Two new blogs of interest

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to point out two new blogs that our team has started that may be of interest to you.  The first one is named Eye Observer, at http://www.eyeobserver.blogspot.com/.  It's goal is, "to provide an "eye" on Florida as it relates to blindness/visual impairments, technology and educations in small, rural and medium sized school districts."

The second new blog is The Road to Deaf Curriculum, at http://www.theroadtodeafcurriculum.blogspot.com/.  This blog is, "To create a forum where I can disseminate stories about my travels on the road, along with ideas that are shared with me. The vast majority of my time in the classroom as a teacher of the Deaf was spent finding ways to take curriculum written on the current grade level of the student and construct a more accessible approach." and the blog will also, "serve to keep people informed with the latest strategies and technology surrounding Deaf education in the state of Florida. I hope that readers will comment on my postings, sharing their thoughts on topics as well.". 

Anyway, if you interests intersect with either of these areas, they will be worth following.

- Mark

Where the Wild Things (Really) Are

Hi Everyone,  Here is the second article I talked about.  It is tied to the "End of the Marathon" article, so I here it is.  - Mark

Some of you may remember from my article in the last newsletter that we were taking a trip for Ian’s graduation, but I wasn’t going to talk about it at that time, other than to joke that it would be a cross between the Lewis & Clark expedition, Dances With Wolves, and Chevy Chase’s Vacation movie.  Little did I realize the accuracy of that statement.  Let me first say that no one died and wound up tied to the roof of the car and we did not tie the dog to the car bumper and forget about it.

Our son, Ian picked our destination this summer.  He said there were two things he wanted to see.  One was Alaska, and the other was wildlife.  Well, we found an inexpensive cruise out of Seattle through the Inside Passage to several Alaskan ports.  We also decided that instead of flying, we would drive from St. Augustine to Seattle.   After a little more than 8,000 miles in the car, 20 states, and 12 National Parks and Forests, we completed the trip.  And we thoroughly enjoyed it.  This was one of those trips where it wasn’t the destination that was important but rather the journey. Our route took us north through Chattanooga, St. Louis, Kansas City, Sioux City, and then west through the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and eventually to Seattle, Washington.  Coming home led us through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the Gulf states.  My biggest fear was the driving time, but that actually turned out to be very enjoyable.  Once you got west of St. Louis, there really was little to no traffic on any of the roads, including the interstate.  And going through the Great Plains and high desert put new meaning into the concept of what a wide, open space is.

Now, why is any of this important?  (You knew this was going to be more than a travelogue, right?)  Well, as some of you know, Ian has now started college and wants to be a cartographer.  This trip wasn’t just for fun.  When we take a vacation, we try to make it educational as well!  First, if you want to work with maps for a career, you better understand geography.  Not just the names of the states, but what rivers can do to a landscape, or how mountains were formed, or understand why there is snow on many mountains in June and July, or what it means to have sunlight for 20 hours a day in Alaska in the summer.  Sure, you can read about it or listen to your teacher lecture or look at pictures, but there is still nothing that teaches better than putting your hands on something and experiencing it for yourself.  So what areas did we hit?  Geography, geology, paleontology, biology, archeology, history, climatology, English, etc., you name it, we were exposed to it.  And you know what?  Half the time you don’t realize until it’s too late that you actually learned something.

So what kinds of things?  Well, in a short, and far from complete survey, the westbound trek pretty much followed the route taken by Lewis & Clark from St. Louis to the Pacific.  That led to much discussion on what it would have been like to walk that trip instead of drive it.  It was an impressive feat, even to me.  Seeing the wagon wheel ruts on the Oregon Trail outside of Baker City, Oregon – these are places where the rocks were worn down into tracks by the tens of thousands of wagons following each other through the years in the migration west by the settlers.  History!  (By the way, if you are ever there, the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center outside Baker City is fantastic.)  One of Ian’s favorite critters is the tortoise.  We have two at home.  On a Ranger hike in Badlands National Park the Ranger pointed out a fossil tortoise shell that was eroding out of a hill in the park – it was ‘only’ 10-12 million years old.  Or the visits to the Museum of the Rockies and to Mesa Land Community College, which both have excellent dinosaur exhibits. (Paleontology!)  Or spending a couple of days on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, where there is not just that big hole in the ground, but also some ruins of ancient Indian houses. (Geology! Archeology! Geography!)  Or taking a train ride up to the top of the White Pass between Skagway, Alaska and the gold fields – imagine walking that enough times to move 2 tons of equipment if you had been part of the gold rush era.  (History! Geography!)  Or seeing the Mendenhall Glacier, or being in the middle of a herd of 300 bison, or discovering that a grizzly is typically a lot bigger than a black bear (especially when there are no bars between you and them), etc., etc., etc….  The truth is, even as an experienced adult, many of these things are not easy to imagine.  Seeing makes the difference.  Now, what about English?  That was part of everything.  You have to read to understand.  And the desire to understand pushed him to read - all the time.  Interesting how that works….

