Story of the Day 8/ 20/ 2012

It was Back to School Night, or Open House or whatever they call it.

My husband and I made sure we didn't have spaghetti sauce dribbled down our clothes or faces, and that our flies were zipped; and we headed off to meet the teachers, hear what they were teaching and how they were grading things and try to get more of an idea of what Sarah's day looks like.

There was the Psychology teacher, who was pretty much as Sarah had described.
And despite Sarah's fears, we were not pulled aside and told some weird things about our daughter.
At least not by the teacher.

There was Chemistry.
This is the teacher who was very nervous to have a deaf kid in his class.
Since, as you know, you know, deaf people bite.
It is now the third week of school and he is , apparently, still nervous. Even though Sarah hasn't bitten him.
Yet.
My husband and I decided to not ruin his image of her, and we did not introduce ourselves.
Now he can just keep on wondering what sorts of weird folk would have deaf kid.

Then there was Calculus.
The Calculus teacher loves Calculus.
She even said so.
She explained to us what I had already explained to Sarah, that the students are better off getting the IU college credit for the class and not taking the AP exam.
The Psychology teacher said pretty much the same thing.
It is nice to know that occasionally I might be right.
(Don't repeat that to my children.)
But the highlight of the evening was English.

I bet you thought it was when Sarah's film teacher told us her was signed up to take an ASL class.
That was a bit of a highlight- the idea that one of the teachers would actually try to communicate directly with her...
but it wasn't the highlight.

The highlight was English.

Sarah's English teacher told us the exact same thing she told Sarah, the first day of class.
She had Sarah's brother, our son, Aaron.
In National Honor Society.
For two years.

We were all surprised that he mad such an impression on her.
Especially since he was never in National Honor Society.

I am sure of this.

Over the years all three of our children have been offered to apply for membership.
Ely was the first.
Ely read the information and said he didn't want to bother.
My husband and I were surprised. We had both been members and though it was a good thing to put down when applying for college and why would our child not want to do it?
Then we read the papers.
You had to jump through several hoops and a barrel.
While it was on fire.
We looked at each over and had to admit , out-loud, that Ely was right and it wasn't worth the bother.

Then , a few years later, Aaron got the same papers.
This time, we told him it wasn't worth the bother, before he even opened his mouth.

Then, when Sarah got the papers, we all laughed when we saw that they wanted her to volunteer tutor for 200 hours. Or 20 hours, or whatever.
She was the only deaf student in her high school. She is the only one who knew ASL.
As a matter of fact, during most of her time at North Central High School she really was THE ONLY ONE WHO KNEW ASL, because until the most recent interpreter, the school had this habit of hiring interpreters who didn't.

So, whom would she have tutored? One of the lousy interpreters?
"This is how you do not sign vertical angles...."

But this nice young woman , very sincerely, tells us how much she enjoyed having Aaron in the National Honor Society. And we smile and nod, because anything else would be...too hard to explain.

And then she asks what he is doing now.
My husband answers, "He is back at home."
And the teacher replies, " Oh , he graduated from college?"
Because in this great recession, that is a rather typical scenario.

I think I may have burst her bubble a bit when I told her, "No he dropped out of college."

Of course, I added, " and then he went to a yeshivah for a while, and now he is taking an EMT class and taking very long naps everyday."

But, on the other hand, maybe this will fit in very well with the alternate reality she already has for him.