REAL AMERICAN IDOLS

The girl moved slowly to the front of the crowded auditorium, a microphone clutched in her right hand as the opening notes of the Stevie Nicks' song "Landslide" poured out of a speaker system somewhere in the room. She was dressed in a white t-shirt, black slacks and beneath a long mop-head of dark hair, she wore a huge smile on her face. The audience waited for Kerry to sing.

If Simon Cowell had been critiquing the performance he would have said something like;

"That was horrific, Kerry"

Randy Jackson might have commented; "Yo, listen up, Kerry...there were some definite pitch issues but I gotta say, you looked like you were having a real good time up there." Lord knows what Ellen Degeneres would say.

It takes an amazing amount of courage to get up and perform in front of a live audience. The special needs students we watched in this wonderful talent show had all that bravery and more. They gave the audience the best they had and even if Kerry got lost in the lyrics occasionally or the word "Landslide" sometimes came out as "Randside", none of us noticed because of her joy and unbridled enthusiasm. More than one of the spectators had a tear in (his) their eyes after she had finished.

Some of the actors and singers were in wheelchairs; some had to be led in clutching a teacher's hand; one wore a pale blue diaper peeking out from beneath the brown hand-sewn donkey suit he had donned for a barnyard animal skit. Many of the older male performers sported mustaches and facial hair. While their innocence and mannerisms often remain forever young, time cannot stop it's ceaceless march toward adulthood for these "kids', or any of us for that matter.

What we can learn from watching amazing performers like them, are things like loving ourselves for who we are, how to co-operate and above all - how to build friendships. Every student on that stage worked to the best of their ability to accomplish all of those traits and that is exactly why they should be our true American Idols.