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| Living with multiple sclerosis gives Jo McGlin special insight into what her special education students need in order to succeed after high school. |
Jo McGlin no longer allows herself to say, “I can’t.” And she no longer allows her special education students to say it either. The words are “a crutch, a cop-out and an excuse.”
“I use myself as an example with the kids,” says McGlin, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. “I tell them that none of us is perfect, and if we were perfect, none of us would be very fun.”
The students in her transitions class are learning how to prepare for life after leaving Patrick Henry High School in San Diego. And they have no better role model than McGlin when it comes to learning how to take charge of their own lives.
McGlin, who was recently selected by Newsweek as one of six “hometown heroes,” is currently training for a 50-mile walk to raise funds for and awareness of multiple sclerosis. She’s been strongly encouraged by her students.
She, in turn, offers her students encouragement and boosts their confidence. “You are so intelligent and so talented. You need to believe in yourselves,” she says. “I will never stop believing in you.”
McGlin encourages them to be “self-advocates” and stand up for themselves. Sometimes self-advocates may need to ask for help, but they still have control of their lives and don’t blame others for their problems.
“For many years, people have told you what to do,” she tells her students. “Isn’t it time for you to start doing for yourself? Nothing is going to stop you, no matter what you’ve been told in the past. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t reach your goals.”
“She pushes us to be out on our own and independent,” says Janet Thomas, who will graduate this June. “She’s helped us a lot.”
“The best part of teaching these kids is empowering them to be out on their own,” says McGlin, a member of the San Diego Education Association. “When they’re no longer in that little shell anymore, you know they’re going to be okay.”
McGlin, who sometimes suffers from muscle spasms and slurred speech, says the disease helps her relate better to her students. “I have good days and bad days just like the kids in my classroom. I told them that I could walk around with a chip on my shoulder all day because I have this disease, or I can laugh and deal with it. This is what I have to live with, so I deal with it.”
Sometimes there will be mountains or obstacles standing in the way, she tells her special day class students who have mild to moderate learning disabilities. “While some people might be able to run up and get over to the other side of the mountain, others will have to figure out ways to go around the mountain, tunnel through the mountain or move the mountain one pile at a time. We’ll get there if we don’t stop or give up.
“It might take a little bit longer, but we’ll get there.”
