Possibilities

Possibilities

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POSSIBILITIES

by Carol Castellano

Carol Castellano and her husband Bill
are leaders in the National Federation of the Blind's organization for parents
of blind children. They live in New Jersey with their children Serena and John.
Serena is blind and John is sighted. For both of these children, the future
is filled with exhilarating possibilities. With sparkle, pride, and belief Carol
shares some of them with
us. Here is what she has to say:

It took my daughter Serena a long time
to decide just what she wanted to be when she grew up. Whereas my son was only
four when he decided that he would be a dinosaur scientist, it wasn't until
she was seven that Serena realized that her destiny in life was to be a folksinger.
Happily she played the chords to
her favorite song, "Michael Row the Boat Ashore,"
on my guitar.

Then came the Presidential campaign of
1992. Serena was eight. She sat rapt before the television listening intently
to the speeches of both parties. After the summer's two national conventions,
she realized that it wasn't a folksinger that she wanted to be after all—it
was a folksinging Senator. By late fall, having heard all three Presidential
debates, Serena was going to be
President.

Her barrage of questions about how she
could learn to be President and conversations about what politicians do kept
up for so long that my husband and I were convinced she really might go into
politics when she was older.

In the late spring of this year, Serena
went out with her father to pick early snow peas from the garden. Coming inside
with her basket of peas, she told me she was very interested in gardening. "That's
wonderful," I replied. "You'll be a big help
to Daddy."

Overnight Serena's interest must really
have taken root, because the next day she asked me if I thought the gardens
at the White House were too big for the President to tend, since the President
is such a busy person. "Yes," I replied. "I'm sure there's a
staff of people who take care of the White House gardens." "Well then,
I won't be a gardening President," she
told me. "I'll just be a gardener."

The desire to be a gardener was still
but a tender shoot when Serena took a piano lesson—just a few weeks after
picking those peas—and realized it was a pianist she wanted to
be!

Serena is at such a wonderful stage of
life! Interested in everything, trying everything out, she sees the world as
her plum, ripe for the picking. She believes in herself, as we believe in her.
And since what people believe largely determines what they do, it is critically
important for parents of blind children (and other adults in the child's life)
to have positive beliefs about blindness and what blind people can do.

If we are told (in a journal article
or by a teacher of the blind, say) that blind children usually do not or cannot
learn how to do a certain task, and if we come to believe this, chances are
we will not give our child the experience or opportunity anyone would need in
order to do this task. And chances
are the child won't learn to do it.

Imagine, though, if we—and our blind
children—were never told that blind people couldn't accomplish a certain
thing. Imagine what the results might be if everyone believed that blind people
could do anything they wanted to! Well, I believe this—and attending NFB
National Conventions has solidified this belief for me. It is this belief which
guides the way I bring up my daughter.

My husband and I know personally or have
heard speak a blind high school teacher, college professor, mathematician, scientist,
car body mechanic, industrial arts teacher, Foreign Service officer, engineer,
a high-performance engine builder, and a man who has sailed solo in races from
San Francisco to Hawaii. This makes it possible for us to glory in the exhilarating
feeling of watching a child look toward the future and see only possibilities.