our society is so focused on a nar-
row definition of success that failure is
viewed as something to be avoided at
all costs instead of as a valuable learn-
ing tool, Kunc explained to more than
400 people attending his talk at the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield Feb. 2. He believes in the
title of his speech: "If You Want Kids
to Learn, Teach 'Ern How to Fail."
He also spoke on "The Right To Be
Disabled" the next day for parents of
children with special needs and profes-
sionals who work in education and
mental health fields. A third presenta-
tion, "Hell-Bent on Helping," was
aimed at volunteers who help people
with disabilities.
Several agencies co-sponsored the
program, including the Friendship
Circle, JARC, Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit, JCC, Jewish
Family Service and JVS.
Kunc, who was born with cerebral
palsy, conveys his message with a mix-
ture of eloquence and humor. He draws
from his own childhood, when he
attended a segregated school for chil-
dren with physical disabilities until he
turned 13, then was integrated into a
general education school. He later com-
pleted a bachelor's degree in humanities
and a master's degree in family therapy
despite the feelings of inadequacy he
developed growing up handicapped.
"When I started going out with
girls, I thought that the less disabled I
A VALUABLE TOOL on page 20

Inclusive Education
Teaches All At MIND

At the Jewish Academy of Metro Detroit (JAMD)
in West Bloomfield, students and faculty don't
just talk about inclusive education, they "walk the
walk." Leading the procession is Danny Friedman,
now in his second year at the school.
Danny, who has Down syndrome, is the first
student with special needs to attend JAMD, ful-
filling a longtime dream of his mother, Linda
Friedman of West Bloomfield.
"My older daughter Nina went to Hillel, and I
always wanted Danny to have a Jewish educa-
tion," said Linda, who is a practicing social
worker and psychotherapist. "Both of my par-
ents are Holocaust survivors, so that was impor-
tant to me."
She met vvith members of the JAMD adminis-
tration to discuss the possibility of having her son
attend and found them receptive.
"Danny went through basically the same admis-
sion process as any other student," said Rabbi
Aaron Bergman, director of Jewish Studies at
JAMD. "It was not an easy decision because we'd never
done this before, but what really touched us is how much
Danny wanted to grow in his Jewish learning."
JARC, through its School Inclusion Program, provides
a paraprofessional to assist Danny daily and to help coor-
dinate the efforts of a multi-disciplinary team that
includes a speech therapist, occupational therapist, a
behaviorist and a social worker.
Before Danny started school, Chaya Leah Tinman,
JARC school inclusion coordinator, provided staff train-
ing and peer education.
"I talked to the students about the goal of inclusion
and gave them some ideas about how to help Danny,
simple things that make a difference, such as giving him
time to respond to a greeting, or inviting him to join
their table at lunchtime," Tinman said.
Said Rabbi Lee Buckman, JAMD head of school,
"Danny brings to the school a steadfast enthusiasm for
being Jewish that infuses the learning environment with
an appreciation for all things Jewish.
Danny showed some of this enthusiasm last year when
he wrote an essay nominating Rabbi Bergman as

"

Second year JAMD student Danny Friedman proudly wears
his school sweatshirt

"Teacher of the Year." He won first place in the contest
sponsored by Comcast, the Macomb Daily and the

Oakland Press.
"It was his own idea. He wrote it by himself and he
typed the whole thing with one finger," his mother said.
"We're all learning together," she said. "If something
goes wrong, we work together to fix it. The JAMD staff
really wants this to work. I call them 'The Dream Team,'
and the kids have been wonderful."
With a little help from his friends, Danny, 17, puts on
tefillin every day for minyan, and attends services regu-
larly with his mother at Congregation B'nai Moshe in
West Bloomfield, where the Friedmans are members.
"Danny is a fine student," said Rabbi Bergman. "He
participates, he does his homework, he does all the things
we want each of our students to do. It's not so much
what we can teach Danny that's important — it's what
Danny is teaching us." ❑
— Ronelle Grier, special writer

"What one person sees as failure, another person sees as the first try"
said Kunc. "Failure is not something out there, its our own perception."

JN

2/24

2005

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