Pathways To Inclusion

"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...