Ice Cream

As I was checking out a father at the bookstore his son began to talk to me… before I finish…I think it’s time for a little history… For 39 years I taught Autistic students…a career that was as wonderful as it was long… My job was to help my students, in spite of their weakness…find what made them strong. I had successes…I had failures…each made me more compelled… to see their Autism not as something we needed to ignore… nor as a place we needed to dwell. I think the moment I became a good teacher was the moment I learned to see… not the label but the person who was staring back at me. I return often to that moment when my understanding and my empathy grew… for not only did it make me a better teacher…but a better person too. Which brings me back to the young man talking to me…he was wildly gesturing with is hands…his speech was mostly unintelligible…impossible to understand. So I listened even harder…his eyes I tried to meet…and when he finished I said, “Sure…it’s on the corner…just across the street.” His dad’s eyes widened…his mouth dropped even as he continued paying… “You mean to tell me you understood…” he asked, “everything my son was saying?” “Oh God no!” I smiled. “My hearing’s not that good.” but I believe I heard him mention ‘ice cream’ and those two words I understood.” The father smiled as I handed him his book…his transaction was complete… then he and his son headed out the door…to the ice cream shop across the street. And once again I thanked my Autistic students… for helping me discover a way… to look a little closer and listen a little harder to what people are trying to say.