Blind teacher helps sighted persons to read

‘Not every man without sight is without vision’ is the mantra that Meeks Campbell, 44, continues to live by.

Campbell, though being blind for eight years, has been bestowing vision to others, both children and adults, by granting them the gift of literacy.

“When most people hear that a blind man is going to teach them to read, them laugh. But when them actually come and see that within a week they are far ahead, they look at me different,” he laughed. “The only way somebody come to me and not learn to read is if something wrong with their brain.”

Campbell’s career as a reading instructor dates back to 2007, after graduating from St Joseph’s Teachers’ College where he majored in advanced reading. He was then employed at Green Park Primary in Clarendon.

“I got a slow grade four class and I realised that children couldn’t read simple words I put on the board and I started to cry ... I felt so sorry for them,” he said. “From there I started to have this deep passion for helping persons to read because I know the importance of it.”

CHILDHOOD ACCIDENT

But all that time, Campbell only had vision in his right eye, after losing sight in the left in a childhood accident. Then years later, he found out that he had cataract in his right eye.

“The cataract began to feed on my eye so I did a surgery in 2009 and they put in an artificial lens, but the lens shifted and tore the retina,” he revealed. Unfortunately, he lost the eye in 2013.

“I still continued to teach reading after that although it was hard to transition. I went to two other primary schools in Clarendon and then I volunteered for over three years at a school in Mandeville,” he said.

Campbell uses ‘unique’ techniques to successfully help him to teach.

“I invented a colour-coded chart so I have that to represent certain things. My consonants sounds are in black, every letter that is silent in grey, and vowels blend in blue etc,” he said. “When a student comes to me, the first thing I do is a diagnostic test where I ask them to sound the letter, to see which letter they have the wrong sound for. I also write the letters on my board to see if they know them because you cannot teach a man to read and he doesn’t know the symbol which represents the sound.”

“After that assessment I ask them to read a passage of a kindergarten student and if they can’t, I know they are a non-starter and I work with them from there,” he added.

Campbell has been teaching from home for a few months due to the halt brought on by COVID-19, but said he would love a bigger space to accommodate more students. One parent said she was told Campbell was blind before she went to him, but still wasn’t prepared for what she saw.

“I was amazed to see how he functions as a blind person,” she said. “My daughter is doing excellent because when she went there, she wasn’t reading; simple three-letter words she didn’t know. Now she is reading in church and reading stuff on TV.”

Classes are six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with some input from his assistant.

“I have a desire for this. It is something I love so much. It brings me joy to see slow children progress,” said Campbell.

Meeks Campbell may be contacted at 876-473-9873.