Thursday, April 30, 2009

What's Your Story

We need your stories to make the blog come alive. We'd like to hear what works for your twins in the classroom and what doesn't. We'd like to know how you decided whether to keep your twins together or to separate them. Mostly, we'd like to hear what is going on throughout Illinois.

This isn't a forum to bash educators. This is a forum to learn more about how we can all work together to provide the best opportunities for our children. These stories will vary from family to family, but every story has something we can learn from and possibly adapt for our multiples.

This also isn't the northern Illinois Twins Law blog. We need stories from families across the state. We've talked to many of you, so we know the needs are the same whether you are in an urban or a rural school district.

If you're interested in contributing to the blog, please contact me, Shari Schmidt, at slcs48n1 at yahoo.com.

Friday, April 17, 2009

A Lot of Work to Do

I was at a school function when another twins Mom starting talking about her daughters. She was stunned to find out we were able to keep our girls together this school year. She was told last year that her daughters couldn't stay together, so the school district separated them.

It's one more example of the arbitrary way school districts treat twins. I know a family in our district with 4th grade twins who were able to keep the boys together last year and this year. Yet, in the preschool program, a set of twins was separated.

People say we don't need another law and I'd agree. We have waaaaay too many laws already. The problem is unless it is a law, most administrators won't even bother with it. We do have a resolution, but most educators don't know about it and if they do, they do not pay any attention to it.

It's these kinds of stories that keep us motivated to make sure that all parents, in all school districts in Illinois have a seat at the table when decisions are made about the placement of their twins.