In Jordan's World...

This morning my phone rang- it was the Director of Jordan's new high school specializing in graphic art and advertising. He said, "Good morning, I'm calling to speak to you because your son has a disability, and while there will be a meeting organized in the near future, I just wanted to touch base to ask you a couple of questions."

*And here we go again*

We went through this procedure with pre-school, elementary school and middle school...and let it begin with high school.

I liked the man's voice, very competent voice. I said, "My son is deaf, he wears a cochlear implant, hears and speaks. He has difficulty in the classroom setting as it is noisy, therefore he needs a support teacher in the classroom so that he is able to hear all that the teachers have to say. We have always had an excellent relationship with the schools my son has attended, so you have an impressive group of schools to follow."

The Director said, "No problem, Signora, we are ready to work with your family. Will your son need a computer in the classroom, if he has one and the rest of the class does not, will he feel different than the others?"

This is the first time anyone in the school system has proposed a computer in the classroom, so I immediately started thinking of the voice programs that translate the voice to the computer screen. I replied, "My son is different, bring on that computer!" We decided to discuss the use of technological aids in the classroom at a later date, and I hung up satisfied with this first impression.

This afternoon, Jordan came home from school and handed me an essay he had written. Apparently I'm not the only one worried about the final Middle School exam he needs to prepare for in order to graduate to high school. This is what he wrote:

(English Translation by Mamma)

After one exam an entire world will open before me, another life. The perfect word post-exam would be "Pass", but the word I do not want to hear, "no" would be like a banana peel- failure. (it works in Italian)
I have both positive and negative feelings that I tell myself every time my thoughts surround me like birds on a tree. My negative feelings are that of suffering, sadness, fear of failure and having to begin a new school year, friends that will think I am inferior and the fear of causing my family to suffer.

My positive thoughts are happiness, joy, parties for passing the exam, always tired-yet intelligent as a brain surgeon, a new heart, a new life and a new world.

I have a beautiful life and I don't want to lose it, I will do the best I possibly can in high school if I pass my exam- I'll be smarter, have new friends, new drawings, a new class, new teachers, a new motor scooter (that's what he thinks), new technology and many other new things in my life. But, most of all, I will continue studying music, not the guitar, but the piano.

In these past three years of my life, rich in events, my friends' faces, voices in newspapers about what has happened in the world, emotions lived at school, field trips and moments lived with my close friends, I have four elements that I will take with me. They are pictures, but they can break; drawings, but they can get old; paintings on glass, brick, etc, but they can shatter into a thousand pieces. The last element is friendship, the only thing truly important to remember, because it never breaks, gets old or shatters.

I wouldn't mind a girlfriend, but who?

By Jordan Eric Del Dottore