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Show crn .41 ii(U)ifluaky DESERET NEWS, Do-- lf THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1977 M V Living Dear Abby II ArlrlS W M Milnrtc AAnn Ita I I h Theater Comics What's Doing Music c School helps handicapped learn to survive By Cary Bauman accurate, but we dont know if she knows the meaning," Thorpe tells me Soon, he will have some slides with pictures of real signs to test comprehension O K , lets go gpt points, he says after class The students walk over to a wall covered with individual charts. Maggie points to a square on hers and the teacher marks down a point When enough squares are filled, a prize can be picked up. Maggies next class is Money and Change-Makin- g Again, her teacher is Thorpe. Six students are in this class, there to learn to identify coins The teacher sits at one side of a small table with the student across from him. "Hand me something that is worth one cent The student, the man in his sixties, picks out a penny. Hand me something that is worth five cents " The man picks up a nickel. "Point to the dime. Point to the dime think " The student responds correctly "Whats this Thorpe hold up a quarter. Nickel, the student responds. "No. look at it Mrs. Bauman, a free lance writer, describes a day spent with her sister, Maggie, who is a victim of Down's Syndrome and is mentally retarded. Maggie lives at home, but travels by bus to the Columbus Community Center for special training. Whats your name?" Maggie Wilcox. How old are you? " Nineteen-years-ol- "What school do you go to? School. Maggie Wilcox answers these questions every day in her survival skills class at Columbus Community Center, 2530 So. 5th East, a special school for the handicapped comprised mostly of retarded adults. Bill Webster, the behavior specialist who goes through the drill with Maggie, also quizzes her on her address, phone number and parents names I visited Columbus for one full day in t, and went to my sister Maggie's classes. Students were curious about my being there and some thought I was a new student. One young man was very interested in my camera. He kept pulling at the straps of the case and wanted to see inside. During the free times, before class and at lunch, there is a comfortable social atmosphere. Students are concerned about one another Most everyone says, Hello, how are you today? In the survival drill, Webster sits across from Maggie at a small table and talks to her while she takes telephone hold buttons from a large tray and sorts them according to shape and color. Another student, a man about 62, sits at the table also and is asked similar questions. Next to him sits a workmans black lunch pail. I look familiar to him and he asks me if I work at Dans supermarket. I tell him, no. Both students are rewarded with one token every minute, given out as encouragement. Generally three students are in attendance; enrollment is considerably smaller during the summer. Maggie shows initiative in this class, Webster says. She brings the trays out and sits down. Webster gives her some M&Ms, as well as a token. Her progress in survival skills is charted on a graph tacked to a wall in the classroom Her responses are about 100 per cent accurate. On payday, Maggie trades in her tokens at the school store for prizes. Maggie is enrolled in Program A, designed for students 16 through 21. Emphasis is placed on academics, with part-tim- e vocational training. Academics include reading, math and functional basics such as change-makin- g and survival words. The summer courses are somewhat g abbreviated, and math, reading and were not part of the curriculum tne day I attended. At about 8:15 Monday morning, Maggie finishes breakfast, which is free in the summer, takes the tray back to the kitchen and leaves the cafeteria. She walks into the hall and sits down on a bench to wait for her first class. The bell rings at 8 30, and she starts off to Work Development I. She goes into the room, picks up her time card and punches in at the clock. This teaches the student responsibility and simulates a true working situation. Inside the workroom some of the students stand side by side at a long table loaded with many trays and smaller boxes. The trays are filled with different-size- d bolts, telephone hold buttons of varying shapes and color, small squares of linoleum of alternating colors, and hinges that vary in size. Maggie begins by sorting bolts. She holds a small metal counter in one hand which she punches every time she picks up a bolt and puts it in the correct box. time-tellin- Quarter." Now Maggie sits down. Find me