Do not compare

Part 2

As a child, I could read fast and with expression. I'd score full marks in these tests. There was another girl who was hard of hearing. Teachers refused to believe that she had a disability and even prohibited her from wearing hearing aids to school as they insisted that they were not a part of the school uniform. She was disallowed to sit in the front row, the teachers of this missionary school had decided that as she looks ‘normal’, she cannot have hearing problems, she was stupid and lazy instead.

After I would read, the teacher would ask me to read again as she loved how I elucidated the emotions in the passage. Then she would read haltingly. The teacher would scold her, "How well she read and look what you just did!" I would get hurt that she was insulted. The teachers should have acknowledged her disability, allow hearing aids and helped her improve in reading with empathy, in consultation with a special educator. The teachers of this so-called moralistic school would have understood what she was going through had they tried to learn reading with earplugs.

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https://pixabay.com/vectors/deaf-hearing-aid-icon-ear-problem-6572786/: Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay