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The Short Bus
CON 712 Counseling Children and Adolescent
Adrianne Green
October 19, 2010

Before I began reading this book, I took a moment to think about the title: The Short Bus a Journey beyond Normal and what this book might entail. The term short bus brought back memories to me as a kid, people who were not smart enough to ride the long bus; or people who attended a special school because they were mentally retarded or mentally challenged. I felt connected to some of the personal stories in the text, especially the stories of Brent and Kent. Furthermore, it reminded me of my personal biases I still have toward kids like Ashley.
The short bus was created for people with various disabilities in 1975 when the …show more content…

Jonathan was labeled LD and he began to struggle with reading while in kindergarten. When it was his time at circle time, he could not tell time so he would just blurt out 10 o’clock and all the kids would laugh at him (Mooney 2007). I felt like Jonathan during grade school kids, middle school and high school; some of these students I called my friends. They blurted out curse word, they were excessive talkers who just could not stop talking and would spin around in chairs, unable to be still or control themselves. Some would move from one seat to another throughout the empty seat in the class. In high school it was more intense; the knocking on the desk, beat boxing and most of the time sent to the office because one could not behave in class. The teachers would always have to stop teaching to turn their attention to the kids who were misbehaving. I disliked coming to class some days because I hated those kids who always interrupted class; they will never be anything in life. It is hard to admit that I understood how Jonathan felt about his college friend Kent, he had an attention span of a gnat and he questioned whether Kent could live successful in the world of conventionality (Mooney 2007).
A memory comes to mind. One boy in my fifth grade class struggled to keep his hands to himself. I wondered to myself why this boy could not stop

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