First challenge
Tonight I was at the Candidates' Night for the Special Needs Alliance. I'm not sure what I expected, but I did my best, was honest about it when I didn't know something and explained myself to the best of my abilities.
And while I think that they got my mantra of "you tell me what you need" instead of "me tell you what I think", I don't know how many votes will come my way after this evening, simply because it was hard to gauge what the audience was looking for. Their needs seem very diverse. One person is paying for private services because the district won't, yet another was pleased that the district is sending her child out of district for services. Another has kids who are classified but in-house and she is pleased this year, but wasn't last year. And so on and so on. Apparently there were several teachers in the audience and at least 3 adults who do not have kids with special needs but for one reason or another wanted to hear what we had to say.
One person came up to me and basically said that I seem nice, but I don't have a chance... another guy came up and said that I should be more confident and proud of the fact that I am mostly a stay-at-home Mom, while I saw a parent visibly cringe when I used that expression. What was I supposed to call it?
I did my best. I seemed to speak just as clearly as the others and I don't think I rattled on any more than anyone else did. The candidates agreed on lots of points. If I were in the audience I might find it difficult to differentiate between our viewpoints sometimes. Then what do people vote on? Perhaps then they vote on the least important things - gut feelings or personal similarities.
Time will tell. At least I am glad I didn't come off any less prepared or qualified as the others. In my humble opinion....
And while I think that they got my mantra of "you tell me what you need" instead of "me tell you what I think", I don't know how many votes will come my way after this evening, simply because it was hard to gauge what the audience was looking for. Their needs seem very diverse. One person is paying for private services because the district won't, yet another was pleased that the district is sending her child out of district for services. Another has kids who are classified but in-house and she is pleased this year, but wasn't last year. And so on and so on. Apparently there were several teachers in the audience and at least 3 adults who do not have kids with special needs but for one reason or another wanted to hear what we had to say.
One person came up to me and basically said that I seem nice, but I don't have a chance... another guy came up and said that I should be more confident and proud of the fact that I am mostly a stay-at-home Mom, while I saw a parent visibly cringe when I used that expression. What was I supposed to call it?
I did my best. I seemed to speak just as clearly as the others and I don't think I rattled on any more than anyone else did. The candidates agreed on lots of points. If I were in the audience I might find it difficult to differentiate between our viewpoints sometimes. Then what do people vote on? Perhaps then they vote on the least important things - gut feelings or personal similarities.
Time will tell. At least I am glad I didn't come off any less prepared or qualified as the others. In my humble opinion....
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