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“Going the Distance” Even Review: Complex Learners Conference at the Wolf School in Rumf

  • Writer: Jeffrey Snyder
    Jeffrey Snyder
  • Mar 6, 2024
  • 3 min read

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Me and fellow presenter, Dot Lucci, who gave a very good presentation before I did.

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On Saturday March 2nd, 2024, I had the honor and the privelege of co-keynoting at the Complex Learners Conference which was held at the Wolf School in Rumford, RI. It was my second major event in the past 7 days as I was in Irvine, CA training teachers and administrators back on February 23rd and 24th, respectively.

This time around, I presented my keynote “The Man Behind the Curtain: An Educational Journey,” which for those of you who have been following Going the Distance, is an educational version of my keynote, “The Man Behind the Curtain: A DEI Story,” which covers my employment journey. Now, creating this version of “Man Behind the Curtain” is essential because it covers a highly important part of my life that is far more important than my employment and that is my education.

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As for the Wolf School itself, the school is a special education school serving students in grades pre-k through Grade 8 throughout Eastern New England particularly between Boston, MA and Providence, RI. Located in the Rumford neighborhood of East Providence, RI, the Wolf School first approached me via Speakerhub in November 2023 about possibly speaking to teachers and parents at their yearly Complex Learners Conference which is held typically in March. Given that this was within my home region, I naturally seized at the opportunity.

Now, one thing I notice about the Wolf School is that unlike most special education schools, this school only serves students up to Grade 8 and that got me thinking that with the ratio of autism diagnosis now at 1 in 36, I couldn’t help but think that there are more and more families that would like nothing more than to seize an opportunity to get the best education for their children.

More and more schools are becoming more and more constrained to teaching their children the wrong lessons and that is a problem. What I find in the Wolf School is that students here are learning according to their own learning abilities. But it isn’t without struggle and I described what it was like to go through situations like School Safety Drills, of which I struggled a great deal of growing up.

A lot of the parents in the audience could easily sympathize with my story because as the ratio continues to grow, more and more students will need accomodations to cope with something like school safety drills.

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Another factor I brought up in the presentation (much like the original “Man Behind the Curtain”) is the importance of flexibility as a survival skill more than a necessity. While most families will be rigid with their neurodivergent children, teachers also have to embrace flexibility on account that all students learn in their own way and on their own good time.

In fact, during the closing panel that my folks and I were on along with fellow presenter Dot Lucci and several Wolf School staff, we brought up stories of how some members of my extended family couldn’t really understand why I wouldn’t be participating in family gatherings when I was growing up. I get the fact that some families are very traditional and have strong ties, but you can’t sacrifice the mental health of a child for the sake of family traditions.

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Walking out of my keynote, I felt as if “The Man Behind the Curtain: An Educational Journey,” covers a majority of the challenges that comes with being a neurodivergent student. But the truth of the matter is that when I was growing up, the only two major resources of autism were Dr. Temple Grandin and the movie, “Rain Man” (1988) with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.

There were also at the time, professionals who said to my family that I would never amount to anything in life because of my autism and for a long time, I thought my folks believed them. Of course, naturally, they didn’t believe them which was a good thing on my end.

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Now, families have more and more resources to turn to and the Wolf School is wise enough to create the Complex Learners Conference every year as a resource for families of their students to take and absorb what is taught to them. I just hope that more and more educational institutes like the Wolf School keep holding this yearly event to engage with the parents while also teaching the parents (and themselves) what it means to embrace neurodiversity and other developmental differences.

The more types of events like what the Wolf School did are held throughout the country, the better, especially as the resources continue to grow year after year.

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Catch you all later!!

 
 
 

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