How Bi-County Made It Possible For Me

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In April 1990, I was referred to the University of Wisconsin's Waisman Center by my doctor to study what was going on with my speech delays and unusual behaviors. I was four years old at the time.

The result of four months of work turned out to be my diagnosis of a "mild" form of Autism.

The professionals at Madison referred me to the Bi-County Special Education Cooperative, headquartered at Wallace School.

All of this was confusing for four-year-old me. To me, it was just this new experience called "school." I took two years of preschool.

My mom cried on my first day of school, in August 1990. I was bussed in one of those really, really old conversion-van type buses that was made to look like a school bus. The bus driver's name was Joyce, I think. I think most of the Wallace kids were on the same bus. One of them was Whitney, who I had a locker next to many years later in high school.

Our bus dropped us off in front of the Wallace School gymnasium. We were told to walk up the ramp (one of those handicapped ramps that went right then left) to the gym door. We had to walk straight past the gym floor, along the stage cushioning, to the hallway.

Not too far off of the gym door was Room 4. That was my preschool room. Julia, Tammy, and Diane.

I am told that on my first day of school, I was so nervous that I hid under the teacher's desk. I don't directly recall this, but thought it was interesting to share.

Here were a bunch of other kids, all around my age, that were all in the same boat. As far as I was concerned, here were some more toys to enjoy.

Trying to exhaust every pre-school memory is now difficult for me, because it has now passed the typical 20-year window of memory. But here goes:

*I had no idea what the word "preschool" meant. I did know what "school" meant. So any time a kid would misbehave, the ladies would say something to the tune of "we do not do that in preschool." I had to hesitate a bit because of this extra syllable before "school." I didn't know what it meant.

*The ominous sound of the Mill whistles would find its way into the room, and were louder than what I could hear back home on the east side of town. I can still hear those today.

*I can still visualize our classroom, and its light-blue walls and polished wood bookshelves in the back. I went back to Room 4 once or twice after graduating pre-school and remembered that the arrangement was the same as it was back then. The set of teachers desks were at the corner directly opposite of the classroom door, with the carpet area in between. Near the chalkboard was this tackboard covered with paper. It had all of the kids's birthdays on it, all on little paper birthday cakes.

*There was this song that would always play as we gathered around in a circle in the carpet area. I remember part of the rhythm and only one word, which was "rainbow." It was all on vinyl.

*I had these speech classes, and they were held in this small classroom addition. That's all I know about that.

*The advanced memory part of me had to have started with the lesson on knowing where we lived. There were these little cut-up houses from colored construction paper, and they were laminated with our addresses written on them. I think the lesson here was to remember where we lived in case we got lost, and we'd have our address somewhere in our memory to recall later. Julia would show us each "house" and ask "who lives on ..." It got to the point where I knew where people lived before they did.

*We were all in the same boat, but there was one kid whose Autism was severe. He was really the first kid that we knew was a kid, but was just so much different from all of us. It was through our interactions with him that we got to respect those who were far different than us. That kid was Jimmy, who could only moan and groan. But a very nice kid.

*My favorite toys were the clear-colored plastic tiles. They had slits on the corners where you could connect the tiles to create something. I didn't know what they were at first until someone showed me.

*Another toy that really stood out was the toy school bus. The room had a mix of carpet and solid floor, and they just happened to be lined up where I could picture the connecting rectangle shapes of floor (diagrammed at 90 degrees) as two-way streets. The only other toys I sort of liked were these large brick-like shoe boxes.

*My first tote bag was this cheap dark blue bag with the thin handles. In large lettering on the bag was my mother's handwriting: "Cody Cutter"

*We all got our individual pictures taken one day in the gym. The pics are still somewhere in the family photo tin. The background was a bunch of slaps of paint, and I had to stand with one foot on a stool holding a paint brush. I had this ugly red and olive green shirt on, and white shoes with these larger than life tongues.

*Someone either my dad knew, or my grandparents knew, taught in the next room over.

*Most of the memories are personal, meaning I have extremely little, or no, recollection of playing with other people. Five of the kids that stood out the most were Jimmy, Whitney, this bigger kid named Danny, Dennis was someone I went to school with later on in Rock Falls, and the other I'll mention later.

