::A Geek in Korea::

In my solo tutoring class in school today, my student was learning about all the incredible things that blind people can do despite their inability to see. It is a rather amazing thing to think people can find their way, use money, or identify food without using their eyes. I wanted to show this student how amazing these things were.

Way back in my elementary school, there was a program called “Everybody Counts” that taught about political correctness and how people with different challenges in their lives survive. We learned about blind people, mental retardation, and all sorts of other things people have to deal with by doing activities to recreate their experiences. Living for a short time trying to experience shows how hard and different their lives must be to a small degree. The next time you are then confronted with such a person, the idea is that you’d have an open opinion about them.

One of the classic activities we did was the blindfolded navigation of a classroom. I blindfolded my student and told her to stand up, walk out of class, and then sit down in a chair in a room across the hallway. I led her follow the sound of my voice as she was navigating the classroom to make sure she didn’t crack her head open.

The next challenge was to make it across the lobby and go to the teacher’s room. The student was very bright, and used the other teachers in the school as audio references to make her way into the teacher’s room. She talked to the secretary until she was passed the reception desk, and felt the landmarks as she stumbled past them to figure out her location.

After she made it to the teacher’s room, I spun her around and had her try to navigate back to the classroom she started in. Eventually she bumped into a bench, figured out where she was, and headed straight back to the class without a problem. She had a really fun time, and thought it was amazing that someone could walk down a street and do the same thing. She said that she understood why blind people needed dogs to help them see.

She then challenged me to repeat the same course I gave her. I put on the blind fold. She started laughing and trying to throw me off course. She’d close doors, talk from other rooms, and try to lead me in the wrong direction. The only reason I was able to make it around was because I have a visual memory of the entire school from working their so long. If she had asked me to go down the stairs and out of the building, there is a good chance I would have fallen to my death.

When her mother arrived to pick her up, the girl was bubbling with excitement from the fun of trying to navigate around the school. She had a really good time with the activity, but if there were multiple people in the class, or a student I couldn’t trust, I absolutely wouldn’t have tried this activity. If someone did something while blindfolded and fell, it would have been a huge disaster. Also, students will try to lure you into the wrong bathroom if you don’t know the school well. Beware!

Tags: blind, activity, awareness, study, class, student, esl