by Cheryl Price
No learning experience stands out more clearly in my mind than my tours of duty with Camp Cougar. I thought I treated everyone as equals, but Camp Cougar taught me otherwise.
Camp Cougar is a UH-sponsored on-site summer camp for the mentally challenged. In 1990, and again in 1995, I worked one-on-one with the more "high-maintenance" campers. Between these years, I watched many of the kids grow up and the adults become independent. One sticks out firmly in my mind.
I met Blake, a 14-year-old autistic, in 1990. He had a vocabulary of about five words and was quite a handful. He didn't communicate well with others and had a hard time controlling his excited movements. Many assumed he was severely retarded, because there was no real way to test his intelligence.
Blake is now 20 years old and is still a handful. In addition to tripling his verbal vocabulary, he has learned facilitated communication. As a result, Blake now types anything he wants to say into a keyboard. His outward behavior has changed little, so many still assume he is slow. However, his IQ was revealed at the near-genius level.
It was quite an adjustment for me to recognize and treat Blake as an intellectual equal. I had always suspected he was smarter than he let on and that his frustration with his inability to control his body affected his behavior, but I never knew to what extent. Before, our most intense discussion was about lunch. Last summer, we were talking about music, computers, and the camp counselors.
I often caught myself "dumbing down" my discussions with him. When he sneaked out of his room one night, my first reaction was to scold him like a child who ran away. Luckily, I caught myself and realized that it was probably discouraging at his age and intelligence to require round-the-clock supervision. Didn't I sneak out of the house during the adolescent years? I instead acknowledged his feelings and his need to be alone at times. But since I was personally liable for him, I encouraged him to discuss unsupervised trips on Mom's time. It was very different from how I was used to handling a camper.
You might wonder why someone like Blake still attends a camp focusing primarily on lower-functioning individuals. Well, at this camp, Blake is the "big man on campus." He's everybody's favorite and is spoiled rotten, unlike in the real world. On further introspection, I realized that was one of the reasons I attended Camp Cougar, too. It was then when I fully realized how far I had to go to become truly nonjudgmental.
RHA is sponsoring Casino Night on March 30, and all proceeds will go to scholarships to allow people like Blake to attend Camp Cougar (and so students like myself can learn from them). Among the frenzied gamblers, you will also see some of the campers. You might even see Blake.
Just watch out if you play him in poker. I bet he can count cards.
Price is a senior hotel restaurant management major.