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Hannah Markos Williams's avatar

I'm really grateful to see this post! This half of the conversation is often missing—we hear about PDAers "refusing" to do things, but we rarely hear about PDAers with the gumption and assuredness (and skill) to, say, develop and get signatures on a petition to require the school cafeteria to switch to paper straws, like a PDA 4th grader I know, or to bring a challenge to a college policy directly to the president of that college as an undergraduate student, like a PDA 20-year-old I know. In my experience, this is mostly because we still view ND kids primarily through the perspectives of those who care for them within models that view compliance as success.

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Laura Hellfeld's avatar

Oooo, that mention of thinking compliance is success. Yes, that is so much of it, isn’t it? We are so much more and deserve so much more patience and curiosity from others.

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Hannah Markos Williams's avatar

well said!

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Summer Christian's avatar

Thank you so much for highlighting the amazing strengths of this group of special people!! This is the first time I’ve read something that put PDA in a positive light and I am so grateful! I sent it to my 16 year old PDA kid so he could see himself in a more positive light 🩷

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Laura Hellfeld's avatar

My absolute pleasure! That makes me so happy to hear that this could be a positive read for your teen.

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Lisa F's avatar

Love love love this and I see all of these in my lil PDA'er! These beautiful traits are so needed in our world - I love seeing them celebrated!

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Laura Hellfeld's avatar

I’m so glad this brought some glimmers for you.

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