[blindkid] Special child

melissa Green graduate56 at juno.com
Sun Dec 14 06:27:05 UTC 2008


I was refraining from posting on this topic.
But here I go.
I was one of the few blind children to attend the newark public schools in new
jersey.  I was the only blind child in my neighborhood school.  The teachers
would treat me  as if I was special and amazing.  I remember one time during a
teach/parent night, I had to show the parents how I could find my chair in the
music room.  I remember everyone aplauding me.  At five I was a little
imbarrassed.
As I got older, if someone from the state was coming, I was supposedly the
student that needed to be shown off.  Even the teacher of blind students
practiced this same stuff.  Then when the state wasn't around, I was supposed to
be quote "just like everybody else."  Which also meant that I was supposed to be
paddled for questioning my mother about my blindness, of course that was being
like "everybody else."
My family taught me that yes, I was special because of who I am and what I can
do.
I wasn't special because of my blindness.  My mom had expectations for me that
she had for my older brother.  I think that we should wonder about people's
definition of amazing, and or special when talking about blind people, or any
other disabled person that does things like a normal person in society.  

Best regards,
Sincerely,
Melissa R. Green
Hold on to your dream and it shall be well with you.


-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jan Wright
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:45 PM
To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindkid] Special child


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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