(continued from Part 1)
Underspecified, Overwrought
What has been driving parents even crazier than the scavenger hunt for the impossible-to-find 1.5" gray binder is when The List states merely "blue pens" or "a flash drive, or a folder on another flash drive". Many parents lose all sense of equilibrium trying to figure out themselves how many blue pens their child will need, what size flash drive (or what is meant by a folder on another flash drive or a section in a binder), and just how big a binder should they buy?
It's the same loss of balance many of us feel when we are newly-diagnosed and sent "into the wild" with little more than instructions to "keep your blood glucose between 80 and 140", accompanied by (if we're lucky!) the American Dieticians' Association's/American Diabetes Association's pamphlet on the Exchange System, and a bottle of pills (or a syringe and a vial of insulin). While CDEs and training aids can realign our sense of proportion and serving size, it is often only by trial-and-error, and by discussion with other people with diabetes (who have been down the same route), that we can begin to adjudge and adjust those meal plans and dosage instructions to bring our numbers into some sense of "compliance". Similarly, parents must sometimes be reminded of their own school days (where we learned that tabbed dividers create sections in a looseleaf binder), and may need to call upon the experiences of other local parents and teachers to help them interpret those lists and thereby provide the appropriate material support for their children's development.
Reason and Reality
Just as there are reasons for each of us to be presented with a different "diabetes diet" and medication regimen, there are reasons why a teacher may request a specific style of backpack or notebook. Sometimes the reasons are understandable (school lockers are too narrow to store wheeled bags); others seem to make no sense at all (why does one first-grade teacher request her students come prepared with one dozen pencils for the school year, while the next demands three dozen?). Sometimes these demands come from a list untempered by experience -- just like the Exchange System's nine servings of grains per day; other times, they are based on what the individual teacher (or PWD) has found to work for him.
Reason suggests that reality temper our judgment and our actions. For some of us, this means store-brand or insurance-provided testing supplies and "old-style" syringes rather than the more expensive pens and pumps -- or eating less because we don't have the (financial or community) resources to eat smarter. Similarly, while some parents will easily invest in high-quality binders and name-brand pencils, for others it is a struggle to provide their children with the store-brand items on this week's One-Cent Sale.
Still -- as long as we are testing, analyzing, and adjusting, we have the basics down pat. The fancy supplies and new devices are, for a number of us, gravy.
One can only hope that our children's teachers are as understanding.
