Losing eyesight, gaining insight

Nellie McCain kept missing the eye of the needle with her thread.

"Oh my God, I can't see," she said, as she pushed her glasses back upon her face and re-focused.

"I've got to find the needle. OK, that's the top," she reassured herself, and holding the eye of the needle inches from her face, stabbed at it again with her thread.

Sigh.

"I can't even tell where the string is in my hand," she said, perplexed. "Where'd my string go?"

A short silence followed and then Ariel Beeler chimed in.

"It dropped," she told Nellie and the girls burst into laughter.

Nellie and Ariel are young women in Virginia City Middle School's eighth-grade health class, which is studying the human life cycle. Last week, they participated in a variety of tasks aimed at giving them first-hand experience into aging, one of the eight stages.

The dark glasses that Nellie wore were smeared with Vaseline, making it easy for her to perceive that some tasks, like threading a needle, become difficult due to failing vision, cataracts or any number of eye problems.

"It was interesting to see how eyesight gets as you age," she said. "It's hard to do stuff when you can't see as well."

Students also put on gloves and tried to connect puzzle pieces and Legos to comprehend what arthritis and a lack of coordination might feel like; listened to directions with earplugs to experience hearing loss; put candy in their mouths and read out loud to become familiar with loss of muscle control; and ate a cracker and drank soda water to acquaint them with the sense of losing their taste.

For some, it was their first glimpse into the reality of aging. For others, it was an exciting opportunity to find solutions, like pushing a puzzle piece off the table instead of picking it up.

"I look forward to becoming old," student Shane Gillepsie said. "I think it might be fun to overcome all the difficulties."

For health teacher Connie Roberson, it was simply the second day in a two-day aging unit.

"Yesterday was the book portion, today is the hands-on learning," she said. "I'm hoping (my students) understand the life cycle unit and that their bodies degenerate when they get older."

They definitely understood several things. Nellie concluded she would sit farther way from computer screens and listen to loud music less often. Lyndsi Pope planned to take better care of her body by avoiding bad foods and having good dental health. Shane wanted to be more compassionate toward his grandmother, whom he lives with.

"I know what she lives like now in her old age," he said. "It'll help me be more understanding of her."

The best thing about losing a little eyesight for a day is insight that is gained.

n Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.

Eighth-grade health

• In eighth-grade health class, students study the eight stages of the human life cycle, which are fertilization, birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, aging and death. Within the unit, they receive sex education.

• In addition to meeting learning standards, the aging unit meets other standards like socialization, group and English skills.

• Additionally, in eighth-grade health class, students are taught the muscular, skeletal and circulatory system.