A conversation with Carol Cujec and Peyton Goddard on Inclusion

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: For this issue, I had the privilege of speaking with Peyton Goddard and Carol Cujec, advocates for disability justice and inclusion and co-authors of the books REAL and I Am Intelligent. Carol's allyship and perspective on inclusive education is invaluable. She is currently a professor at California State University, San Marcos. Peyton's poetic conversational and writing style helps emphasize how deeply needed inclusion is in our schools and for the most marginalized members of the neurodivergent community. Peyton and Carol both have a way with words and bring with them a sense of urgency and passion when it comes to inclusion and human rights. Their book, REAL, which is based off of Goddard's experience growing up as a nonspeaking Autistic student, is vital to the growing conversation around inclusive schooling and how educators and peers can practice radical inclusion.

NeuroNurture: How would you define true inclusion?

Peyton Goddard: Pure joy ignited in everyone. Importantly it looks like totally tuning priority persons in holy harmony. It is never pissy. It's peppy, lit by loud lumps of loving. It is over-flowing with loops of kind. Lighting around persons looks gold and pure, pounding union. It is the beautiful all pine for. It illuminates with the rapture of love. Throughout my journey, it importer rare moments of golly inclusion.

Carol Cujec: I will paraphrase something Peyton taught me—equality does not mean that everyone gets the same. It means that everyone gets what they need to be successful. An inclusive classroom welcomes all learners and supports them to be successful. Sadly, truly inclusive environments are still quite rare. One exception is the CHIME school* in Northridge, California. It is a great model for the success of inclusive education.

NeuroNurture: What are the most important steps in destigmatizing the autism spectrum diagnosis and and other neurodivergent identifiers? I am curious to know the perspectives of other neurodivergent people and advocates in general.

Peyton Goddard: Up inclusion. It will bring forth the uncovering of ultimate truths better than any other plan. Not knowing (being denied knowing) the awesomeness of someone with autism, a person is hoisted to folly fears of dread, covering each with costly falsities. It mounts jitters both the typical and the diverse. It denies the joy of treasured unlimited relationships. Kids like me mope in pity knowing “I’m ubiquitous greeted by you dreading I. I’m seen as a thug. You fret if you funnel me in with regular kids, yet my joining is owed to both of us in the laws, but that’s not what’s happening. I’m thousand times gutted out. I waste away in lost opportunities, as it is more joining I’m really wanting. I’m important as you, eagerly seeking real opportunities. Gutters everywhere are filled with jittered pierced persons lonely for fitted frets outed by poppy rested diverse relationships. Yes, opt inclusion. Greet no stigmas. Greet peace.”

Carol Cujec: I will again echo Peyton in saying that only by knowing each other can we diminish our fear of those labeled as different. We need to create a world where all people feel welcome to participate so that seeing a neurodiverse or differently abled person in the classroom and community is the norm, not the exception. We need to find opportunities to connect with diverse people—which is why inclusive classrooms are so important. We also need media to better reflect the diversity around us. We have seen glimpses of this in shows like the ABC sitcom Speechless, but this is still the exception.

NeuroNurture: Peyton, you have a quote, and it is one of my favorite quotes, and it reminds me why I practice inclusion and advocate. It’s “treasure all because great is each.” How can we include people and genuinely treasure people in social settings? What about in the classroom?

Peyton Goddard: Persons plot poppy great hoping lives. For those not purely accommodated to join in, pity rolls in, popping holy hope, igniting pout. Pills cannot out their jitters. Puny persons importantly need to tread to “I’m treasured.” It moistens their journey to I’m OK as I awesome poignantly am. It outs mope. It outs pity. Hoping for a poppy life returns to them. I’m doling out my opinion to prioritize valuing all before there is pout. This means treasuring all by persons trying pounds of kindness. I’m hungry to greet a class or a holy gathering where points of loud kindness poignantly impart “treasured you each are.” It is not Pyrenees climbing. Each pure kindness ignited to another confirms the vast value of their presence, the recognition that all people contain gems worth mining.

NeuroNurture: Carol, what can teachers do to create a culture of inclusion in the classroom?

Carol Cujec: The golden rule for all teachers is to presume competence in all students. Teachers must believe that each student has strengths; each student is capable of learning and growing. If teachers do not enter the classroom with this attitude, then what hope is there for their students to learn? Teachers also need to facilitate connections among learners so that all are engaged and have the opportunity to know their fellow students.

I had one student with autism in a college class a few years ago who tended to sit away from other students, and his facial expression made him appear unhappy or even angry. In conversation with me, he admitted with tears in his eyes how eager he was to make friends, but his classmates assumed the opposite. It was my job to create productive student groups, coax interactions, encourage participation from all, and praise his progress. Soon, other students came to see him and accept him as he was, with no fear. The classroom became a safe community for him. I’m not sure he felt the same support on campus once he left the class.

