The Jellybean Conspiracy

GEHS put on this play, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew that the production included a lot of 'special needs' kids, including my own daughter, and the advanced rep class.

It's a play that deals very directly and deftly with the real world, the stress, unexpected delights, impossible family crises, and societal issues you're in for if there is a kid in your family with Down syndrome, mental retardation, autism, or one of a bunch of other diagnosable, identifiable differences that take them off the regular citizen assembly line.

Because that's what school is designed to be: an assembly line generating industry-standard taxpayers who will, among other things, pay the property taxes that support the schools manufacturing the next generation of the same.

The historical tendency was to favor the norm above all. If someone deviated to the upper end of specific prized functions, that was next in line. Gifted ed programs cost a bit more money, sure, but you were producing the student equivalent of highly productive industrial equipment that makes bigger and better products possible.

The monkey wrench in this model is kids like my youngest daughter, who cost a lot more to educate, and who might not turn into a juggernaut of tax revenue.

Wow, that's a cynical view of education, isn't it? I'll have to think about whether I think it's entirely accurate, but it feels about right.

Anyway, real reforms to this machine have been made, going back several decades, and in my experience to mostly positive effect. Kids like Mo are included in so much more than they were when I was a kid, including this play.

One of the dividends this pays is I can see how differently the so-called 'typical' peers she has think of her, treat her, and interact with her compared with anyone in my age group.

I thought the play did a great job, too, of explaining to the outside world what it can be like within a family: I still have in a trunk the Winnie the Pooh bear I carried when I was a toddler. He only has one ear because I wore the other one off rubbing it on my cheek (and the remaining one is pretty worn, too). Mo's sister had a bear that was a big deal to her, but we don't have that keepsake because, many years ago, someone didn't pay enough attention to where the scissors were and they fell, along with Louis the Bear in to the wrong hands.

That's just one incident, but it's the kind of thing that wears on a family.

The flip side of that is just as important, and it's not neglected in the Jellybean Conspiracy. I was told in advance that Mo was loving the microphone, and it was true. The chorus line 'I'm proud to be a jellybean' that was said in unison by the cast, was repeated after a second's delay by Mo every time. Loud.

A friend of mine said, in the lobby, that she was stealing the show, but there was another girl I thought did even more so. Far from having stage fright, she recognized friend in the audience, broke character and signed a phone to her hear and said, 'Oh, hey! Call me!'

Oh, and the event was emceed by Brian Busby.