A New Home in an Old Armory by Howard Freedlander

I witnessed a rare rebirth Friday, Sept. 5, 2014. A building with a history that goes back 88 years is now a school celebrating its 13th anniversary.

This building, with a new life, is home to a school that gives its students a second or third chance of success. The marriage seems just right.

Wye River Upper School, which serves students in grades 9-12 suffering from learning difficulties caused by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), dyslexia non-verbal learning disorder and levels of autism, provides an educational program often not found in public schools. Children who had trouble learning and socializing in a public school can achieve success at WRUS.

I’ve met some of the students and their parents. Their stories are heart-rending. The students have found a way to learn and use their very good minds to achieve academic success and find understanding friends and classmates.

About the building—it was constructed in 1926 to house a Maryland National Guard unit. In February 1941, Company K, 115th home on 316 Commerce Street for eventual combat on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Chrissy Aull, director and one of the founders of Wye River Upper School, spoke at the ribbon-cutting about the metaphorical importance of the re-use and renovation of the Centreville National Guard Armory. And she was spot on. The school she so capably leads is all about the restoration of a student’s learning ability and belief in oneself.

Somehow a shiny new school on unused property would not have fit into the mission of this special school. Students and parents can look around and realize that creativity and ingenuity can and does turn around a person’s life—just as it can provide a new future for an old building.

Children who might not have had reason to enjoy learning and attending school now, with the help of caring teachers and small classes, can find happiness and satisfaction.

Having served many years in the Maryland National Guard, I have a soft spot for old armories and their often illustrious histories. I think about the men who went off to war in World War II to rid the world of a terrible menace to human kind.

Then I think about the students and parents who are combatting misperceptions about achieving academic and social success in light of learning differences. It’s a different sort of courage.

For 43 students (including six from Talbot County) and their parents, Wye River Upper School is a godsend. For the rest of us, it is an invaluable educational alternative. We all benefit from inclusion and the accommodation of different learning styles.