children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

patience to teach him." When a third teacher teased
Kenny and called him "a fool," his mother took him
out of school. "I asked the principal and the teacher
who had struck Kenny why they didn't have the time
to teach him." No justifiable answer was given.
Kenny's mother took him to the University of Mississippi
Medical Center for tests. But after a year of
examinations, the doctors said that they couldn't do
anything to help him. So his mother then took Kenny
to The Blind Institute. The principal there said that
he would have to put Kenny in a grade with 5 and
6 year olds. But by this time Kenny was 13. Already
embarrassed and behind because of his nearsightedness,
Kenny just couldn't go into a class with
such young children. But the principal remained
firm. This was the last attempt his mother made to
get Kenny enrolled in a school.
Kenny is unhappy not going to school. He liked
to learn and often asks when can he return to school
with his brothers and friends. He's more ashamed
than ever. His mother is angry. No program exists
to deal with Kenny's nearsightedness in the Canton
Public Schools. She took him out because she "realized
that his teachers weren't teaching him and were
hurting him more than helping him." But more than
anything else, "I want the school to prepare a class
or program to meet Kenny's needs without making
him embarrassed. Most of all I want him to have an
education so that he will be able to get a job to support
himself. I don't know what he's going to do
when I'm no longer with him."7
7 "The National Society for Prevention of Blindness estimates
that in 1970 about 21 million youths required eye
care; 45,000 legally blind; and 168,000 partially sighted
youth of whom perhaps 20,000 were legally blind." Mississippi
is servicing only 30.28 percent of its visually impaired
students. Kakalik, et aI., Services for Handicapped
Youth, pp. 115,277.
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