Traveling Blind - Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers

What I most admire about this book is the absence of presumption and the clarity with which the author illuminates those students she learns from. The heart ache of the teacher is all there. To teach is to yearn for and when they go off and do--or not!--we are left on the curb, sometimes without having said enough of good luck and goodbye. it is a book for teachers who just can't get enough teaching in.

I am a first year orientation and mobility instructor, working with students much like those of Ms. Fogg's. Most of my students have other impairments as well, which makes mobility training all the more challenging, both for them to learn and me to teach. It's not quite as straightforward as the series of cane techniques we were taught in class. Laura Fogg's stories made me feel like I am not alone out there, and I even picked up a tip or two I want to try with some of my kids!

Laura Fogg, the author of Traveling Blind Life Lessons from Unlikely Teachers, was all set to teach her various degrees of sightless children throughout Mendocino County but instead they all taught her lessons. Her descriptive text reaches out to every reader and makes one more insightful into the lives of those who are visually impaired, and as you will learn, many with multiple handicaps. It is fascinating reading and as one is absorbed in each story of a child, you get a glimpse into their world and are filled with great admiration. This book puts you into the REAL world as this is how much of the population lives. The knowledge you gain from Traveling Blind will make you a better person...and an advocate for them. You will not be the same.

I am a mobility instructor myself, working with adults--not with kids, as Laura Fogg does. I find the stories of her teaching/learning experiences fascinating, touching, and inspiring. I always learn from my students, and I'm delighted and enthralled with what she learns from her students and their families. I am also impressed with her expressions of the magic she finds in her surroundings as well in her work and in her students. This book reads like a novel, that begs to be read from cover to cover. I highly recommend this book for professionals like me, as well as those who are totally uninitiated about this fascinating and highly specialized nook in the education profession.

Upfront disclosure: the author of this wonderful book is a good friend. That said, I will tell you a bit about what I learned about Laura, her profession, and her students. I don't know what I expected, but I couldn't put down the book. I became engrossed in the stories. Laura is a mobility instructor, meaning that she teaches children who are missing one or more senses how to get around in the world: How to walk around town with a cane, how to order a meal, how to shop, and, perhaps most important, how to have friends. I had never heard of a mobility instructor before meeting Laura. Now, having read her book, I am an advocate for such instructors. Below are some excerpts to give you inklings of what to expect. Nicole. Overcoming a blind baby's fear along with that of a young mother's fear is a major undertaking, and without accomplishing both, a blind baby will only grow more inward. "I knew I'd never get Nicole out of the apartment for a real mobility lesson if Marie couldn't enjoy the sight of her little daughter having a good time at home in my company. I got down on the floor next to Nicole, telling her that I was coming near her. I tried talking in a low voice and making a small amount of noise with a rattle within easy reach of her hands. I waited silently until she moved a tiny bit, and then repeated my action as quietly and non-intrusively as I could. When Nicole indicated her interest by becoming totally still so she could hear every sound I made, I picked up the toy, rattled it quietly again, and touched her fingers very gently with it. Then I waited, without moving or talking, to see what Nicole would do. . . . I had to allow her to call the shots on every move, and respond only to what she did . . . when Nicole finally responded by patting the rattle with her fingers so she could hear the beads shake inside it . . .." So, a mobility instructor has to learn patience, to slow her pace as a prerequisite to getting a small child to learn. That patience, the key to reaching individual children, seems overlooked in today's hub-bubb of teaching to the test. Some children still manage to survive in the testing scenario, but clearly a blind child would not. How fortunate for Laura's blind students that she understands this. How fortunate for my community. Then there is Forrest, who at three weeks contracted meningitis and for his short life, could only respond to light occasionally. "It always makes me uncomfortable to realize that the difference between a normal illness or accident and a life-threatening disability causing emergency is impossible to quantify or control. Why did Forrest end up having all the bad luck? Why have my own children managed to avoid catastrophic events so far. . . . When I heard the news that he had died in the night . . . I had a vision of him dancing through the sky with angels, gleefully flapping and swinging his arms and legs that hadn't worked when he was alive. For me, Forrest's