Teaching those lessons with life, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
A double-major of special ed and counseling from Taiwan Teacher’s University, Lu, in his last year of middle school, because his optical nerves were damaged, he’d become, completely blind, as he was studying in Kaohsiung All-Boys’ High School, he’d wanted to quit. But he was very thankful, that “education had changed my life”, in the summers, he’d become a part of the National Taiwan Teacher’s University’s “Confucius on Foot” program, went to the distant regions, to help educate the students who didn’t have enough resources, he’d told yesterday, “the students from the distant regions as well as the visually impaired students may not have enough resources, but I’d wanted to tell them, to not just get beaten by life so easily.”
Having done really well in school since he was growing up, Lu originally dreamed of becoming a police officer, but, right before his high school entrance exam, he was diagnosed with having optical nerve ending damages, his sight deteriorated quickly, the doctor said he was legally blind. As he’d entered into Kaohsiung High School, he couldn’t see, after school, it’d taken him to walk from his class to the entrance of his school, he was in so much distress he’d wanted to drop out of school altogether.
Lu said, after his school instructor learned that he wanted to drop out, they’d not given up on him, and, went to his home, offered him encouragements. “The teachers just knew me not too long ago, they’d not wanted to give up on me.”, it’d made him set his goal of becoming a teacher too.
Lu had the younger children learn to “communicate in the darkness”, in not seeing other people’s facial expressions, using the precise words to communicate, hoped, that through games, he can help the kids understand how the visually impaired live their lives.
He said, that being visually impaired, there’s less resources for them, and they’d need to take up to two, three times the time to learn. He’d wanted to teach the students using life, that even if they have limited resources, they shouldn’t be defeated.
So, this, is a man, who’d used his own life experiences, to teach this important lesson to the students he come in contact with, and, because he was blind, he’d understand personally, how the lacking of resources can hurt learning, and, he’s hoping, that using himself as an example, he can somehow, help motivate the students he come into contact with, to not get beaten, just because they didn’t have enough resources to begin with…
Life, the Obstacle Course 