Q3) “Ned didn’t need a car. Ned will never need a car, though I’m not sure he realizes that. When Ira turned sixteen and got his driver’s license, Ned talked a lot about how he could hardly wait until he could get his driver’s license too. ..When told he would have to take both a written test and a driving test, he let the matter drop. To our relief, we never had to tell him that he wasn’t ever going to be a driver.
It’s one of the mysteries of Ned. He has never made the slightest reference to the fact that he’s different from other kids, even though he’s spent most of his school days surrounded by other Special Ed students who are obviously atypical of the general school population. Didn’t he notice that some of his colleagues in Room 104- the Special Ed headquarters at his high school- couldn’t talk, or would suddenly start screaming for no apparent reason? Was he unaware that some of them wore football helmets all the time and other were in wheelchairs?…Yet he apparently doesn’t see any connection, physically or intellectually, between them and himself…
He doesn’t ask why he isn’t getting a driver’s license.” pp. 6-7
This is an honest look into the thoughts of Ned’s Dad. They sound so familiar, yet odd to hear at the same time. Driving and dating are two things that my son longs for… and hasn’t had. He doesn’t talk about it a lot, but every now and then he mentions it – and it breaks my heart. I also wonder what he thinks about his condition, and those he saw in his classes…
Has anyone else had these thoughts?
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