While there I often functioned as an aide to two different children with different learning challenges. This taught me the value of skilled, trained and well developed teachers and specialists in the classroom - of which I was none. To remedy this I've spent hours pouring over books covering social equity, Asperger's Syndrome, autism, critical race theory and progressive teaching practices.
I believe it's important to hold both your goals and the child's goals while making decisions about education. At NOCCS I saw the beauty of responsive and reflective classrooms led by teachers and students together and the tragedy of "progressive" classrooms that ended up being just as dogmatic as any "traditional" classroom setting. For me its more important to help kids create their own learning environment - whatever structure it may take - than to adhere to a strict set of rules, regardless of their label in the educational community.