AFTER YEARS OF LEARNING AT HOME, MY 10-YEAR-OLD SON, WHO HAS DOWN SYNDROME, WAS FINALLY GIVEN THE CHANCE TO ATTEND A MAINSTREAM SCHOOL. HE WAS HAPPIER THAN I’D SEEN HIM IN YEARS. BUT ONLY FIVE DAYS AFTER STARTING, I RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM THE PRINCIPAL THAT LEFT ME TERRIFIED.
Two phones wrapped in a sock. An envelope of field trip money. A secret club with one rule: never tell. Everyone at Briar Glen Elementary decided my son was a thief before lunch. But Milo had spent his whole life being taught to write down everything he saw, like a real scientist. And on Friday morning at 10:40, he saw something no grown-up was supposed to see.
CHAPTER 1: FIELD NOTES
My son, Milo, has kept a science notebook since he was six.
He calls it his Field Notes. It’s green, with a stegosaurus sticker on the cover, and it goes with him everywhere. When we homeschooled, I taught him what my own father taught me: A real scientist writes down everything. What you saw. What time you saw it. Don’t guess. Just write what’s true.
