Tribute to ASB Teachers from the '70's

You guys were awesome.  As a student I thought you were just like any and all other teachers.  You were much more, I just didn't realize it.  Beazle used to say, "They really learn 'em at the blind school."   I've come to know how right her point was. Because of these exceptional teachers and because I've substitute taught in special education classes in schools where kids are mainstreamed I am all for the special schools. 

Because of the wonderful education you gave me I felt comfortable pulling my daughter out of regular school and teaching her at home.  I was always bad at math but she has online teachers to help her when she needs it there.  I can help with her other subjects even though she is in eleventh grade now.  I owe that all to you teachers. 

I enjoyed P. E. only when we had folk and square dancing, or played volleyball.  The running track, fist ball, swimming, and exercising I could live without.  It is volleyball that prompted me to write this tribute.

As I said my daughter is home schooled for the most part through Georgia Cyber Academy, GCA.  Someone thought it would be nice to get up a girls volleyball team.  My daughter tried out and made the team.  Some of the girls played in clubs, some, like my daughter, played for fun at church, while others have never played.  A club mom explained the rotations and positions to us as we watched practice.  I didn't know each position had certain roles. 

I told the group how we had played a version of volleyball, that they probably wouldn't call volleyball, at ASB.  I explained how the ball could stay on a side as long as it didn't go out of bounds, get hit into or under the net, or stop bouncing.  I told how each player was allowed a certain number of bounces depending on how well they could see.  All the parents thought this was interesting except one.  The one that didn't find this interesting wasn't a club mom; it was the mom of a player who had never played.  "That must have been some neighborhood thing," she sneered.  I reminded her that I had already said they probably wouldn't call it volleyball.  

This exchange caused me to think about the teachers at ASB.  Was there a book out there telling how to teach blind kids how to play volleyball?  I don't know, maybe.  But I think the P. E. teachers sat down and brainstormed how to make it happen.  Unlike in college where we could take a crafts class and have it count toward physical education, these teachers came up with adaptive ways to play standard sports.   

Thank you so much teachers at ASB of the 1970's.  You rock!  You did a bang up job, and I'm so very grateful for your dedication to teaching us.  You were more than warm bodies; you were excellent teachers. 

Wanda Merritt
Anthony