From the Boston Globe:

A principal who pioneered inclusive education at a Boston elementary school two decades ago will be celebrated this afternoon as he retires and the school is renamed in his honor.

At a surprise ceremony, the Patrick O’Hearn Elementary School will be renamed the William Henderson Elementary school as a tribute to a principal who has improved the lives of thousands of children, according to parents.

Principal William Henderson, 59, who is blind, began teaching students with disabilities alongside their typical peers at O’Hearn in 1989, and the school earned a national reputation as a model for inclusive education, particularly among urban schools. Currently, one-third of the students at the school receive special education services.

“Boston has far too many kids in segregated classrooms and not enough schools like the O’Hearn,” said Thomas Hehir, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and a former director of the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. “The O’Hearn is one of the few schools in urban America that demonstrates all students can succeed.”

Henderson also shattered stereotypes about what people with disabilities can achieve professionally as his career continued to blossom even as he progressively lost his vision.

(Boston Globe photo)

See also: A matter of principal — Story and photos from Boston Globe Magazine

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 9:17 am and is filed under blindness/visual impairments, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, education, history, inclusion, intellectual/developmental disabilities, NOT2BEMISSED, personal stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.