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Thursday, May 12, 2016

My, How Times Change

I’ve been going over Mom Sawyer's notes and retyping them for the family and friends who are interested. Today’s blog (which refers to life in the mid 1960s) is a reminder that labels and acceptable terms change with the times. I have not interfered with her composition. With that in mind, Mom’s actual title for this entry was 

Teaching Indian Children 

50 [fifty] years ago, I was asked to teach a class of mentally challenged Indian children, at that time called “retarded.” Since I needed more education for that job, I packed up our children and went to Bellingham, Washington, to attend the college there for the summer. My parents lived there so Mom [Nelson] would care for the children while I was in school.

In the fall, I started teaching. I soon realized that these children weren’t retarded, they had been given the wrong test. They had never seen the animals in the book, or the furniture, or the fruits and vegetables. They had no TV or books.

I began bringing in pictures of elephants and monkeys to color, and fruits and vegetables to eat. They told me in no uncertain terms, they didn’t like the peas or radishes or zucchinis. In fact, they thought the zucchini was tasteless.

We went on field trips to see different types of buildings and farms and museums.

We played games and sang songs.

Some of the children were still slow learners, but others past [passed] the test by the end of the year.