By: PAIGE FOSTER
Staff Writer
The Miner Fusion Club is an on-campus club which aims to facilitate constructive and appropriate interaction between students in the special education classes and general education classes. These activities include peer tutoring, class parties, and special holiday events. This week, on Wednesday, October 27, the Miner Fusion Club participated in trick-or-treating across campus during lunch in honor of Halloween. Various teachers offered up their rooms as “houses” for the students to trick-or-treat at, and the students got to dress up in their Halloween costumes. The eclectic procession of dinosaurs, marshmallows, and fairies traversed the campus in search of candy before heading back to a classroom for pizza and (of course) to assess their candy haul.
As a general education student, it’s easy to be intimidated by interacting with other students who have special needs that you may not be prepared to deal with. Miner Fusion offers a way for students to learn these skills and communicate with a wider variety of people. It also teaches the kind of compassion, patience, and kindness which is so rare (but so needed) in today’s world. For the special education students, club meetings and events provide them with a model for appropriate behavior and also give them a chance to form friendships outside of their own classrooms.
Personally, I began participating in the Miner Fusion club during my freshman year. Every Tuesday and Thursday during homeroom, I would go to the special education classroom and act as a peer tutor. The environment was frightening at first. I constantly felt that I might say or do something wrong that would upset the kid I was working with or be construed as insensitive. With time and experience, I began to understand the unique needs of each student and how best to interact with them. I came to love the honesty of one kid and the kindness of another and the sass of yet another. One day, I walked into the classroom and the kids excitedly shouted my name, and I realized how much I adored the homeroom tutoring sessions. Now, I’m President of the Miner Fusion Club, and I’m incredibly proud of both the people involved in the club as well as the good work it is doing. For any students who are looking to get involved in a club that initiates positive change as well as developing leadership and interpersonal skills, I’d highly recommend stopping by room 315.