I dislike it when my daily newspaper does not arrive on time which it did not last Thursday so Friday, there were two stuffed in my mailbox. It usually takes me a good part of the afternoon to read even one so when two come, I have a tendency to ignore the late one which ordinarily I might discard without paying it much attention. But I was thinking ahead realizing that Labor Day was coming and there would be no mail so I decided to save it for the paperless holiday. I am glad I did. The issue I saved is called the Friday Journal and one section is The Review which covers a variety of literary topics. One of the columns was about an autistic child. This caused me to think of a boy I knew back in my grammar school days. He was not autistic but he was different and so was his treatment.
I’ll call him Amos since his real name was biblical. He was much bigger than others in the class and older. I distinctly recall his being in my class when I was in the 3rd grade. The classroom was on the first floor of the two story school building and on two sides had banks of windows that could be raised depending on the weather conditions. I can see him now sitting on the window sill while the others were busy with class activities. Keep in mind this was in the 1930s.
No one seemed to question that Amos was allowed to just do just about anything he wanted to do. If he chose to sit in his desk, fine, but if not he could simple be excused from the class and would be allowed to walk outside even though it was not recess. That seemed strange to me then. I and others noticed that he was never required to do any school work and mostly he just sat quietly while his classmates worked. Most of his nine year old classmates thought he was really lucky not to have to do spelling, arithmetic and reading.
Back then there were no classes for those who had special needs. If, like Amos you were a little behind your peers that was what life had dealt. Teachers who in some instances had large classes and even some who even taught two grades did not have either the training or the time to give individual attention to one who had fallen behind. Amos stayed in school until he reached an age where he could get a job which he did. He ended up working with a company whose job was more manual than intellectual. Later he would own a car and would often take his friends down to the river for swimming during the summer.
Today there are special classes that can accommodate just about any student challenge whether academic or physical. And the teachers are specially trained and usually given smaller classes and in some instances are assigned an aide. It is a far cry from the old days when such students were mostly ignored, passed along and finally allowed to leave school for a job.
But unlike some of his friends, Amos appeared to be happy and well adjusted throughout his life despite his limitations.
I call him a winner.
Bill Lee
PO Box 128
Hamer, SC 29547