Our daughter, Jordan, who is now 14 and happens to have Down syndrome is the first child in our district with Down syndrome to be fully included in grades K -8. Now, as much as this is very exciting for us and a tremendous accomplishment on Jordan's part, it is also very scary the older she gets, and the academic gap widens between her and her friends. We were tremendously anxious when Jordan was to begin Middle school. I mean, really, you hear all these horror stories about things that happen to children in middle school and then you add a disability to this mix and the fear factor is off the charts. This was especially concerning to us as Jordan was quite familiar to her elementary school peers, yet was entering a school of nearly 800 children, with about 500 new children that she did not know. Well she plowed through her first year of middle school like she owned the place. She met new kids, was fortunate enough to keep her friends that she has known since kindergarten and loves school. One particular event makes it worth sharing. Jordan was in PE class. The classes are fairly large (approx. 25). Well, they were running around the outdoor track and the rules were to go around two times. Jordan made it around once and started her second lap when she got about a quarter of the way around and just stopped. She was done and was clearly confused as to what she should do being already a quarter way around. Now there were kids that already completed this activity and were waiting for everyone to finish. The teacher suggested that they give Jordan some encouragement, so a few of the children started chanting her name. Well, the "go, Jordan, go" seemed to be working and she started to run again. She this time got much further but only made it about 3/4 around the track leaving the homestretch still to go. Now the teachers were a little confused and the coaxing of the other children did not seem to work any more. Finally the teacher quietly asked if some of the girls would go meet her to help her back. To his surprise, the entire class ran back to meet Jordan and convinced her to finish with pats on the back, hi-fives, and "you can do it". Jordan finished and when they all got to where they were supposed to be, she smiled, looked at all her fellow classmates and said "thanks for helping." This is inclusion at its best!