Gabriel and Hannah Go To College
Today, Gabriel and Hannah headed to college. After six and almost four years, respectively, both seemed prepared for higher education. Gabriel has been reading for awhile, mastering single-syllable sight words; Hannah has been learning new signs and words, too. It was time to move up.
At least that's how I sold the adventure to Gabriel this morning. We were headed to George Fox University in Newberg, OR to participate in a speakers' panel with Hannah's nursing agency, CNS. I loved the idea of sharing Hannah's history, a parent's perspective on in-home nursing, and our very positive experience with CNS with a room full of soon-to-graduate nursing students. I just wasn't sure if Gabriel and Hannah could keep it together for an hour plus.
"Gabriel, we're going to college today. You ready to start college?"
"Yeah, college! I can't wait to tell Mrs. G [his kindergarten teacher]! She'll be so surprised!"
Gabriel further advised Hannah that she wasn't quite ready for higher education yet; she would need to learn to read like him. Then she could go to college, too.
As we drove toward Newberg, Janette and I peppered the kids with college features and facts. Did you know that you could do science labs in college? Mommy and Daddy met in college, did you know that? All of our anecdotes seemed to excite Gabriel further. Hannah was less happy with the length of the drive, but took most of it in stride.
We arrived on campus thirty minutes later, soon found our panel group, and headed up to the classroom. Janette and Gabriel laid out blankets for Hannah to play on. As members of the panel took turns introducing themselves and answering questions, we carefully dolled out Hannah's toys. She spun across the blankets, chasing her Babbling Bee. The mp3 player amused her briefly. The kinetic singing drum satisfied her for awhile.
Watching all of this, one the nursing students asked, "Hannah seems to be a very active girl. With all of the equipment, how do you keep up with her?"
Janette and I both laughed. It was a good question. Janette described the gymnastics involved in keeping a suction catheter sterile while timing trach suction with Hannah's dance. I echoed her comments. We moved on.
Through it all, Gabriel sat patiently. Hannah played. Fellow families, E & C, spoke about their experiences. Together, we took and answered many really great questions. Hopefully, all of these nursing students will go into their profession with an additional sense of the patient's and family's perspective. Maybe we'll even see a few take the in-home nursing track.
Afterward, I asked Gabriel and Hannah what they thought. Hannah responded, "La la la." [Probably both a request of me and an appreciation for the "Happy Birthday" song the class sung for E, another CNS client.]. Gabriel said, "They chatted a lot. It was great!"
I didn't quite have the heart to explain "lecture hall class" to Gabriel, but I recognized his acknowlegement of his own learning style (social) in his response. I hope both he and Hannah can learn to play the elementary and high school game, the one that won't often teach to their natural learning styles necessarily, and hang in there for when college really begins.
-- Dad
