High School and My Daughter

My daughter, who can very well be the poster child for shyness, discovered the joy of performing in middle school. She was in a drama class that had a teacher that understood how performing could be a tool to help with social skills and communication. As the decision for choosing a high school came, we had to come up with 12 programs in the different schools in our area. This was no easy task. Most of the high schools in New York city are overcrowded and that was one of the big issues in making this choice. We knew that my daughter would do better in a school with a much smaller population. She decided to audition for a performance high school and this caught us by surprise. You see she is a very shy young lady who was diagnosed with autism at age 5. Granted she has developed and progressed way beyond anyone can imagine, this decision to audition was still a real shock. However, we were not going to stand in her way. She memorized 2 monologues as required, practised dance steps as needed and went on her merry way to auditions at 2 performance high schools. Acceptance to one of them was an even bigger surprise. The start of her freshman year was filled with transition issues. But this is typical of my daughter. New places, new faces, new schedules, new anything is a challenge for her. The school needed to show her patience and give her time. I guaranteed them that she was never going to be a discipline problem but will need their help to get over the hump. Days of tears were not unusual in our house at this time. But I needed to feel confident that my daughter would pull herself together and do what she needed to do. Sure she had to work hard and put in more hours of study than the other kids. She's used to that. Sure she had to gather a lot of courage to participate in class and to perform in their shows. She didn't have a choice. The first time I saw her on stage doing a monologue was the best and most wonderfully shocking gift a mother could get from her child. To my daughter's embarrassment, her mother burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably. (Sorry, honey, it won't happen again. ) My daughter has been the recipient of such good fortune by getting in a school filled with people who truly care about the children in their school. My daughter has passed all her required subjects and all the necessary regents exams  and is now in her senior year thanks to the school founded by Tony Bennett. The school is Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts.