New York Cares – Sony Wonder Technology Lab

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This past Saturday I had the pleasure of volunteering with New York Cares.  The volunteers took a group of ten little boys and girls to the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in mid-town Manhattan.  It was a fun filled day of learning about technology.  It was very fulfilling knowing the few hours we spent with the kids meant so much to them.  I was really surprised at how well-mannered the kids were too. I would definitely be inclined to continue this project again. 

Image by jasoneppink via Flickr

Sony’s museum is great.  There’s a ton of stuff to do and interact with and makes for a fun learning environment for the kids as well as the adults.  When you walk in your given a card that lets you interact with anything in the museum.  Visitors are encouraged to look and touch to get the most of their experience.  When you leave you get a print-out of everything you did while you were in the museum.  Taking your experience with you is the name of the game. 

If you haven’t volunteered yet I urge you to try it out and New York Cares is a great place to start.  They always have lots of projects running at the same time so you can pick and choose where and when you are willing to give some of your time to doing something besides watching TV.  It’s also good for your community and giving is always better then receiving even if you don’t think that way yet.  What you are actually getting back is the satisfaction knowing you did something for someone else, someone that needs your help.  I sound like a charity infomercial but it’s really not that hard to do.  The rewards are not always tactile or on the surface but they may emerge when you least expect it.

The little boy I shadowed while I was there was very quiet and looked like he was very sad.  Then I found something that we both we’re very excited about (video games) and the adventure took off.  His frown was replaced with laughs and he was filled with a thousand and one things to say.  Finding that common interest was like that aha moment.  Everything that followed just felt right. 

This experience is something that I want to share with everyone; yes it’s that good of a feeling.   Trust me if you ever wanted to do something like this, I say “Just Do It” Start here www.newyorkcares.org 

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The Gow School

Tucked away in the small town of South Wales, NY sits The Gow School - a college preparatory high school for dyslexic boys. This boarding school was where I received my high school education and learned a whole lot more about life. Following is a succinct account of life at Gow. 

I shared a cramped 8 ft by 10 ft space with a roommate in the Templeton dormitory (pictured at the top) - my home away from home - during three years of stay at Gow.  A typical day at Gow began with a 6:00 am wake up command by the dorm master. After dressing up - donned in sport coats and ties - we proceeded to breakfast at 7:00 am sharp. Tardiness to breakfast resulted in extra days of waiting tables much like the duties of a floor restaurant job - fetching the meal from the kitchen, serving it and then clearing and cleaning the table. Next stop was “house jobs” as we all had to do our part to keep the campus clean.  A bell sounded the start of the regular school day not unlike any other high school except for the fact that I never had a class size with more than 5 students. This made for an intimate class setting quintessential for students with learning differences.  After classes ended for the day, we were able to return to our dormitories for about an hour before athletics began. Everyone was expected to participate in a sport or activity like ultimate Frisbee or whatever was being played any given day. After athletics, once again we were able to return to our dormitories for about two hours until dinner. In sport coats and ties, we had our family style dinner with our teachers and their families. After dinner we proceeded to two-and-half hours of supervised study at a hall. Honor roll students were exempt from after dinner study at the hall and were permitted to study in their dormitories. Following after dinner study, we enjoyed a few hours of recreation time in the dormitories before lights out at 11:00 pm.  This was the routine six days a week although on Saturday after classes we were allowed to board a bus to the mall or sit in the gymnasium. We had Sunday morning services but the rest the day was more relaxed ending with mandatory evening study in the study hall pictured to the right. 

            My favorite classes were Art, Journalism and Physics.  Bill Parsons, a prestigious artist for national geographic, was our primary art instructor and Mrs. Baust was our secondary teacher. Mr. Parsons taught form and grounded techniques whereas Mrs. Baust let us explore more freedom of creativity with sculptures, music videos and clay-mation.  Overall The Gow School has an exceptional art program and I still get compliments on my work. Journalism was a very unique class and taught by one of my most favorite teachers, Mr. Wright.  He pushed us to be more responsible. He gave me the keys to his office and loaned his personal camera to be the school’s official photographer. Mr. Wright also took the time to coach me in every aspect of photography from lining up snapshots to developing the pictures in the dark room.  Physics was my favorite subject at Gow in view of the hands on experience it offered. Physics laboratory and demonstration spurred my interest to choose mechanical engineering as my undergraduate curriculum. This hands on experience has also come in handy in explaining the physical universe to others. Looking back on my time at Gow, I can now truly appreciate that the Gow experience has stood me in good stead both in personal and professional life. 

There was a rich diversity of culture at Gow with students from all over the world. My interaction with the students taught me to have a greater respect and tolerance for people from different cultures and backgrounds. I cherish to this day the friendships I formed at Gow. The following picture shows my roommates at Gow. From left to right they are Ian Burt from -Toronto, Canada (senior year), Soren Messner-Zidell from Anchorage, Alaska (junior year), Kim Steppie from Brussels, Belgium (sophomore year) and Me Jason Bhatti from Buffalo, NY. At the time this picture was taken, I did not realize that all the pictured individuals would end up my roommates.    

High school can be tough for anyone particularly for those with learning disabilities. Most schools just aren’t equipped to address the individual needs of students with learning differences and as such many such students fall behind or end up dropping out. These students also get mistaken for being lazy when all they need is to be taught a certain way with small classes in an organized structured environment. The students that have attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and oppositional defiance disorder (ODD) have difficulties with reading and language – which are all forms of dyslexia - can benefit greatly from the modus operandi of Gow. Particularly effective is Gow's method of addressing language difficulties by the technique called Reconstructive Language or simply RL. Being a student with ADD and language difficulties, I can attest that my reading and writing difficulties were greatly resolved by RL to the point that I felt no different from students with no language difficulties in other schools. I knew I was not numbskull or lazy but people treated me that way in middle school not knowing I had learning difficulties. 

Having had the opportunity to learn more about my condition and how to address the language difficulties with RL at Gow I have accomplished more than I ever thought possible. I still read a bit slow but I am not afraid now. This blog is proof that I can clearly convey my thoughts on paper and demonstrate it in a concise manner.  Through my volunteering I have noticed that people taking English as second language greatly benefit from the Gow's RL deck. I am always eager to help them having an understanding of the difficulties of the English language.

As far as pharmacology is concerned I used to take Ritalin to combat my ADD but this is not a perfect solution and can have many harmful side effects. I would suggest taking a look at a natural supplement from Shaklee called “Mental Acuity Plus.”  It is a completely natural product and has no side effects. It has helped tremendously with my ADD. My mother suggested that I try it out as an alternative to Ritalin and I have to say it has been a great substitute. They say “Moms Know Best” and in this instance it certainly appears to be the case.    

Overall my high school days at Gow were beneficial, productive and memorable. I would recommend that if you have children that are having the kinds of problems described above in school, take a look at Gow and find out what they can offer you for your children. If tuition at Gow is not in your budget, do not give up as there are ways around it in the form of grants and other help. Even if you do not want to send your children there, I urge you to try and understand their problems so you can provide a better solution to address their needs.

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