Seeing the Charade: What We Need to do and Undo to Make Friendships Happen

2011

Jill Varney
[email protected]
603-862-4320

First the good news. The world is starting to catch on to what so many of us have been saying for decades - friendship matters for everyone. Mastering math or knowing how to cook a meal is all well and good, but without people to share your life, they are hollow treasures indeed. Friendship is what makes the world go 'round and everyone needs and deserves full and rich social lives. Now for the bad news. For far too many students with disabilities, loneliness is still their most common complaint. Despite our recognition of the importance of relationships and belonging, many students still do not have real friends. And many of the strategies we use to solve this problem, not only fail, but actually make the situation worse. But now there is a book that offers some help. Seeing the Charade: What We Need to Do and Undo to Make Friendships Happen looks at the reasons why real friendship is such an elusive goal for so many students with disabilities. It explores the barriers to friendship that exists in our schools and communities and offers some suggestions on how to overcome these barriers. And it offers specific strategies of how we all can support the students we know and love to have the kinds of social lives they want and deserve.

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