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the winnetka current | December 8, 2016 | 9
carden
From Page 6
my Ryan like a curriculum
beyond what any textbook
could give to my own
children.”
Carden, who had previously
worked as a first
and second grade teacher
at Harper School in Wilmette,
also has years of
experience working with
special needs student
populations. While her
children were attending
Immaculate Conception
school on the North Side
of Chicago, she helped the
school develop and implement
a resource lab for
students with various different
learning challenges.
When coming to FHC in
2012 to interview for the
open principal position,
Carden talked about her
dream to make Catholic
schools more inclusive.
“My dream is to make
FHC a model and help
other Catholics schools
do the same thing,”
she said.
Previously, Carden was
selected to attended a certificate
program at Loyola
University Chicago called
“Leading Inclusive Catholic
Schools”, where administrators
from around the
country spend 18 months
learning how to take resources
they have in their
schools, examine where
students have interferences
in learning and work on
solutions to get past those
obstacles.
Carden says luckily, a
lot of Catholic schools are
improving on looking past
obstacles like aging facilities
and lack of funding to
better incorporate special
needs students.
“One of the things Beth
Foraker of the Natioanl
Catholic Board on Full
Inclusion said was, ‘How
Catholic are we? Are we
only Catholic until it gets
expensive?’” she said.
“I think that sticks in my
mind a lot because that is
what stops people. One
is the money involved in
the resources, and two is
letting go of that old fashioned
idea that if you have
a special need, you have
to go to a public school
because they have the resources
to fit your needs.
I think you have to change
an old philosophy and get
your teachers to really understand
that they are really
so capable of doing it.”
On a recent trip with
eighth graders to Washington,
D.C., Carden said
she took a trip on her own
to see for herself how
some Catholic schools in
the D.C./Baltimore area
worked to include students
with special needs,
from Down syndrome to
autism.
“These old fashioned
Catholic schools and
teachers were teaching
with heart,” she said, explaining
most buildings
did not have state-of-theart
facilities or curriculums
to engage with students.
This October, Carden
and FHC welcomed a
young girl from Chicago
with Down syndrome
to their school after the
girl’s mother said they
yearned for a Catholic
education for their
daughter but their local
school did not have an
inclusion program.
“She has been a gift to
us,” Carden said of the student.
“We are giving her
our all and she is giving us
and our students so much
more in return.”
This year, FHC has three
full-time support staffers,
a social worker, a school
counselor and a speech
teacher to help students
with various Individualized
Educational Programs
(IEPs).
Carden says this fall is
the first time a child with
a “visible disability” is
learning in an all-inclusive
environment with other
children. While the child
has a teachers aide, she
is not participating in a
pullout or separate special
education program.
She says what makes
FHC so unique is that
along with a Catholic
identity, teachers and
parents have continually
created a welcoming
environment.
“Parents have opened
their hearts to kids who are
different as well,” she said.
“We don’t have a lot of
diversity here in Winnetka
at all, so if we can have
diversity of ability in our
building and allow kids
to learn from each other,
I think that’s huge and a
game changer. [And], I
think our teachers are what
make us really unique.
They do everything that
is asked of them and
more. They don’t give up
on any child and they’re
constantly educating
themselves on how each
child learns best.”
When Carden received
the Dandy Award, she
said she was lucky to have
not just the entire school,
but the Down syndrome
student’s family and her
own family in attendance.
She used the award as the
time to remind students
that while the recognition
was a wonderful thing, that
students should continue
working towards being
inclusive of others always.
“I told the boys and girls
at mass [on Wednesday],
Father Marty tells us all
the time that we need to do
the right thing just because
it’s the right thing, not because
anybody’s looking,”
she explained. “We don’t
need a reward, we just
have to do the right thing.
I said I never knew this
award existed. I said this
is your award — my name
might be on it, but this belongs
to all of you. You’re
including people and we
didn’t do it for any recognition.”
Help Winnetka Golf Club
celebrate its 100th anniversary
SUBMITTED BY WINNETKA PARK DISTRICT
A North Shore Tradition
since 1917, the Winnetka
Golf Club’s rich
history needs to be celebrated.
Currently, the
Winnetka Park District
is compiling a historical
timeline of the WGC
which will be used in a
digital and permanent
display at the WGC
Clubhouse.
The Winnetka Park District is
looking for community members to
share WGC stories (oral and written
accounts), WGC photos (originals can
be scanned) and WGC memorabilia
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From now through mid-
January, the Winnetka
Park District is compiling
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timeline and permanent
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(847) 501-2076.
Additionally, anyone interested
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2017 about 100th Anniversary events and
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2014 & 2015
Producers
*Chicago Magazine (August 2016) - Cook County
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