"I am glad to be part of the IDEAL family."

I had two sisters growing up. They were very smart and graduated early. I graduated at eighteen and found school difficult. I felt like I was stupid. The feeling has always been with me.   It's like I'm a tree and this feeling and experience is part of my roots.  It's impossible to separate that feeling of not being good enough from the rest of my life.  It wasn't till I was older that a doctor told me that my brain just works differently. 

Coming to The IDEAL School every day to drop off my grandson makes me feel like I am healing. There is love and kindness here.  I look at everything and I learn. One day I saw two large hearts on the wall.  One of them was all broken up.  The other was whole and lovely.  They were teaching the kids that this broken heart is what happens when we say words that are unkind or when you do things that aren't nice.   When I saw that I thought, this is so perfect.  It was just two hearts on a wall, but it grabbed me.  Just to see that every day makes me happy, makes me feel like they understand my struggle.  Maybe this bad feeling of not being enough, of not being smart, of having something wrong won't be part of the children's roots.  I see the teachers and the kids showing love and kindness to one another, and this feeling I've had all along is being released.

I hope I see the children become adults because they have learned the foundation of love and kindness.  They can't help but grow strong and show love and kindness and with that they can make a difference. There is more light inside me now. I truly believe they're going to make a change in the world. People respond to love and kindness.  When you have a foundation like this, you can't help but make a difference. 

At IDEAL, the children aren't placed in a mold -- ‘This is the way you learn and no other way.'  IDEAL teaches the individual child in the way that's best for them.

The happiness and caring is a big chunk of the central part of the person. All other parts of our lives come from that chunk.  As I feel lighter inside, I didn't realize I was sad.   I feel lighter. . . and happier.  As I see the way that all of the children are learning and growing, each in their own way, the sadness is breaking up in me like congestion after a cold.  I listen to what the children say.   And we keep growing. No matter how old. . .

The Founders have done a wonderful thing for the next generation.  How can you not be happy in surroundings that are so full of love and kindness?  I'm glad to be a part of the IDEAL family.   The IDEAL School experience makes me feel like I'm healing.

Barbara Smiley, Grandparent