Students Learn Lessons on the Go

Few students can float lazily on a boogie board, sift sand through their fingers or dip their toes in the ocean during a class lesson.

But students at Esperanza Special Education School can.

During the summer months, students from Esperanza--the year-round Mission Viejo school that serves developmentally disabled children from across the Saddleback Valley Unified School District--get a break from classroom instruction and spend two days a week in the community.

These excursions, such as the weekly trip to Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, teach students how to order meals at restaurants, to behave appropriately in public and to socialize with one another--lessons they may not learn during the structured, academic school year.

“We like to make it different for students,” said teacher Pat Haberfield. “In the summer, there’s a little more emphasis on social skills and life skills, which we don’t get to do too often.”

All students are severely handicapped from such disorders as Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy, Haberfield said. They range in age from 14 to 22.

Many live in group homes and rarely get a chance to experience the outside world. Others, Haberfield said, have behavior problems that make it difficult for them to go out in public.

Trips to the Discovery Science Center, bowling alley, Santa Ana Zoo and Doheny move the students out of the sheltered classroom and into the real world, she said. The summer session costs $50 and includes 12 field trips. Scholarships are available for those who cannot pay.

For these students, the most simple experiences become valuable lessons.

“Just learning to order a meal at a restaurant or going up to the snack bar and ordering a Coke for yourself” are huge milestones, Haberfield said.

Or, she added, leaving the safety of the beach for the unknown ocean can signal great improvement for a developmentally disabled child like Won Choi, 15.

When Won first started coming to the beach, “he sat up on the sand petrified,” Haberfield said. “He was scared to death of the water. He was frightened to go out in the community at all.”

But last week, all traces of fear were gone as Won giggled heartily with each wave that swept over his legs.

“He’s having so much fun,” Haberfield said.

Other students watched Won from the shade of the umbrellas that dot the makeshift camp, where about 45 students spent the day.

Some used plastic shovels to carve holes in the sand. Others stood ankle-deep in the water, letting the waves lap their toes. Jorge Sanchez, 14, coasted along the water’s edge on a boogie board.

Curtis Henderson, 16, was guided into the ocean on a specially designed, plastic-wheeled wheelchair. Teachers steadied the chair as waves crashed over Curtis’ legs. He smiled widely.

At that moment, the world of school desks and chalkboards could not have seemed farther away.

“They really enjoy just about everything,” Haberfield said. “They have fun when they’re doing something different.”