On Friday, September 20, Parkside was delighted to welcome two special educators from Sweden! With the intent of gathering best practices for children with speech, language and communication difficulties, Mona Karlsson and Linda Hallberg made Parkside a “must see” part of their itinerary during their four-day visit to New York City.

From Sundbyberg, an urban municipality just north of Stockholm, Ms. Karlsson is a special education teacher who specializes in speech, language and digital resources for learning, and Ms. Hallberg is a senior special education teacher who specializes in neuropsychiatric disorders and creating the best learning environments for children in Sweden’s public schools.

Our visitors toured every inch of Parkside, saw all the classrooms, all the while smiling ear to ear and taking notes and pictures to take home with them to share with colleagues. It was delightful to see the admiration in their eyes as they learned about our curriculum and methodologies, and discussed ways in which some of our techniques could inform their work back home. They expressed great joy seeing our school, and feeling the warmth of our culture and the care we give to our students.

As they left through our red doors, Ms. Karlsson and Ms. Hallberg invited Ms. Thorne and Ms. Miller to come visit them in Sweden. As Ms. Thorne put it, “What’s most heartwarming is the thought that some exceptional children across the ocean may reap some benefits from the work we do right here at Parkside!”