Ryan didn't want a trip other than that of others. He wanted to go back to school with the same memory as his comrades.
He was 10 years old, he attended the fourth grade in Kentucky and, due to the spina bifida, he used a wheelchair.
When his class organized a visit to the Falls of the Ohio State Park, there was a real problem.
A part of the route crossed a rocky soil rich in fossils that was not accessible with its wheelchair.
It wasn't the first time something like this happened.
In the past Ryan and his mother had participated in alternative educational activities. They were useful experiences, but there was still a difficult difference to erase.
The next day, the other children could talk about the same adventure.
Ryan, no.
This time, however, another solution was sought.
Ryan's mother had found a special support similar to a backpack that would allow her to carry it along the path.
Jim Freeman was a school teacher. He wasn’t even Ryan’s teacher: he taught in a neighboring class.
When he learned about the situation, he offered to be the one to take Ryan on his shoulders during the journey.
Ryan could have crossed that line with other children, observe the same places and participate in the same experience.
When she was placed in the support of the teacher, Freeman recalled a phrase pronounced by the child:
“This is the part I was waiting for. ”
Few words that perfectly explain why that day was so important.
Ryan didn't ask the world to pretend that obstacles didn't exist.
He simply wanted someone to try to find a way not to leave her behind.
And this is perhaps the most significant part of history.
The inclusion can be made of accessible structures, appropriate tools and rules thought well.
But sometimes it also begins with a person who looks at a problem apparently without solution and wonders:
“How can we do so that she comes? ”
That day Jim Freeman didn't just carry a child through a rocky path.
She allowed her to go back to school with something that no alternative trip could give her the same way: a shared memory with her companions.