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16 • Vickie's Story The seventh graders, I tried to introduce them to different cultures around the world. That to me was a real strong interest in college anyway. To have people become more socially aware and not so blinded, as I had even experienced when I was in school, by just their local surroundings of their socioeconomic and cultural things. It was a goal of mine. I remember teaching them in the context of food. One of the things that I did on the closing date was to do a party of foods around the world and dress. They really got into it. The boys got dressed up in Middle East kind of garb, so that, for this rural school, the boys were wearing dresses and that was never heard of. Some of myoid high school teachers even walked in and they were real interested. I can just remember feeling that it went real well. Then I remember getting the grades. The two teachers did the grade assessment , not the professor. I don't remember the seventh- and ninth-grade teacher totally walking out, but I don't remember him doing a whole lot as far as assessments and saying, "Well, maybe you can do it this way" or "Here is what I see you doing. Maybe this is the way you should do it." I can just vividly remember the day they had me sit down to give me my grade. It broke my heart. They told me that I had gotten a C. I thought that I had given my whole heart and I had done so well. I literally went into tears. I had to get up and leave and get some Kleenex. Obviously it still upsets me. That's life, and we don't always get what we want. I had done it. That's still my grade and I was disappointed by it. I was given the same message by my professor: "I really don't see you teaching. Your epilepsy is always going to be a problem." I can remember that vividly addressed. The support service programs for the disabled a lot of times also carry on this attitude of we don't see disabled people in professions. It drives me crazy. The Department of Vocational Rehabilitation [DVR]. My counselor did nothing. It's like, "Oh, that's nice." It's like nobody bothered to tell me that maybe there were other things that could have been done. I guess that I was a little naive. My DVR counselor just said to me, "I just don't see you teaching. You have epilepsy and you might have a seizure." And there was never any suggestion-it dawned on me. A lot of times these days, they have teacher's aides in school. If anything would ever happen like my seizures, it would just be a temporary thing. If anybody ever wanted to know, my seizures aren't the kind where you are out. They last ninety seconds and then I am totally conscious again. Inasmuch as some people may have varying levels of impairment, I know that when I come back from a seizure, I am totally capable of talking, where some people can't. It's like everything is taking time to plug inside the brain. Not me. I know that I can battle it. I'm verbal. So it was just told to me, "I don't see you teaching." I can remember that they said that they just didn't feel I did a very good job. I know that they elaborated to me, but being emotional, I honestly can't say I remember why. I just remember them saying that I did this, this, and this. There was no sense of telling me that this could have been otherwise. The senior high teacher that I had-I could not accept a C from him for any reason because he had no way of Vickie's Story • 17 assessing me. He was never in the classroom. I was like, "Come on, Bob, let's get real." Did they know about your epilepsy when you applied to the teachereducation program at your university? At that point, I was plugged into the disabilities office but I think I must have up front addressed it to the professor. I know that I must have told some teachers about it. In my first two years of school, I didn't have any seizures. Senior...

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