Independent Students
Mino, who’s been teaching for over two decades, explains that she’s not a doctor and she’s not looking for a cure. But she’s trying her best to get her students to care for themselves and express themselves so they can function better and relatively independently in the real world.She’s warm, patient, and gentle, but firm. If they aren’t loud and clear enough when asking or answering questions, they can’t make others understand what they need, let alone get them to meet those needs. If they don’t overcome their fears—one student overcomes his fear of plants—they’ll struggle to function normally, let alone learn work skills, then find and hold onto jobs. She insists on, but doesn’t always find, empathetic job coaches who’ll help students ease into jobs, whether that means cleaning floors and pews at a church, or a job at Burger King.
As graduation day nears, you see her growing anxieties around solutions that involve her wards in robotic, factory-like jobs; these choke their chances to practice the communication and connection skills they continually need to strengthen self-confidence and self-belief. Mino resents solutions that put them only in large groups, not one-on-one settings. She wants the best for them even after they graduate. It’s up to a social worker to tell her compassionately but insistently, “They may or may not regress but you have to let … go.”
Buck shows how vital parents are to this journey. A student’s father explains that once he accepted that it was up to him to understand his autistic son—not the other way around—he could better complement at home what teachers did at school.
When his mother drops by, the otherwise quiet Eric excitedly kisses her and smilingly chatters. Moved, Mino tells her, “You gotta come more often. We get more language out of him.”
Buck’s camera captures a classroom poster that embodies what teachers explicitly tell their students: that they are responsible for their actions. What’s implicit? They aren’t responsible for the indifferent or disrespectful way some people treat them. Another poster says, “This is a positive thinking area.” What’s implicit? They'll face more than their share of negative thinking in areas outside their classroom.
Of course, graduates still require special help even after graduating, but without a consistently protective school system, their struggle to overcome their disabilities may overwhelm them and their families. Buck’s film goes a long way in saluting and celebrating brave hearts like Mino who customize care for those who need it.
Addressing proud families on graduation day, JFK Principal Dr. Johnson Green thunders, “You must always advocate for your children and fight for what … they deserve. Do not sit back and let anyone tell you what they cannot do. We ... thrive on ... their abilities, not … their disabilities.”
