I was born in the mid 60's, the end of the period for baby boomers. My father was in WWII, therefore I do fit the definition of a baby boomer. At least a young baby boomer. When I was about two or three years old, my mother knew that something had been wrong with my vision. I would bring magazines close to my face to read.The doctor said wait to see if this continue, and it did. My mother took me to Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA in the late 60's. Amazing that I still remember this experience.
I remember being in a dark cold building. The inside was with decor of an old hospital, although the Institute was establishedin 1966. It was probably either 1968 or 1969 when I went there. I remember they had put me in a stainless steel baby crib. Lights were dim. I can still remember me squirming while the nurses tried to put ointment in my eye. One nurse holding me down as i wiggled; scolding me for squirming. They were being rough with me. When the exam was over, they finally connected me with my mother. Felt like I was away from my mother for a whole day. To a small child of 3 or 4 years old, that is enternity.
I was very happy to see my mom, but she was cold, emotionless like she wasn't my mother. Nor recognizing I needed consoling since I had been with those mean people pinning me down and scolding me. I didn't understand what was wrong with my mother and why she was stiff. What's wrong with mom? This person is not acting like my mother, who is she? What happened to my mommy? We got up to leave and I remember coming outside of the building and going down steps to the old white 1960's type station wagon.
It wasn't until years later I found out why my mom was cold. I found out that the doctor told my mother that I had a severe vision impairment. That I wasn't going to be a productive citizen, never will drive, and that I was most likely with some retardation. This was the first visit my mom has ever had with a specialized professional. Imagine how you would feel with that kind of news. This is back in the day when there was no Internet to search for answers. Doctors knew it all back then. Their word was considered almost gospel.This knews stunned and shocked my mother.
I'm so thankful to have parents that disregarded the doctor. They moved onto other doctors and tried to raise me as normal as they could. I wanted a pony and got one at age seven since my older sister had horses. Only fair right? I played with all kinds of animals, ran around, got dirty, fell etc. It wasn't until I went to pre-school that a nun realized I was not responding to my name. She knew that I wasn't the type of kid that blew people off. My mother had my hearing tested and found out I did have a hearing loss. The nun encouraged my mother to place me in an appropriate school. The nun, Sister Ann Marie, felt that "regular" school wouldn't be the best for me. I would get lost in the shuffle. We found Francis Blend, a public school for the blind in Los Angeles. Every morning I rode the bus for 1 1/2 hours to get to school. We lived north west of Los Angeles outside the city limits, but still in Los Angeles County. Fortunately, it only took an hour to get back home from school since mid-afternoon there isn't a lot of traffic like in the morning.
Most of the kids who attended Francis Blend were legally blind with about two in my class that were totally blind. I did not learn Braille, but all my books were large print. It was unique being with kids that were like me or me like them. I attended until 6th grade, the highest grade level at the school.
In middle school I was mainstreamed, but had great difficulty. Even in high school, learning was a huge challenge. I was shuffled through high school since the teachers literally didn't know how to handle a student who couldn't hear most of the lesson, nor could not see the front board very well. They too thought I wouldn't amount to anything successful in life. They predetermined that I would only have a low level job. I graduated from high school with poor English writing skills, not being able to complete a sentence, or able to write a decent paragraph. My math skills were remedial and I only had Earth Science for a science class. I didn't even have biology. My GPA was 2.2 and my combined SAT score was 580. The SAT has two parts and my combined score I received was a score someone could get on one part. Of course teachers and itinerary teachers labeled me as remedial. The structure in high school was extremely poor and wasn't accessible to me. I was labeled.
I had very high expectations of myself and really wanted to attend college, and I did. I went to California State University, Northridge: National Center on Deafness. The largest mainstreaming public University for the deaf in the nation at the time. I again was with my peers and felt I belong, unlike high school where I felt like an outcast and remedial.
I've always felt comfortable with my blind friends and deaf friends. I only had one deaf-blind friend from camp. I could relate to my hearing issues and I could relate to my vision challenges, but I did not know how to relate to being with a combined vision and hearing disability.
I had lost my vision in my right eye at age, I compensated for my monocular vision, no depth perception and low vision quite well. I fooled a lot of people by functioning normal. At middle school and high school I was teased, looked at as if I was a "weirdo" and just never really felt that comfortable in middle or high school. Not to disregard a very small number of friends I had in middle school and high school, but many people at my school were just rather immature. When I graduated from high school, I just couldn't wait to go to college. At California State Northridge, I felt I was in a community of people who were more like me and me like them. My signing skills improved.
I took an English class within the National Center on Deafness' program. In one semester, a deaf professor and a deaf tutor both brought my skills up to college level. Just one semester. It wasn't that I was remedial, my high school just didn't know what to do. My deaf professor taught the class in American Sign Language. In the right situation and the right environment, I do excel well. it is ignorance of people who put the barriers to my learning. When information is not accessible to me, I don't do that well.
I later transferred to California Polytechnic University, Pomona where I received my Bachelor's degree in Zoology and minor in chemistry. To reflect that I am a person who did very poorly in high school, only had earth science, had only high school Freshmen level math and couldn't write a complete sentence, I have overcome incredible odds. Afterwards I continued and received an A. S. degree in Animal Health Technology (Los Angeles Pierce Junior College), a Post Baccalaureate certificate in Natural Resource Interpretation (Humboldt State University) and a teaching credential for seventh grade life science and high school biology (California State University, Northridge.)
I'm far from remedial. But it is obvious in some narrow and poor environments, I will not do well. People seem to be the biggest barriers to my success, not my disability. They quickly judge that because I can't learn, hear, see or do, that I'm remedial, and do not think that an accommodation can solve the issue. People can't think out of the box, and label instead of problem solve. Fortunately for me, I had the chance to attend college, and proved to the Ophthalmologist at Jules Stien Eye Institute, they were completely wrong. Don't let people put labels on you.
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