John Fuente

In general, as a culinary educator, I pair people for laboratory assignments with knowledge of LD students prior to assignment for partners. I am able to pair the students with excelling students using the "tennis match" theory. The lesser player in the match will rise above their level naturally to meet with the better player and I keep the better player at their level while mentoring the LD student to reach the same level of success as their partner.

I never would have thought it possible, but not only has my school graduated a blind student with a degree in culinary arts, but the student was well above average. We had to rewrite some curriculum and make a few adjustments, but overall the good far outweighed the difficult.

I'm completing this course for my school and can't help but think that all this busy work just guarantees tech careers and cuts down on the time that we interact with students.