A SMALL STORY

A SMALL STORY


There is a small story that I would like to recount. In total, it is a story fully composed of a myriad of details, facts and deep emotions and related warm recollections. But, its substance is simple and in that simplicity is the joy in it's telling. Literary politeness requires that I attach some contrived moniker to the characters of whom I write but, this re-christening cannot detract from the intense emotions that I have for them and their love and dedication to the children in their charge.

If you please, bear with me for a moment as I try to place this all in some context.

Each year, during the Memorial Day Week, I return to a small town in the mountains of West Virginia. It is small, hidden village that is the county seat and is most noted for its Woodchoppers Festival" held on the Memorial Day weekend. I return each year to visit with old and dear friends who have added meaning to my life for near a quarter century. When I visit, I stay with Sarah and Thomas. We met long ago when I was the counties School psychologist. They had been Special Education Teachers in Pennsylvania and had come to the county in hopes of finding a small community which would provide them with the opportunity make a difference and at the same time draw from that community a quieter and less demanding life style. Both parties have held up their end of the bargain.

My friendship with Sarah and Thomas is only a part of a broader, interlaced and rich association I have with a larger circle of friends in the county and during my visit we all try to gather and renew those bonds. It was during one of these gatherings that, during a quiet moment, Sarah and I had an opportunity to sit and talk. We sat there recalling pleasant moments of the past and tried to catch up as best we could, given the constraints of time. During our talk, Sarah gave me some brief updates on the children we had worked with and how they were doing at the present time. Among the names that came up was a child names Zack. Sarah has, for the better part of her career, worked with preschool children who, through differing assessments, are eligible for pre-school special education services. One of these children was Zack. He was 3 years old and had a profound hearing loss. He was totally deaf and his mother had been told that this condition would have a profound effect on his development, to the extent that his future functioning would be severely impaired. Doctors, and others around her, were emphatic in stating that the County School System could not provide the appropriate services for her child and that the most appropriate placement for him would be enrollment in the West Virginia School for the Deaf. A good deal of the resistance to his local placement was founded in the fact that the school system knew that they would be required to provide him with services if he remained in their system and thus expenses would be incurred that they would rather avoid if possible. School systems are like that some times. His mother's desire was that he remain at home and in school with other community children. Sarah met with Zack's mother and outlined what services were available and what her rights were in seeking other appropriate services through the school system's Special Education Programs. Thus began the education of young Zack and the beginning of my story.

The county is small and not largely populated. It is secluded in the mountains and many of its high school graduates leave, never to return. The school system is small and all the parents know all the teachers and the teachers know all of the children. The community is, to a great extent, self-sustaining. As best they can, and with the help of churches and other groups, people within the community help each other. It forms a unity among those in the community. This thread is also sewn through the educational system. Many teachers have taught both parents and their children. Relationships are important. Within this setting, Sarah began working with Zack at age 3. At first he was confused, he acted out and was probe to bite and generally resist anything that impeded his activities. Slowly she taught him basic behaviors such as to sit and attend. Just to simply watch. She learned to sign and began teaching Zack to communicate using sign and to watch her lips as she spoke. She also taught her aide and Zack's mother to sign as an aid in communicating with him. Progress was slow and deliberate. Anything and everything was touched, signed and broadly mouthed as he watched. Zack was bright and at some point the association between the sign and the object was made. His first association was the correlation between the sign and water (as was the case with Helen Keller.). This work with Zack was not done in isolation. Informal meetings between teachers were held. Different approaches were suggested and tried. At time, associations were slowly made due to their abstract nature. The word "Air" was taught only after numerous missteps and brainstorming sessions among teachers. Future teachers were given instruction in signing. Before any movement was made, those involved met and planned the activity. Future teachers often came by his classroom just to say hello and allow him to get to know them. Discussions during informal gatherings often centered on Zack and his progress. At times, Zack's achievements were seen as a point of collective parental pride among those charged with providing him with an education. As if by providence, the Speech Pathologist contracted to work with Zack was also hearing impaired and understood not only his communication difficulties but, his emotional needs as well. Through all this, Zack prospered. His educational parents openly displayed their pride in his abilities. There had been no extra funds to teach his teachers to sign, nor was there a mandate that they do so. They did it because he was part of their community. His educational plan was not developed simply through mandated educational meetings. It was crafted in school halls and teachers break rooms. It was refined through evening telephone conversations between teachers. All shared the commitment to help him succeed and extend his abilities to whatever potential he possessed. These were teachers who understood the trust of their community and were committed to the covenant that this child should and would succeed. His graduation was a moment of pride for Zack and his mother. The same pride, joy and emotion were shared among those who gave so much to help him achieve that moment.

Is this a small story of how a child who struggled to overcome a disability and go on to prosper. Well, yes it is. Zack graduated from high school 42nd out of a class of 120. He went on to get a degree in computer science and a second degree in computer graphics. He is a young man that now speaks with only a slight hint that would give you pause to think that he might have some past speech difficulty. But, it is more than that. It is a private view into the workings of a small mountain community in which an even smaller community of teachers banded together to fulfill their commitment to educate the children of their community. To provide a singular child with the hope of a brighter future that can often be lost in the numerous small mountain communities that dot the Appalachian regions of West Virginia and Kentucky. It is a small story played out beyond the boundaries of the large cities with their urban, inner-city difficulties and turmoil. It is a small hidden moment in the passage of all our lives that demonstrates that caring is important and that there is goodness among men. It is told to give us pause as we are confronted with a multitude of media misgivings as to the state of the world and out daily confrontations with impersonal encounters along crowded sidewalks and stalled thoroughfares. To this end, it is a story worth telling.

As I conclude, I add a small note worth a moment's thought and reflection. Sarah showed me a recent picture of Zack. He is a handsome young man in his early twenties. She noted that beyond being handsome, girls simply gravitate toward him. It turns out that he is open and honest. He freely shares his emotions and is responsive to their needs and thoughts as well. It would seem that, because of his loss of hearing, Zack has failed to learn that emotions are only to be acknowledged in whispers and that in facing a person, watching their lips in an attempt to truly understand what is being said, precludes any preconception on his part and requires that he only attend to their individual words and thoughts.