Pathways To Inclusion

Stay safe. I found it strange at first when this became our new sign-off. Shouldn’t it be 'keep well'? Or 'stay healthy'? But no, it's our safety that appears to be under threat. An intruder has broken in, past the defences we naively thought might have protected us. Over the last couple of weeks, I have started to reflect on how losing our safety net might help us better understand those who've never had one. The Fountain by Juliano Kaglis After my wife and I were burgled a few years ago, the thing we lost that hurt the most was not any of the possessions that were taken, but the underlying feeling that our front door marked the point at which outsiders could not enter. It has since taken time (and some heavy duty locks) to rebuild this psychological sense of security, for that is what we needed to do. We as humans need to kid ourselves every day into thinking that the walls around us will keep out any potential dangers, just so that we can go on...

"To survive, you must tell stories" (Umberto Eco) 'Writing My Heart Out' by Gladiola Sotomayor A couple of months ago I was approached by an arts organisation who were looking to work with a group of students who had writing difficulties. They would run a series of workshops with them, helping each student develop ideas for their own play, then have a team of playwrites and scribes turn these ideas into a set of playscripts. Finally, these scripts would be given to a team of actors, and students (and their families) would have the chance to see their own plays performed on stage. It was aimed at dyslexic students, but I broadened the definition to ensure we had a cohort who would be able to engage with the project and see it through to the end. So with the dyslexic students I also included some who were autistic, and others who had a range of social communication and mental health problems. The theatre company's line was that it was fo...

"I would never be part of anything. I would never really belong anywhere, and I knew it, and all my life would be the same, trying to belong, and failing. Always something would go wrong. I am a stranger and I always will be, and after all I didn’t really care." Jean Rhys  'Belonging' by Maria Friberg Too many children feel like they do not belong. In their communities, in their schools, in their homes. When I see children who are persistent absentees, who are at risk of exclusion, I see an unmet craving to feel like a valued member of something, anything. I see a desperate search for belonging that can take them to anywhere and anyone who might offer it to them, whose risks and long-term consequences they are unable to safely evaluate. We know that a sense of belonging is critical to the development of a child. We have know this since Maslow , since Bowlby . The renewed focus in the 1990s, through the work of Goodenow , and Baumeister & Lear...