Things my students have taught me

I have always considered myself to be an intelligent person but some of my greatest lessons have come from not a book or high priced college education but from my students at the Maryland School for the Blind (MSB)...

I have learned that you do not need eyesight to see but you only need your heart to truly see.

I have learned that there is nothing more beautiful than to see the smile of a child with severe disabilities when they accomplish something like wiping their own mouth with a napkin(something we do so easily and take for granted we can) for the first time to cheer and praise and the pride behind that smile.

I have learned the value of sticking to learning something no matter how long it may take.

I have learned not to take anything for granted and to see the beauty in even the smallest things.

I am learning to see with my heart and not just my eyes.

I love the students at MSB and I love how working with them and seeing them make progress makes me feel. They haven't taught me all they know yet and I am still learning. Just remember when you are feeling down and like things are the worst they can be that they can always be worse. You could be blind, blind and deaf, blind and autistic, blind and in a wheelchair or any combination of the above at the same time like so many of my students. These students have huge obstacles that they never asked for to overcome and yet they smile more than most "normal" people that I have met. They don't take anything for granted and take pride in things that they accomplish that we would consider simple tasks but to them take a little more time and a little more effort and makes them a little more independent.

aren't there more important things to worry about

I am a news junkie... I watch the news when I wake up before work and after class I will watch the eleven o'clock news... I have a problem with what is called "news"...

Tiger Woods having slept with enough women to have a different one for each month of the year... Tiger is apparantly a man whore enough said... why did the news feel the need to cover this for months... plenty of men cheat all the time (women do too) and nobody cares... why does it suddenly matter, is it because he can hit a tiny white ball with a metal club into a hole hundreds of yards away... WTF!!!

Then we have Jesse James... The man cheated with some chick that has more ink than skin (there is nothing wrong with tattoos, i have 2)... it was moderately interesting the first time you heard about it and saw the pic of the girl he cheated with but who the hell still cares... well I mean aside Sandra Bullock(not sure i spelled it right)...

Aren't we still fighting 2 wars??? What about what is going on with the economy??? I don't need or want an update on the anchor persons pregnancy nor do I care since I don't know her... I don't need everyone on the show telling jokes... if I was watching something to laugh I would watch a comedian... I wish that the news would stick to what it is supposed to stick to and that is the NEWS!!! not who is cheating on who with whoever... not how pregnant the anchor is and when she is due... I also don't care about some of the stupid crap that gets called news...

They spend more time talking about Tiger and Jesse than they do about the guy that got shot getting chinese food, the wars we are involved in, and anything else that people need to know... I mean there is ET, TMZ and Access Hollywood as well as other shows of that type that if I want to know who is cheating on who and who is dating who I can watch and find out... When I turn on the local news I don't want to hear about Brangelina adding another adopted or biological kid to their brood because I dont care... stick to the real news and leave that crap to the tabloids and the entertainment news shows...