Repairing a simple metal ramp for adaptive sports gave two students a lesson in giving as well as a new appreciation for the special education students who attend gym classes at Oak Forest High School.
They also got some experience bringing their welding skills out of the classroom and into a real-life situation.
“Jake came up to me one day and asked if I wanted to help and I said, yes, it’s a good cause,” said Phillip Bucher, a senior who worked on the project with classmate Jake St. Marie. “I thought it was a nice thing to do.”
The project took five or six hours over a few days and involved welding four different parts onto a ramp. Part of the contraption had been lost during the summer, which was why it needed repair.
More Top Picks Books Plants
Afterwards, the two students were invited to a unified gym class to see how their work had made a difference.
“”It was really nice seeing them all excited, being able to play again,” said Jake. “It made me feel good.”
Students from the Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association program attend gym with Oak Forest High students, using the ramp for bowling and kickball from their wheel chairs. They have two other ramps, but the third means more students can be playing at one time.
The gym program, which is called DESTINY, or Discovering Every Skill That is Now Yours, allows general education students to help their special education peers with stretches and sports moves. The special education students have moderate to severe physical and mental challenges.
“If the students don’t have a ramp, they kind of just have to push the ball off their chair lap and let it roll,” said Elizabeth Wegner, a special education teacher with the co-op. “It was great to have another.”
Wegner said her students love the class.
“A lot of them would say it’s their favorite class because they get to communicate and hang out with their general education peers,” said Wegner. “Our kids always light up when they see their friends in the hallway too.”
The gym class is called PROUD, or People Respecting Others’ Unique Differences, and Oak Forest High students learn to do just that.
“Technically they’re kind of making a sacrifice, but we’ve also found that a lot of students have chosen a career of being a special education teacher (after taking the class),” said Stacy Faulkner, who has taught the class for four years and been a physical education teacher at the school for 27 years. “A lot of them learn that they’re just people … they learn to go above the disability and make new friendships.”
Faulkner said her students’ enthusiasm is matched by the smiling faces of their DESTINY peers and her own gratitude at what she sees.
“It is the best part of my day too because we’re just helping them and allowing them to have fun and be in physical education,” Faulkner said.
Dan Brown, the industrial technology instructor who oversaw the welding project, said the project was a perfect way to show his students the benefits of their work.
“Anything outside the curriculum that’s challenging, we try to promote,” said Brown. “If they can see something real, we try to show it to them.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.