NeuroNurture: Peyton, what is facilitated communication? Who should use it?

Peyton Goddard: Growing up, grumpy I’m as I try but forever fail to point dependably. Dependable movement eludes me. My brain says do it, move my body to my choice, but my unpredictable body moves errantly. I can have no faith in it. This ignited I to pity. It moped I. It jittered I. Frustration pout lopped million joys. As I loitered in hell, it’s messy. It looks like pounds of jitters that try I, and light me nutty, moisten my wasted journey. I’m wasted by my own motor madness body. Utterly I’m no one, greeting great deep horror of looking for a pill to die. It meant poignantly I rest hoping journey to greet suicide. I’m hungry for respite; loudly I yearn for OM peace. I’m tumbling long enough. I’m going up to God.

Then I met dear Darlene Hanson. She understood my motor madness and pined to help me. It rested I. She pointed her resister arm on my jittery arm sad at never being able to point dependably. It regulared my arm. It made I be purpose mover. It kissed my dear heart. Up in my tread I’m point freer. It moistened my holy look hoping. It kept me wanting to live. Pity out, joy in. It was my rebirth. Any person who cannot point dependably should be helped. It is very crucial. It frustration outs if holy resistance is offered. News now is I’m pointing not need touch breeding. It is motor coaching. It is looking I’m independent some day. It is hurray I work to. It is joyous to very really motor me myself without any touch.

NeuroNurture: I would love for both of you to tell me more about REAL and the process of writing it. Have you heard stories from any students like Charity?

Peyton Goddard: Yes, really, prudently I know a lot of dear poppy persons volleying like Charity. Pity pumps up in their limited life. They importing very need communicating. It ignites opportunities for them. If I’m waxer of their communication, hurray. It is the mast of their freedom. It means prudently, properly their jitters tred out. Opt I’m correct-- urgent it is they golly need our joining advocating key lime sweet, not limited, lives. Carol and I are keen to help all no ones live real lives. Treasures await. We welcome your help.

Carol Cujec: A few months ago we gave a presentation to students in a school in Georgia who had all read REAL, and who all type to communicate. One 12-year-old girl named Julia was really moved by the story. She shared with us some of her thoughts as she was reading, and they honestly brought tears to my eyes.

“ALL I WANT IS FOR PEOPLE TO KNOW THERE IS MORE TO ME THAN MY DISABILITY.

LOVE THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT IS REAL

HARD TO STOMACH IT AT TIMES

MY REALITY

BUT HAVING SOMEONE WHO HAS LIVED WITHOUT SPEECH LETS ME KNOW I AM NOT ALONE AND THERE IS LIGHT IN UNEXPECTED PLACES.

I FIND PEOPLE REALLY WANT TO CHANGE US INSTEAD OF EMBRACING OUR BEAUTIFUL MINDS.

I FIND COMFORT IN KNOWING LIFE WILL GET BETTER AS LONG AS FAMILY ACCEPTS HOW WE THINK, FEEL AND ACT.

LISTENING TO AUTISTIC VOICES WILL OPEN DOORS TO A WORLD WHERE WE ARE NOT ONLY ACCEPTED BUT VALUED AND APPRECIATED."

NeuroNurture: What conversations do you hope that REAL opens about inclusion?

Peyton Goddard: Point I holy plea that more parents would request prioritizing true inclusion, saying: “It’s imperative my very pretty, peppy child is fully included in classes and social opportunities, and purely accommodated to participate where no one is jittery about not being good enough and worried he might be sent away, where no student feels like a puny no one, where everyone receives the support needed to do their best, where everyone is a winner if they try. I’m propeller for each child to greet rest knowing all persons are treasured. I’m eager he sees that valuing all persons journeys everyone to prime lives. I point my priority there.

It melts my hopes if he or anyone is pertinent not. It melts my hungry hopes if he is ignorant of hurraying others to trying their book best. Differences do not mean someone is less and cannot belong. Persons might think that only the polished persons are imperative to bunch together, but I’m looking for all to learn there is pretty in each, beauty in diversity. It is better igniting importance of fully varied voices uniting in concert together for peace in this worrisome world, than to loop performances opposite of kind. I rely on up your game joining jolly kids to priority learn together that each human has important gifts necessary for the betterment of humanity. Esteeming each person is our quest.”

Carol Cujec: Sadly, I think most parents in the neurotypical world have no idea what they’re missing by not having neurodiverse students included in their children’s classrooms. What a wasted opportunity for all kids to learn and grow from this experience. Empathy and understanding, kindness and support blossom in these classrooms. How great would it be to have schools where all kids felt welcome, where differences were greeted with joy. We all have differences. By including the most different of students, no child needs to fear that they will be rejected. All are welcome—and all means all.

Peyton Goddard: “Each person, importantly, is dearly welcomed.”