something worth a hundred cents." a silver dollar, Maggie picks it up "Whats it called" the teacher asks. "A eisenhower." g, time-tellin- Dan DeMarco is her teacher and Melanie Thorpe one of the aides. Both appear to be in their 20's. Strict discipline is kept and when students begin nudging and playing around the teachers get them back to work. But students receive encouragement while working and every few minutes they are given tokens for their efforts Pick up one, Maggie, and punch it Good, Maggie thats really nice, Maggie. Oh, Maggie, youre doing a really fine job, Melanie Thorpe says and hands her a token At the end of the period, the students count out loud the number of tokens earned and are given the same amount of M&Ms Deseret News art by Robert Noyce At 9:30, Maggie attends the survival word program for the lower skilled. Kevin Thorpe is her teacher. Five students and Thorpe, a blond man in his 20s, meet in a small room with morning light shining in. We start out with words that are life and death sorts of things, like poison. Most of the work is done on a basis, he says. The teacher sits at a table and the student sits across from him. He holds up a strip of cardboard with printing on it and asks the meaning A young woman named Joyce speaks too one-to-o- of fhp WrtPlfj Tf you CHR gmiln whilo Caution be careful. youll get hurt." "Don't Walk Women Dont go in there, stay there. bathroom, Maggie says. Thorpe Do I go in there? Maggie: No. Thorpe Do you go in there? Yes." Maggie: Poison dont drink it. Youll get sick. broken. Are you going to put your money in that? the teacher asks. No," Maggie says. Keep it in your pocket." Her responses are about 100 per cent er Maggie returns to the workroom alone, before 1:00, and begins to sort bolts. A woman aide asks, Maggie, what are you doing here so early? Maggie's hands have become blackened from handling bolts. Awful dirty," she says, and holds out her palms. When class starts, DeMarco, the teacher, asks Maggie to punch in and turn the counter back to zero. She is then told to work on sorting telephone cords, which is done by color. This time there is a greater emphasis on speed and efficiency and closer supervision. They're not children Dr David Mulder, one of two directors at Columbus Community Center, has degree in clinical psychology and has been at the school for about five years. He doesn't like the tendency many people have to stereotype the handicapped He feels that there are problems in judging the retarded by 1 Q score alone "The retarded are viewed as children, regardless of age If a retarded person is judged as a child, his goals will be goals set for a child, he says At Columbus, the students, or clients' are treated as adults A tough fire - His PROVO (AP) name is Joe Hoopomaikakealohoiokalanikanui Ahuna Jr , and he performs the Samoan Fire Knife Dance. Both pronouncing his name and performing the dance are very tricky business, he admits the "M,y Hawaiian name means brilliancy of the heavens is bliss.' Most people ask me how long it took me to learn to pronounce it," explains joe, who now rattles it off with ease Joe performs the Fire Knife Dance with equal dispatch for Brigham Young Universitys Sounds, a performing group which has toured the United States, Canada, Romania and Bulgaria. The dance of the hook knife - O Le Nifo was traditionally performed by the Oti manaia m son of a chief of Samoa, and once signaled victory at the end of a battle. Today Samoans add fire to the knives, calling for even more skill and courage Its a dangerous dance, but its a' happy dance, said Joe And it's very challenging Its like facing the problems device with a micsoftly, so a box-lik- e rophone is placed on the table foi; her, and when she speaks audibly enough, a red light goes on After three students have had their turn, Maggie sits down for the list of words. Maggie begins to read and define the words. No." Thorpe chuckles. She knows the names of all the people on them," "Silver dollar, Maggie says. "Find me something thats worth 25 cents. You use it in the Coke machine. Maggie picks up a quarter. At 10:30, Maggie returns to the survival skills class and attending work packet where she is taught to know her name and other vital information. From 11:00 to noon, its work development again. Maggie punches in and is told to pick up a counter. This time she sorts hinges. She presses the counter after she picks one up and drops it into a box, with a flourish, letting it fall with a flick of her wrist, which is held high Now Maggie moves on to packaging bolts, putting them in plastic bags, still using th counter, four bolts to a