[blindkid] Special child

[Carol Castellano]

AMEN!
Carol

At 04:45 PM 11/20/2008, you wrote:

>I think that this discussion is an important one.
>
>I have refrained from responding because Carrie did a good  job at 
>expressing my views.
>
>     While growing up, I always had people in my family who would 
> say that I was "special" and "Amazing." This made me feel quite 
> uncomfortable and yielded much animosity from my siblings. In fact, 
> I will say that it was a barrier to interacting with my own sighted 
> peers. I shrunk from this attention into my braille and talkingbooks.
>
>     The residential school that I attended did not help: I felt as 
> if I was always put on display for the many tours that frequented 
> the school. I realize that they needed to elicit donations. But, I 
> will tell you that to this day, I dislike being in the limelight 
> because it feels like I am on display.
>
>It seemed that the public only had two responses for me. Either they 
>ignored me completely which also meant that they did not focus on my 
>blindness, but they did not even recognize my existance.  or they 
>thought that I was "amazing." But, this "Amazing" quality did not 
>translate into real abilities. Often, I get the statement from 
>society that I am "Amazing," because I am raising four children. 
>Yet, these same people would not feel comfortable with me watching 
>their own child. And, I was always "Special,"  but not "Special 
>enough" to warrant true friendship and have an opinion passed the 
>blindness issues. Whether in the pit or on the pedestal, your blind 
>child wants to be treated like every other  child and when you do 
>this, you teach society to do it, as well. Also, it allows your 
>child to develop their gifts and be proud of being "special" for the 
>wonderful gifts that they exhibit. Thus, their family, their friends 
>and society does not define them by their disability. And, their
>  gifts are not measured with a disabled measuring stick, but one 
> that measures all gifts.
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