I’ve been visiting schools to talk about blindness and Seeing Eye dogs for years — ever since I got my first Seeing Eye dog, Dora, in 1991.
Now with my children’s book published, the visits are even more fun. Usually teachers have already read Safe & Sound out loud to their students before we arrive. That makes the questions the students ask all the more interesting. And detailed!
When it comes to the question and answer time, somehow every kids group I talk to gets caught up in a particular theme. When I talked to a group of Girl Scouts last year, one of them asked how I bake cookies. Every question after that was about the kitchen. How do you know where the stove is? How do you keep yourself from cutting your finger when you chop things? How do you know what you are eating?
Yesterday at Longfellow Elementary School in Oak Park, IL the kids were intrigued with the idea of intruders coming into our apartment. How would Hanni react? How would I react? One student remembered a passage in the book about me learning to use a white cane before I started using a Seeing eye dog.
“Do you still have your cane?” he asked.
I do. Guide dog users are encouraged to use our white canes from time to time. By keeping our cane skills up, we know that if – God forbid – our dogs get sick or can’t work for a while we can still get around on our own.
“What if you heard a man in the house in the middle of the night,” the boy’s questioning continued. “And you got out your cane, and you hit him, and then you found out it was your husband?!”
Must admit, I had to think about that for a minute before answering! In the end, I dodged the question altogether by telling a story of how I really did inadvertently hit Mike once.
My first dog Dora was pretty athletic. When we were at home, and her harness was off, she loved jumping in the air to play catch. “One time I was whipping a ball across the room for her to fetch, and I didn’t realize Mike was there,” I said. “I hit him right in the head!”
The kids laughed and laughed at that one. We were, ahem, a hit.
You always find the right thing to say to kids- even when the throw you a curve!
Thanks for the compliment — to be honest, this particular one took a lot of thougth before I answered! I’ve learned a trick, though — I repeat every question each kid asks before I answer. At first I did this to make sure everyone in class heard the question, now I do it to give myself time to think of a good answer!
Thanks for joining us in our classroom last week. If you ever get tired of the author gig, you should think about becoming a teacher. I often struggle to hold their attention for 15 straight minutes – you held their attention for almost an hour. Thanks for a wonderful presentation. It was enjoyed by all.
Mr. Pod
Longfellow 2nd Grade Teacher
You are very, very welcome — I really enjoyed your class. And your school! Here’s a hint if you want to keep the kids’ attention for mor than 15 minutes: have a cute dog at your feet!
Leave a Response