bag. How many do you A woman aide asks: putin the bag, Mag Four, she replies. Then its lunch time and the students check out from work development. In the cafeteria people stand in line waiting to pick up their trays. The menu for the day is spaghetti, green salad, apple sauce, garlic bread, 2 per cent milk, and a cookie-lik- e dessert. Students sit at round tables, talking and laughing. One young woman has a large transistor radio at the tahle playing rock music. When they finish eating, they sit in the halls and talk, or play around outdoors. Goals and expectations should be the same as for the counterpart," Dr Mulder stresses. "We are attempting to get the handicapped person as close as possible to being an adult. Some can find jobs and become financially independent. Others will always be a long way from normalcy, but we're trying to avoid limits " Social acceptance of the mentally retarded is important to the school director He observes students' grooming habits and behavior "Many retarded individuals dance playing with fire, you can smile through any problems He learned the fire dance by practicing eight hours a day, six days a week, for two months. "People told me I couldnt do it, but I learned, he says. Theres a Japanese saying, whatever you can dream, you can do And I did learn the dance." After a engagement performing at Kahoshima Resort Hotel in Japan in 1974, Joe was lauded by critics as one of the best performers of the ancient and dangerous Samoan dance. Joe also performs the intricate Navajo Hoop Dance with the BYU Sounds, a dance which requires great coordination and skill. I learned it when I was performing with Showcase Hawaii," sponsored by BYU Hawaii, for a tour of the Orient. An Indian performing with the show taught me the Hoop Dance, and 1 taught him the Fire Knife Dance," said the performer. The 22 year-olstudent is used to the show business world His father works for they're adults dress younger than they are, so we have functional living classes on grooming and care of clothes " He disapproves of the hair styles that retarded people are often given Many males have institution-type- " hair, regardless of their head shapes or present day hair fashion The women often have blunt, straight cuts that hit above the ears No imagination is used Dr. Mulder feels that these people can be taught to groom themselves and to take care of longer hair Columbus School was started closely-c- ut names tricky, too 141 " ie fijmcoj in Uouigii The class, Perception of Concrete Objects, taught by Marla Eiison, begins at 1:30. See MAGGIE on C-- 7 jamons fables His own collection E. Edgar The first published work of Henry David Thoreau sold a scant two hundred copies. Under the terms of his contract, the author and student of nature had to relieve the publisher of the unsold volumes One day, some months after the publication date, Thoreau was entertaining a guest in his home. The latter was impressed by the size of his host's library. You have at least a thousand books here! he gasped. You must be a dedicated collector. Not really, shrugged Thoreau. As a matter of fact, I wrote almost ail of them myself. By E Poor timing Friends of Edna Ferber could not understand why she had remained single over the years Surely you must have met one man you would d "Haui&ij 1968 Prior to that time, parents of the handicapped had to set up programs themselves or find day care centers. But House Bill 105, passed in 1969, makes it mandatory to educate the handicapped until the person is trained. The Salt Lake School District will provide free training through age 21, and after that funding is obtained from Community Foundation, Division of Family Services, United Way, Division of Vocational Education. CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act), and Division of Rehabilitation Ser- vices in DeMarco instructs her on how to punch the counter, not with her palm but with one finger She earns a token. Each box has a sample cord taped to it, and she places cords in the proper boxes. Aide Melanie Thorpe comes around. Maggie, lets see how youre doing. Good, lady. Oh, Maggie, thats nice. Maggie kisses Melanie's hand after she pats Maggie on the shoulder. DeMarco works with her again, telling her not to lift her arm so high when she presses the counter and puts the cords in the boxes. Thats silly," he says. After that, Maggie moderates her motions She is instructed to get all the cords sorted. Joe Ahuna performs Fire Dance for BYU group have married," suggested a confidante I have," admitted the novelist, and I have met one man who would marry me, but unfortunately, it wasn't the same man |