*Preschool was where I was first introduced to the computer. They were those little Apple Macs, and they were in the computer lab on the second floor. Going to the second floor was something different. Wallace had ceased to be a grade school in the late 1980s and most of the rooms were vacant. The only other thing I remember being up there was the JTPA. Anyway, my only memory with the computers were that they didn't have a mouse, or something. I recall the keys "I," "J," "K," and "M." The "I" was to move up, the "J" was to move left, "the "K" was to move right, and the "M" was to move down.

*I was invited to participate in the pre-kindergarten class just down the hallway at times. One of the kids in that class was my friend Evan's older sister. Evan was my first real friend, and we lived on the same block. I don't have any other personal recollections of these moments.

*There were a couple of times we took mini field trips not too far away from Wallace. We all walked over the the old Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Then on another occasion we went over to the Kastle for some ice cream. On our way back to Wallace from there, we walked by Fell's Barber Shop. He gave us all these little hard strawberry candies. Both the Kastle and Fell's were demolished for County Market property nearly a year later.

*Our final day of preschool was capped by a graduation ceremony. We had recieved preschool diplomas.

*My first crush was in preschool. I wrote about her in a previous Blog entry:

You read that right, I had a crush on someone in pre-school. I don't think boys know this thing called love at age 5. I did for some reason. Usually the first sign of love in someone is a psychological trait in all little kids through “I love my mommy,” and was extended by showing of love from my aunt and from my grandmother. I think this carried over to television cartoon characters such as Eureeka from “Eureeka's Castle” and Penny from “Inspector Gadget.”

I will never forget one scene from Eureeka's Castle when Eureeka was sleepy and wanted to take a nap. She yawned and spoke very softly in her high-pitched voice. It was probably the first minor sexual thrill I ever had. How that led to that, I just don't know. After that, it became solidified in my head that girls were very likeable, unless they provoke me. When we lived in Sterling (the first time) there was a girl my age that lived next door, and a couple more kitty-corner from that girl's house. All three provoked me in some way.

When I went to preschool for the first time, I was around quite a few girls that were my age. They didn't seem as bad as these three that lived near me. This solidified my belief, brought upon by Eureeka, that girls aren't so bad after all. They were better if they looked more like Cinderella and had the bright hair that Eureeka had.

Enter my first crush. Nevermind the fact that she had to get around with a cane. She was pretty. That's all I remember of her, however. I cannot remember any memories of interaction. Perhaps my preschool teachers know.

Her name's Malorie.

***

Julia always kept a close watch on me, even in the many years AFTER preschool. As I mentioned before, she wrote a letter to me right around the time I graduated from high school. In the letter was a copy of the attendance sheet. Of the 12 kids in my second year, 10 of them were from Sterling.

Here were some of her memories of me:

"When you were 5, Diane (my aide) was reading a type written report and you came up behind her and started reading it to her!"

"You used to say to me: one "C" one "O" one "D" and one "Y" instead of saying Cody. When I told your dad that he didn't know what I was talking about so you must have just done it at school!"

"You wrote down all of the radio stations in the area on the chalkboard and made me promise not to let the other children read it. (None of the children could read, it was a safe bet!)"

"You were never [the word 'never' is underlined] a behavior problem but when you were in your last semester of preschool, you visited Mrs. Estrem's kindergarten class for a certain amount of time a week. One day you came back and you were very [the word 'very' is underlined twice] angry and said "Julia, I am not putting my head down!!" I never asked you to do that, so I talked to Mrs. Estrem and it turned out that a little boy in the class did [underlined] have to do that!"

"One day we took a walking field trip and we made a list of words that began with "C" for twenty minutes!"

"On our field trip to Deer Park, you read all of the signs but didn't really like the deer!"

***

Yesterday, nearly 21 years after walking through that Wallace gym for the first time, I was saddened to hear that Sterling Schools was ending its partnership with Bi-County. Sterling's kids today will not be able to experience the same things I had experienced through its preschool program.

The thing that apalls me is that Sterling's financial woes are that bad to where the ceasing of the partnership was a money-saving tool. None of the other districts discussed ceasing.

I will forever be grateful for Bi-County for laying the foundation for the rest of my life in education. Where most kids simply began during kindergarten, this two-year head start of sorts prepared me for what turned out to be a great kindergarten AND AN EVEN BETTER GRADE SCHOOL EXPERIENCE!

Today - outside of working at a gas station - people know who I am all throughout northern Illinois through my work with high school sports.