Edumacation

Tanner started losing his sight at the end of last school year. Not wanting to believe it was anything more serious than some inflammation or something, I told his school that he was having "eye problems." How naive I was! I had hope that his problems were a transitory thing, and that he would be back to normal by the time school started in August.

When it became apparent that this was not going to happen, I began calling and emailing anybody that I could think of to let them know that a blind kid was going to be in class in the fall, and what were they going to do about it?

I got no response. Because the counselors didn't get back to school until the beginning of August, there was no one I could tell. I also kept calling the Division of Blind Services, wondering what it was, exactly, that I was supposed to be doing.

The Division of Blind Services was slow to call me back. They sent me paperwork which I filled out and sent back, but when I called back to inquire about said paperwork, they said they never received it and I would need to re-send. Sigh.

When I finally met with one of the counselors before school, she took one look at Tanner's course load - he's a smart one, that boy - and she asked if Tanner was going to consider a less rigorous load. He immediately said, "No."

So I thought the school had things well in hand. Bwahahahaha! Tanner spent the first nine weeks without any of the tools necessary for him to learn. His AP Geometry teacher called me one evening, concerned because Tanner came to class and put his head down the whole time. There was nothing else for him to do. The teacher spent most of the class drawing angles on the board, asking the class to comment on the work. Tanner could not see. How was he supposed to comment?

I realized recently that this is a small glimpse of the "disabled" world. Tanner does not want things handed to him on a silver platter; he wants to learn just like any other student. Some of his teachers are gifted - they may not have had a visually impaired student before, but they knew he would have to be taught auditorily. Bless them.

Somewhere along the way, we heard about the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine. This wonderful school gets its own post. (to be continued)