 And when they come, they get to do the same thing that all the rest of the kids are doing. They're not in a special room off to the side, but they're full participants. And we find the way to make that work for them. And we get parents involved to the extent that they feel comfortable. And some parents will be more involved and some parents will be less involved. And sometimes we have to take leadership. Sometimes we have to be proactive. Sometimes we really have to be advocates for change. So I'll tell you a quick little story. We're almost ready for another discussion and a break. This happened a couple of years ago in Winnipeg. There was a group of children and their caregivers who were planning a trip to the busiest mall in Winnipeg about two weeks before Christmas to see Santa Claus. Yikes. Okay, so the mall's not as busy as the West Edmonton Mall, but it's Winnipeg's biggest mall. It's a very, very busy place. And for some reason, the staff team had decided to take the group of preschoolers. 32 preschoolers in the center. 31, we're gonna go see Santa. One child was being left back with the director. Is that full participation? No, it's not. And we might have a whole philosophical question about why were they taking those kids to see Santa at Polo Park anyways. However, that was the plan. And the reason was this little boy was a runner. You know what I mean, right? A child with poor impulse control. And the child might get hit by a car. The child might run away at the mall. There's gonna be a big problem. We might get sued. Let's just leave the child back. There was one young woman working at the center who said, whoa, hold on. What's wrong with what we're doing here? And you know, it's not easy to be that person, to challenge the management decision and the group decision that's being made. But she said, it's not fair. And many of you might have thought the same thing. And she said, what do we need to do to feel comfortable with taking this little boy on the field trip excursion with us? And there was some bup, bup, bups, and um, um, umms. And they said, well, he needs to have both his hands held. And so this ECE said, I will hold one hand who will hold the other. And the other staff said, oh, we're all busy. We're busy looking after our children and we can't hold his hand too. Okay, there's a problem there. You can see where I'm going with this. And the director was on board with keeping the child back. She said, he can just color and keep me company in my office. And again, this young woman said, can we ask mom? And of course, mom knew that her little guy was a runner and maybe she would like to come along on the field trip too. Unfortunately, she was not able to take the time off but her sister had already come to Winnipeg for Christmas and her sister, Auntie, went on the field trip and held one hand and the ECE held his other hand. And this little boy was just good as gold. And he had his picture taken on Santa's lap. He wasn't hit by a car and he didn't run away. Came back safely. And you'd say it was all good. But to me, it's really an example of these principles of inclusion, right? If you believe in these things, you take the action. You know, you walk the talk. And that's what we're all about in this room today. I wanna show you a picture here of Catherine, a little girl at this nursery school back in 81, 82. Now let me see if I can find her with this. That's her right there in the arms of one of the ECEs. And where is she today? Recently, I spoke to her mom who is now the head of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba. And Laura tells the story of Catherine's journey from that inclusive preschool to where she is today, living independently, working as a volunteer at the Women's Hospital. And how important that early learning experience was to that family. These principles are about having this positive celebratory kind of attitude that yes, we can make this work, full participation. Here's a different little boy, Erin, about to go off on a field trip, not to see Santa. It's a summer shot. But the staff at this center very consciously planned for how would Erin be a full participant on the field trip. They made sure that the bus could accommodate his special push chair that he rides in. And when they got to the fire station, Erin got to do what all the other kids were doing. He got to try on the big fireman boots and where the firefighter had and he got to hold the hose and squirt some water out. And it was a much more appropriate field trip because they planned it, thinking, who are the children in our group and how do we make sure that everybody is successful? So I want to take a break now. We want to have some discussion. I'm like, over time, I'm sorry. We'd like you to have an opportunity to talk about these principles and to think about how your own early learning program breeds life into them. And if you face any implementation challenges with respect to those principles, what might they be?