Where every day is independence day

A child sits upright. Another learns how to hold a pencil. Still another  gamely navigates a walker through a crowded school hallway. Take a good look at these pictures of success - the product of patient and painstaking work in places where every day is independence day.

In schools throughout the five boroughs hundreds of occupational and physical therapists help thousands of children take small steps toward a life of dignity, normality and participation. Kids who in another not-too-distant time and place would have been left to languish unattended.

Modern medicine has added years to their lives; enlightened schools have added meaning and joy. And the dedicated corps of therapists, in countless ways, help these youngsters navigate literally and figuratively through their daily school routines that mean so much to them.

This is a side of contemporary school life the public, policymakers and pundits never see. Success stories that will never show up in stats or college board scores or even graduation rates. But oh, what a difference they make.

As UFT vice president Carmen Alvarez put it, in an overused but perfectly apt phrase, these therapists are "unsung heroes."

Now these special educators have their own functional chapter, some 700 members strong and growing. "We need to advocate for what we do. We need to be recognized and seen," said their new chapter leader Stephanie Lubalin.

Indeed.