Table Talk 1

“Jon Racherbaumer here and I’m back. As I mentioned I’ll be leading the table talks throughout the BioVlogs. At my table I’m pleased to have sharing with us, Richard’s sister Lori Dragt and their Visually Impaired resource teacher Ed Brian. 

“Lori, I understand it was a very traumatic moment. After your bout of Scarlet Fever would you please describe what happened?

“Well,” Jon, sure. For me my vision went fast. I’m doing my math problems, and all of a sudden my eyes went black, and when I opened them up, that was it. It was like within sixty seconds everything was a blur, and the next year I was bussed with my brother to Mr. Brian’s’ school for the blind.”

“Mr. Brian, please share your impressions of Richard and how did he deal with the change of going to your special school for the visually impaired.”   

Of course, Jon. I was Ricky and Lori’s VI Resource Teacher. Ricky was very bitter yet very clever, particularly when it came to three dimensional puzzles and games and getting around his school work. 

“Can you describe what you mean by clever?”

“Jon, of course. Here’s an example. He had cheated on the typing exams I used to give my students. The simplicity of his scam was the key to its effectiveness. I would allow them time to type warm up exercises before taking the exam. He would take this time to type slowly and accurately his “practice paragraph. Then after taking the timed test, he would switch papers and give me his practice sheet as his test sheet. It appears he was already developing his ‘hand is faster than the eye’ technique at an early age.”