[blparent] my Hadley office hours

[sharon howerton]

Yesterday after having a third week of no participants, I received an email asking what office hours are. Perhaps this needs explanation. For some time I have heard-and felt-that there is no real place for blind and visually impaired parents to talk with one another. Though obviously we can't do this in person, at least we can hear each other with the benefit of our student lounge. I have done this sort of "chat" for my Braille students for three years, and several of our other instructors do this for their courses. What I envision for the parenting office hours is a place for parents to chat-about anything that means something to them concerning parenting. I had one student complain about our Braille office hours because we weren't reviewing lessons. Well, each person is at a different level. Some people have surpassed where others are and can share their experiences. My experience as a congenitally blind person having read Braille since first grade is a lot different from an adult learning after suffering vision loss from something-lots of medical issues. For our parents group, I feel the same. My perspective as a blind mom with two adult sons is much different from a young mom with a newborn, toddler or school aged child. Yet each of us has something to offer. I chose 1 PM because that was near the time of our parents seminar a few weeks ago. Our lounge is occupied in evenings with other sessions, and I do things in the evenings so did not want to choose a time when I'd have to cancel. If time is an issue, I'd like to know as perhaps I could rethink time and day, but Thursday is an absolute no as that is when I do my Braille office hours and almost always have a choir commitment Thursday evenings. Let me hear from you at
sharon at hadley.edu
and I hope this clarifies. Join me next Wednesday, Sept 19 at 1 PM Central but unless you have gotten log on information from me before, you will need to contact me for it; we do not put it out publicly.
Thank you for your time and for reading.
Sharon Howerton, Instructor
The Hadley School for the Blind of