The other thing that was important other than seeing was doing.  First, let me be clear, as a parent, don’t ever let me hear someone say that a child ‘cannot do’ something because of a disability.  Truth is that yes, there are some times when and some things where this may be the case, but the reality is that there are many, many things that a child with any kind of disability can do with a little research and pre-planning.  On this trip Ian went white water rafting on the Yellowstone River, went horseback riding in the Gallatin National Forest, did a Ranger-led hike in the Badlands, and a host of other things that you don’t normally associate with activities done by someone who has a physical disability.  Remember, Ian has cerebral palsy as well as being deaf. 

The perception of CAN’T is completely wrong!  As we planned the trip, I called places in advance to talk through any issues.  EVERY ONE of the groups we did these kinds of activities with were very open and accepting, willing to accommodate his needs and give advice on how best to participate.  Horseback riding has never been a problem for Ian, but the issue is making sure he has an easy-going horse who will respond and who won’t spook when it sees someone signing.  No Problem!  This wasn’t the first time the organization had someone with a disability ride with them and it went fine.  When we went rafting, the company had an extra hand available to help Ian navigate down the riverbank to the raft put-in (about 40 feet high at about a 50 degree angle) to get to the raft.  Ian sat in front of me (so I could grab him if he started over the side) and paddled like his life depended on it through class III rapids.  He now knows what it is like to get a face full of 45 degree water!  And he loved it.    My point here is that don’t just think you or your child can’t do something because of the disability.  Most likely, they can.  And not only will they have fun, they will learn something.

Finally, Ian (as well as us) had some memories made that will never go away. Did he see Alaska?  Yes, and he loved it.  Did he get to see wildlife?  Yes, tons – Bears, both black and grizzly, long horn sheep, mountain goats, elk, antelope, deer, beaver, bison, prairie dogs, reindeer, humpback whales and orcas, sea otters and seals, bald eagles, owls, and salmon, as well as a whole bunch of other critters.  Ian said his favorites were the bears.  However the one encounter that we always will remember was the one with the wolves in Yellowstone. 

They were the one animal we did not expect to see.  Less than 1 in a 1000 visitors to the park see a wolf.  Most that do see them are seeing them through spotter scopes at very long ranges.  Several rangers told us that they had never seen a wolf in their years working in the park.  Our sighting didn’t require a sighting scope.  In fact the three of us were the only people on a road in the park early one morning when something crested a hill coming towards us down the road.  Then more somethings coming our way. Then it became clear what those somethings were.  The picture of the alpha female is the picture at the start of this article.

It was one of the Yellowstone wolf packs, and they were hunting along the road.  I just stopped the car in the middle of the road and shut it down.  The wolves spent about 5 minutes moving back and forth around the car and into the brush on either side.  They weren’t paying us attention, but were definitely searching the surrounding area.  Our distance at times from them was about 6 feet. (Needless to say, I wasn’t opening the car door.)  They were beautiful and wild and certainly not someone’s pet.  They were definitely looking for something.  They then seemed to find the scent of what they were looking for, moved about 20 yards down the road, and then up into the brush and away.  

This was one of those moments that means something, and to us, one that will stick with us forever.  I’m not usually at a loss for words, but the resulting feeling was and is not one I can easily explain.  I could see it in my wife’s face, and especially in Ian’s, and I’m sure they could see it in mine.  It was a look of excitement and surprise and wonder.  It was a look that you get when something moves from the intellectual realm to the visceral.  We weren’t reading it in a book or looking at a picture or seeing it on TV.  We were seeing it for real.  You see, I could tell that Ian knew, without a shadow of a doubt, and would hold on to the same thing that my wife and I knew.  And for the three of us, it is something really, really cool.

You see, Ian knows where the wild things really are.

End of the Marathon

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note - This post is actually an article I wrote for our team newsletter last June. It had been a difficult year, as I was dealing with all the changes that would result from the our son's upcoming graduation from high school.  It is the first of two that I'll post related to this particular topic.  - Mark

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed

-          Theodore Roosevelt

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

                                                                        -     Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations

This has been a hard year for me.  The issue has had absolutely nothing to do with work or anything like that.  It has everything with the end of the marathon. 

My biggest problem is that I think way too much.  I’ve never been good at just enjoying the moment.  Instead, I spend time reflecting on what was, what is, and then thinking about what will be.  My wife will ask me, “I see the hairs on your head moving – what is going on?”  You see, the number of hairs up on my head are few, so she can track one or two – kind of like monitoring an earthquake – she says there a couple up there that she uses like a seismometer.  (Remember, she is an Earth-Space Science teacher.)  The more movement, the more concern she has over what is fomenting inside my head and what is going to come out.  Over the last 26 years, she has developed a pretty good feel for my moods. 

You see, I’m the type that enjoys thinking about what ifs and arcane things.  For fun I once spent a couple of days thinking through how we would have been impacted had the Saxon King Harold defeated William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D.  My conclusion was that we would probably be speaking French in most of North America, but Florida and the west coast, desert south-west, and all points south would speak Spanish.  Yes, I’m a history geek, and what is even scarier is I have friends who think like this, too.

