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"boy" and a sculpture of a boy would be placed in front of me. Over the months, my
very basic English vocabulary base began to expand -- and so did my ability to
communicate.
But it was not until high school that more attention was given to my English.
After enrolling in a bottom-level ESL class in high school, I was able to compose a
basic essay. But after one intermediate-level ESL class, I was placed in a regular top-
level regular English class. It was in this class that I got more support from the
teacher; in previous classes I rarely sat down with the teachers and hardly followed
along. My signing was poor and I often had to rely on a noisy brailler so that a
teacher's aide could help me understand a bit what was going on. In those ESL
classes I mostly sat through class, waiting for the time to pass or reading whatever I
was given. But I had a skilled interpreter for the remaining 2 years of high school,
and it was around this time that I became to notice the involvement of the California
Deaf-Blind Services, which sent a representative to assess my situation and help me
adapt to the larger community. But I also found some comfort in meeting a teacher
who was responsible for a class with deaf and hard of hearing students, and we
gradually formed a friendship and I enrolled in some of her classes.
Throughout my entire public education, I was placed in the Visually Impaired
Program. None of my primary teachers knew sign language. And while I was placed
in some of the classes for the hearing impaired in high school, I had trouble learning
math as I was almost entirely reliant on braille. The teachers rarely had the time to sit
down with me, and the school lacked sufficient resources to support me. High school
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