Whew, lets catch everyone up on my school journey. It has once again taken another turn, but hey this time I think it’s finally for the best and will help me in the long run rather than hurt me. There’s lots of post regarding my school journey this year so have a look around so that you can get caught up. It starts with one school, moves to another, fighting with an organization, back to the first school and then, hey guess what? A new school has been introduced to the picture. So, here’s the latest.
In January I was suppose to be starting at Algonquin College in the Early Childhood Education program, but earlier this month I met with my disability worker and 2 members of the ECE program and they gave me some bad news. They came to the conclusion that the ECE program was not the right program for me. They had strong concerns about me being able to successfully complete one of the courses, “observation”. I don’t discount their worry because it is valid, but what was hard to get through to them is that it’s hard to describe how a blind person as myself can observe children when not actually in the situation, the environment. For me how I observe things around me depends on what is all around me, who is around me, what activities are being done and so on. For them it’s just a chance they didn’t want to take and things not work out.
During the first part of this meeting this was hard news to take indeed. I mean it hurt so much that I doubted myself for the first time in regards to the career goal that I’ve been going after since I lost my sight, working with children with disabilities. I started thinking that I’d have to give up the goal I want and settle for my backup massage therapy, which of course I wasn’t too happy about and was ready to just curl up and cry.
luckily as I said this was just the first part of the meeting. As the meeting went on things started looking a little better. The more we all spoke the more they helped me see that Child Studies at Carleton University would be a much better fit for my goal of working with children with disabilities. I could more focus on the theory and not have to worry about practical courses since I get that now with my association with Ottawa Children Treatment Center So you guessed it, I will now be going to Carleton for school, but this won’t be until the summer.
Needless to say I’m nervous about making this jump. I’m like extremely use to the small college type setting, small classes and all that, but I’m about to take the plunge! I did some research and have made some contacts with Carleton and for the first time in 3 years and several programs I finally found people that actually listened to what my goal was and what I was after and my current disability worker and those staff in the ECE program have been helpful in my school direction. Well, minus the one part where they had me doubting myself, *smiles*
Another good thing is a few days after my meeting I had a chance to be in a group type setting where I got to observe many little rug rats and guess what? I was able to do it after all! I picked up things that the actually room monitors missed. So being able to see does not mean you are better than someone that can’t. You can still miss things. Yes, being able to see is definitely good to have, but I and any other smart person with a visual impairment would not put themselves in the situation where they are the only person in a room or outing with loads of little ones running around. I mean come on. That’s common sense.
So, my school journey has come to an end. In January I will be going to Algonquin, but back in the General Studies program and then come the summer I will be a Carleton student. Wish me luck!
Cat