Throughout the majority of my life, I have tried to live in a pass-it-on sort of mind set, meaning, when I give without expecting to receive anything in return and the recipient of this gift tries to pay me back or assures me that they will, I tell them to “pass it on”.
For example, around two weeks before I moved to Mobile, Alabama for college, a lady in a drive-thru paid for half of my meal because I had left my debit card at work and didn't have enough cash to pay for the whole thing. Then, a week later, a young boy came through the drive-thru where I worked and had left his wallet at his job. So, I paid for his order and sent him on his way.
This same pass-it-on attitude is exactly what I've seen at The Southwest Alabama Regional School for the Deaf and Blind in Mobile. The Regional School teaches students from preschool to fifth graders. I've been volunteering there for almost all of my first freshman semester. The impact on me has been so great that I plan to volunteer there the remainder of my college years.
I'm not going to lie, when I very first began volunteering there, I thought, “Man, some of these teachers are harsh.” However, “harsh” isn't the word I should have used. “Persistent” would be a much better one, because they sort of have to be. It is a teacher's responsibility to make sure that their students are developing at a healthy and consistent rate given their age. This responsibility is even more heavily put on the shoulders of the teachers for students and preschool children that have special needs. These teachers have to make sure that their children are developing at the same rate as “normal” children, if not faster. They, also, help these students understand that they are completely normal children.
They, also, have to deal with children that act out because of the fact that they don't exactly understand all of the changes going on with themselves. It is a normal occurrence for these teachers to experience their students swatting at them, ignoring them, running away from them, screaming at them, or crying on a regular basis. These teachers have to be stern to show these children that those sorts of activities are not tolerated in everyday life.
Some of these children who have not heard a single sound their entire lives and only know sign language are receiving cochlear implants through out their earliest years. A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that allows profoundly deaf or extremely hearing impaired people to have a sense of hearing. During this early childhood stage, it is important for the children with new cochlear implants to begin to relate what sounds go with what objects seen. For some students, the cochlear implant means it's time for them to begin to speak using their voice. It is up to teachers at schools like The Regional School to help these children do so.
Why do these teachers do this? Why do they put up the attitudes, misbehavior, and special needs of these children? It's not for the pay, trust me. Well, today, November 13th of 2015, the class I was sitting in on was painting pictures of turkeys. Mrs. Rebecca, who is probably going to kill me if she reads this, was helping a hearing impaired boy who doesn't like to participate in class. Something you have to understand about Mrs. Rebecca is that she is very sarcastic. However, that's why I admire her so much. She is just as sarcastic with the kids but not in a bad way. She picks at them about the silly things they say and makes them laugh by saying something probably even sillier. As I watched her helping this little boy, I was taken by the way she could get him to sign and talk to her. That's when I realized, the reason they do this is because of the outcome. They know that they are changing these children's lives forever.
How, though? How do these teachers do it? How do they impact these special children so much? It's because the teachers are special, too. They have been blessed with a gift of love; a love so powerful that the deaf can hear it and the blind can see it. This love is so strong that it can cause a little girl with a cochlear implant that only knows how to vocalize screeches and screams to be able to say “Hey, Ms. Jill!” and sing along with Ms. Jessica in music therapy. This love is so patient that is can teach a little boy with a bad left had that is hard to use to sign “I'm helping Mrs. Dod.” to where I of all people can understand him. This love is so inspiring that it can flow from Ms. Gregory and open the eyes of her four seeing impaired fifth graders and shows them how to keep up with the date, weather, and how much money they have better than what I can at eighteen years old. This love is so embracing that it can cause a little boy who would cry anytime I left his side to be able to walk to his classroom all by himself. Finally, this love is so cheerful that a completely seeing and hearing principal of a school for the deaf and blind would allow mere college students to come in and experience it.
Though I mentioned a few names above, these are not all. There are so many more, and these teachers don't expect a thing back from these children. They just want the kids to grow up into adults and completely prosper in life. They, also, want the kids to spread the love they received at The Regional School; to sort of “pass it on”. God has really sent down his angels to lead his gifts to earth during the beginnings of their lives, and I am so grateful that I get to experience it.
