During my 25 years of life I have taught a number of different people; from toddlers, elementary age, high school, to adults and the elderly. I've worked with the very sick, and those that are physically, mentally, and emotionally disabled. I feel that I have a pretty good range so far. However now, every Wednesday, I work at the School for the Blind. It's a whole new experience for me. I don't think that I've ever really met blind people. But I looked forward to the experience, knowing that the best I could do was treat them as if nothing is different.
My class at the end of the day was a class of 6 of adult students learning acupuncture (isn't that cool?!) I gave my introduction and the team teacher asked if I could ask each person a different question to get to know them. As I was trying to think of questions, my mind was racing as to find good, personal questions that did not deal with seeing, fashion, movies, and vacations. Since I am not a person who can multi-task, I ended us asking one student the worse possible question I could ever imagine to ask.
...What is your favorite color?...
By the time this processed as completely wrong, my teacher already hesitantly translated it in Japanese. It got quiet for a little while and then the student graciously answered,
"My favoite color is black and white."
I could not feel more of a horrible person. In my defense, there are various levels of seers. Some of them are completely blind, some need technical resources, others are legally blind, but can see colors. Since this girls looked like there was nothing to really aide her, I made the mistake of assuming she could at least see color. Rookie mistake! Never again. At least I can look back at that moment after I'm done with this school and hopefully see how much more sensitive and understanding I have become.
I hope, I hope, I hope.
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