Yesterday I helped take photos of a boy who had cerebral palsy. My role was to keep his attention, his eyes looking into the camera lens.
We rang the bells and called his name.
It seemed to work some of the time.
On a break his mother told us that his biggest frustration at school was that he couldn’t hear.
Oh.
She had been letting us talk to him as if he could hear. She didn’t stop us, “Wait! He can’t hear! Just ignore him!”
Maybe that’s what we were supposed to do. Keep talking to him like he was the rest of us.
She told us how he doesn’t get what he needs at school. “He’s thrown in a classroom with all the other misfits with just one teacher.” Wow, I thought to myself. I’m not trained for this. But really, does a class teach us how to show compassion?
They need individual attention.
Individual love.
Like all children.
Like all humans.
I kept saying his name, tickling his cheek, maybe he could hear the vibrations of my voice.
Some of the greatest composers wrote music even though they were deaf.
This child was still a boy, a child worth loving.
I kept calling his name.
He laughed.
Perfect. Living captured on camera.
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BJ said:
This short piece drew me in; I listened, I cried! I’m happy you shared your experience with us.
June 10, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
Hobosic said:
Super post, Need to mark it on Digg
Hobosic
October 26, 2009 @ 9:34 am