So what does any of that have to do with a marathon?  Well, you see, our son, Ian, graduates in a few days from high school.  He will be receiving a standard diploma, and is already signed up to begin classes at our local community college in the fall.  **Author’s note - Ian wanted to go to the University of Hawaii, but his logic revolved as much around nubile young women in bikinis on the beach as it did on educational issues, so he was overruled by parental authority that does not plan on paying for a 4 month vacation in the guise of educational services.**

So, we are still left with the question, if you haven’t figured it out the answer already - What is the Marathon?  If you are a parent of a child with a disability, you will understand.  The Marathon is that slow, steady, never-ending push from the time your child starts school and doesn’t end until they leave school.  This includes that never-ending drip of stress, fear, concern, and worries that move through a parent of a child with a disability.  The never fully answered question of will my child manage to struggle through the always changing mix of classes, requirements, assignments, standardized testing, IEPs, impacts of the disability, and come out in a good place (whatever that may be for the child) on the other side?   There is always the personal second guessing of plans and decisions.  Are we doing the right thing?  Did we make the best decision possible based on the information at hand?  And of course, will it matter?

When the process started, the future looked like it would be an eternity to get to this point.  Looking back, the years rocketed past.  Now, I’m sitting trying to figure out what to do with that part of my universe that literally had become ingrained in its center.  16 plus years of public education stress is beginning to bleed off.  Decompression!  Who knows, maybe some of that hair on my head will now grow back.  There is that sense of what do I do next?   My wife is probably right – I’ll just find something else to worry about.  Tea prices in China have been rising – maybe I’ll look at that to fill the gap. 

For us, educational stress started when Ian was 23 months old, and will be completed when he graduates at 18 and ½ years old.  I can honestly say that not a single day has gone by where we have not at least thought about school and education.   From meetings and discussions, good feelings and bad, highs and lows, all of it has been rolling around inside our minds since the process started.  And now Ian is finally at the end of this race. He has gotten to the goal, and we are beginning to feel something we haven’t felt in years – the feeling of something truly important being accomplished.  A sense of satisfaction and completion of a major task in our lives has started to wash over us, and I think, too, a sense of relief.   My guess is the sense of relief will survive until college starts, and then a different set of concerns will be there.

But there is also, for me, a sense of loss.  This is a time when a sea-change is taking place on so many levels.  Preeminent of these is the transition of my son into manhood.  He is simply not a little boy anymore.  I am missing some of that already.  Ian will not be riding home from school with me anymore.  He will be in college, not here at FSDB.  No more track practices, no more meets, no more mornings waiting for the school bus, as well as a dozen other things that will end or change.  All of these things are things that have become part of our life since before Ian was 2 years old.  For me, that is hard.  There is a sense of loss, of something passing, of the end of an era in our lives.  For me, this is that looking back, and it leaves me a bit melancholy.  And it also leaves me extremely proud, thinking of all the roadblocks and struggles Ian has dealt with to get to this point, and how he has worked through them (mostly) without complaint, just getting it done and moving on.  When I look at Ian, and at other kids like him, I see a bravery and determination that goes far beyond what those of us without any issues can understand. Yet it is an element of these kids that they do not perceive.  It is just who they are and what they have to do to get where they want to go.

For me, there is also a huge sense of anticipation.  There is a feeling of standing up and looking at the horizon and seeing somewhere you that you have never been before, but need to go.  Ian is in this picture with me, and I already see him moving.  He has an idea where he wants to go.  His parents are there for him if he needs us, but on this upcoming exploration, it is far more of an independent trek, one where he is now reading the map and making the decisions.  I read somewhere that the best navigators don’t really know where they are going until they get there.  This may be true.  But now Ian will hold the compass, and set the course on the chart.   While I am excited and happy for him, and proud of his growing independence, I’m also a bit sad about it.  I’ve only seen my father cry twice in my life.  Once when his father died, and the day I got married.  I understand some of that now.  I guess I’m still changing as well.

I’m truly interested to see where Ian’s course takes him.  College is next, then, who knows.  Living in Hawaii is still playing in his mind for the future – Ian says it is the most beautiful place he has ever seen.  He talks of being a cartographer in the future.  But we will see.  Plans change for all of us.  This is now his journey.

One more trip awaits before college, however.  This is Ian’s graduation present.  He has picked our summer vacation destination and he and I have planned it over the last year.  I won’t tell you where we are going because that may turn into another article in a future newsletter and I would not want to ruin potentially good material.  Suffice it to say that in my mind I’m seeing this trip as a cross between the Lewis and Clark expedition, Dances With Wolves, Chevy Chase’s first Vacation movie, and Robin William’s movie RV.    Chew on that combination for a while.  My wife just shakes her head as we talk through the details.  She is going too, to keep us out of trouble….

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

                       -      Antoine de Saint-Exupery