Before state law 94-142, Cole Hall would almost certainly have been rejected by the public school system. He would have been sent away, like all the other autistic children who came before him. As ominous as that sounds, before 1975, most parents of handicapped children had no choice but to send their kids to special schools, often hundreds of miles from home, for an education. “Many parents kept their kids hidden at home because institutions were so far away,” said Becky Mead, teacher of developmentally and cognitively delayed students at Annandale Middle School. Mead was already in the trenches when the state passed 94-142, the law that says students with disabilities have a right to a public education. She saw firsthand what it was like when the school and the community began to see these children, not as something to send away, but as valuable people. “It’s when we honor the differences in others that we honor the differences in ourselves,” Mead said. It was that belief that led her to teaching 26 years ago, and today her continued pursuit of that belief has won her the Annandale School District’s vote for Minnesota Teacher of the Year. “There are few people I have known in my 25 years as a school administrator who I admire and respect as much as Becky Mead,” Supt. Steve Niklaus wrote in a letter on Mead’s behalf. Mead was one of 130 teachers throughout Minnesota to be nominated for state teacher of the year. Success story Cole Hall is one of her success stories. He’s an autistic boy whose fear made him angry until he learned that he didn’t have to be afraid at school. “I’m very honored but very aware that there are teachers all over the district who are teacher of the year material,” Mead said. In the coming months, Education Minnesota will consider each nominee and determine who will receive the honor. They hope to have a choice by May 4. According to Mead, the passage of 94-142 was a major turning point for public schools and had a tremendous impact on shaping her career. Mead came on the job in Annandale fresh from college in 1975, the same year schools were being told they had to accept handicapped children. “Before that, any program the school had for handicapped kids was more of a goodwill gesture,” she said. Annandale was among several districts in Wright County that had such opportunities. “Parents didn’t like sending their kids away to Brainerd or Cambridge or Fergus Falls,” she said. “The passage of the law was mostly thanks to their efforts.” The district’s first special education program began as a collaboration among area schools including Annandale, Dassel-Cokato, Howard Lake, Waverly and Maple Lake. Mead was the first instructor. When the program began, administration believed the best thing to do was keep the special education children completely separate from the other students. Mead was their “safe” place. She taught all subjects from math to music, reading to art. But she wasn’t convinced complete segregation was in the best interest of the kids. It wasn’t long before she began advocating the inclusion of her students into regular classroom activities. Her philosophy was that the kids could learn from each other. “I’ll tell you a story,” she said. “I once had a student who was in a wheelchair and couldn’t talk. “All the other kids thought he was so cool. They were always hanging on his chair. We actually had to draw names because everyone wanted to walk him down the hallway. One day they walked him down to music. It was the only class he had away from me. That day he never came back. “I went down to the music room and asked the teacher, ‘Where’s your class?’ She said they were at phy ed. “Sure enough, the kids had taken him outside with them. They asked, ‘Why can’t he come to phy ed? We hit the ball and take turns pushing him around the bases.’ “I’ve seen little baby miracles like that happen for 26 years,” she said. To Mead, helping her students fit in, not only in the regular classroom but in the community in general, has been her greatest contribution to education. “I knew that my students needed to be with their peers and their peers needed to be with them. It was a wonderful transition to watch through the years and I am so proud of the work all the Annandale teachers did to make it happen for all the students,” she said. Now officials call including special ed students in regular classes mainstreaming, but Annandale was doing it before anyone even came up with that term, she said. It was partly the school’s progressive attitude that kept Mead excited about her job in the district and the town in general. “That’s why I stayed here. My motivation has been how great everyone is to kids with disabilities,” she said. Today the district has nearly 20 people on its special education staff. They, along with numerous paraprofessionals, work as a team with children suffering from a variety of handicaps including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. “It’s really a team effort. I couldn’t do it by myself,” Mead said. But even teams have leaders, members who can’t help but stand out. The teachers of the Annandale School District saw that quality in Mead, but they weren’t the first. Her students had figured her out long ago. Here’s what Cole Hall says: “Becky Mead is kind and loving to everyone. She deserves to be teacher of the year. Thank you for considering her. I love her.”
