Memo to parents from Ryan's Preschool

I got this letter from the director of Ryan's preschool when I picked him up on Tuesday.

To: Parents of 3 and 4 years olds
From: Director
Re: CAPP program

(Name of Preschool) and (school district) have formed a partnership to provide instructional services for preschool children with delays in speech and language development. The Communication Acquisition Program for Preschoolers (CAPP) has been in progress since September 2nd. Believing that children learn best from each other, we are looking for astudents from our program, with appropriate speech and language skills, to become part of this program. The children from our program would be role models for those children with a year or more delay. The CAPP program meets on Tuesday and Friday from 9:30-11:30 in our building. There is no cost for your child's participation in this program. If you might be interested in your child taking part in this program, please fill out the bottom section or give me a call. Thank you.

Can you freaking believe this? A preschool that is really wanting to help every child! I absolutely love the director of this school. Kyle went there last year and while I wasn't all that thrilled with his PS teacher (loved the assistant teachers) I was so impressed with the director. She has been the director of this preschool for more than 20 years.

When I dropped Ryan off this morning, I decided to thank her for really going out of her way to help kids with language delays. There are only 6 kids in Ryan's speech class right now. (14 in his preschool class.) I almost got choked up when talking to her. She hugged me and said that she loves both my kids and she is glad that they are in her school.

Most preschools in our area don't take developmentally delayed kids because they don't know how to handle them. She said that she decided she would never let that happen at her school and explained why.

Her grown son is 29 or 30, I am not sure but he had ADD/ADHD and had a hard time in preschool. Now, remember this was 20+ years ago so we really don't know what he had since I don't think you can diagnose ADD/ADHD in preschoolers. She just told me that he learned differently and the teachers were not very good and left him alone alot. She said teachers just didn't give a shit (ok, those are my words) and didn't want to take the time with children with delays. She has a soft spot for children that learn differently and said she was honored to have them in her school. I also told her that she picked out just the right teachers for Ryan that he is doing exceptionally well. BTW - her son is an MIT graduate and works in the computer field, married with 2 beautiful children.

So, all in all, while there are crappy preschools out there, there are some great ones.