Wednesday, January 20, 2016

What's next?

The Final Straw: Let's go back a bit first

Previously I wrote about my overpowering desire to learn about dyslexia and to figure out how in the world I could help my students. I wanted to learn beyond what I already knew about special education, learn from my past, from my experiences, to ...  really, I did not know what to expect!

There seemed to be too many unknowns and no answers!

30 Years
Over 30 years ago... I was, minding my own business walking through the education wing at church, when the children's ministry director, Cindy McKee, stopped me.

"How would you like to teach Sunday School?" she asked.

"ME?"
"Oh, NO."
"I am NOT a teacher!" I protested (Loudly!)

"I really need a teacher, Cathy." She said. Her tone was serious and the look in her eyes said she wasn't messing around!

Who was I? I was just a young mom with a degree in applied science, an agriculture degree for goodness sake! What could I possibly know about teaching?!? I just knew there was nothing in my background that prepared me to be a teacher! I had two young children and in my eyes there was no way, NO WAY, I was remotely equipped to teach!

Cindy continued on. "I need a 1st grade teacher."

"No. I can't do it." I was not the answer to her problem!

Little did I know, while I thought I wasn't the answer, here was one of the beginning points in my career in special education.

AND teach Sunday school I did! Cindy's persistence won out. Here's how we handled it: I agreed to not be THE teacher but to be the HELPER! In the end three ladies rotated, each teaching one month at a time, while I served as the support person. I was the helper. In the background. NOT teaching.






Children's Classroom, Cathy's Research lab!
Did I say I was NOT teaching. Silly me, because that's exactly what I did! The year started off with me sitting quietly there helping the teacher when ever I could, but at some point I realized something ----> I was as much a teacher as anyone in that class. Having three teachers originally seemed like a great idea. But it turned out that I knew the kids' personalities, their likes and dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone because I was there every week. (Only missed one week when I gave birth to my daughter. After that my baby girl came to Sunday school, too!)

The class had about a dozen students, but one little girl to this day stands out in my mind's eye. One beautiful little girl, each week, would grow quiet when her turn to read approached. You see, the ladies who were teaching felt that having the class take turns reading the lesson was a great idea. Sounded good.  At some point that year I realized it was not the best choice for this sweet little girl.

I had no training in learning disabilities or any idea what dyslexia was at that time, it just made sense to let her choose whether or not she wanted to read.

She didn't.

That was 30+ years ago. I still remember thinking: how can someone who's so pretty, and has no obvious disability, struggle to read.  Now I know better. To this day I will occasionally hear someone comment "that child's too cute, they can't have a disability." Still so many people to educate.

For me it was the beginning of a long journey. Long journey, oh how those words don't even begin to convey the truth...exhausting, challenging, overwhelming, lonely, intense, and long, yes, it's been a LONG journey!