Guide
Martha Majors oral history
Interview with Martha Majors, a teacher and leader from the Deafblind program, who has worked at Perkins School for the Blind for over 50 years.
Biographical information
Martha Majors was hired at Perkins in 1972 and would spend the rest of her career at the school, over 50 years. She started out as a teacher working with students with significant intellectual disabilities in the Deafblind Department of Perkins. In 1979 Majors became head teacher where she supervised teachers, assistants and residential staff to develop a functional academics curriculum while also working with students’ families. She served as the Assistant Education Director of the Deafblind School from 1983 to 2017 and led the efforts to expand Perkins’ reach internationally by implementing a “train-the-trainer” model to educate teachers in school systems globally. Majors has also worked for more than 25 years with the Educational Leadership Program (ELP) where she has enjoyed sharing with teachers from around the world, her favorite topics of communication, curriculum (and Martha Matrix) Calendar Systems, and teaching strategies. She has presented and publishes regularly on topics related to Deafblind educational practices, was an adjunct professor at both Boston College and the University of Massachusetts Boston and has been honored with several awards, including the Anne Sullivan Medal in 2015. Majors served as the Education Director of Perkins’ Deafblind School from 2017 to 2022 and currently is Director of Egypt Programs for Perkins International.
Majors has also served in several leadership advisory roles outside of Perkins including the Ministry of Education and Special Education, the Al Noor Institute and the NDC School for the Blind. As such, she is recognized as a global authority on the best practices for deafblind education and through her advocacy has affected change in special education in countries including China, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Ireland, Russia and Turkey. Martha received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rivier College, a Masters of Education in Deafblind Special Education from Boston College, and a second Masters of Education in Severe Special Needs from Northeastern University. Martha is also a graduate of Babson’s Women in Business Program.
Notice and permissions
This interview is an interview conducted for the Perkins School for the Blind, conducted on June 22, 2021, by Jen Hale.
This oral history transcript may be quoted if cited. A preferred citation is provided. The interview may not be published in full except with the permission of the Perkins School for the Blind. For permission please contact [email protected].
Preferred citation
Majors, Martha. “Martha Majors oral history interview conducted by Jen Hale,” 2024-06-07, Perkins Archives Oral History Project, AG176-2024-27, Perkins School for the Blind Archives.
Audio recording
Transcript
Jen Hale (Hale): Today is June 7, 2024. This is Jen Hale. I’m here with Martha Majors, a teacher and leader from the Deafblind program, who has worked at Perkins School for the Blind for over 50 years. We are conducting this interview virtually on Google from Watertown, Massachusetts.
Martha, are you OK with me recording this conversation?
Martha Majors (Martha): I am fine, yes.
Hale: Martha, when were you hired at Perkins?
Majors: I was hired to begin work in 1972.
Hale: And what led you to this field? And how did you come to Perkins?
Majors: Well, my story is a little bit interesting because I– in undergraduate work, I was a social work, psychology major. And I had decided that I wanted to be a social worker. And I would go to graduate school to become a social worker.
So I applied to several social work schools across the country including Boston College. And when they called me, they said, we like your information, but we’re hiring– we’re looking for people to apply for a grant in the area of Deafblind education.
And I said, well, I don’t know anything about that. I really didn’t study special needs. And they said, well, we’re looking for people from different demographics. So would you be interested? So I said, well, OK, why not?
So as it turned out, the grant money ended. I was the 21st applicant, so therefore I did not get the money to become part of this program. But I decided that I was very interested, and I would go anyway.
So I attended the Boston College special education– the School of Education specialty in Deafblind education. And while I was there, I did my student teaching. And I guess I did a good job. I really did. I didn’t really know, Jen, because this was all brand new to me. And I was just doing the best I could.
So I get a phone call from the current– the director at the time, Ben Smith. And he said, I heard you did a good job as your student teaching. Would you like a job? And I said, well, I guess so. When you’re young, you think, sure, I’ll take a risk. Why not? So I was hired.
So I started work in the fall of 1972. And he described the students as being very special and that there were a lot of students that were a product of the rubella syndrome era and that these kids had a lot of special needs.
So they were housed in a cottage.. They lived in a cottage and the school was in one of the cottages in the playroom and what we now know as apartments. So that’s where I started my career.
Hale: Can you describe some of your job responsibilities when you first started working?
Majors: Yeah. So I wasn’t really sure how to be a teacher. When I worked under someone else in what was called the North Building at the time, I learned from them. But they were teaching very, very capable children who had rubella. So we were teaching mathematics.
And all the students at the time were oral. We didn’t use sign language at the time. So a lot of them really weren’t really responsive to oral language. But these children wore hearing aids. And they were very, bright young people.
The people that I was working with were not that same profile. So as a teacher, I had to develop lesson plans. And I realized very quickly that I really did not know what to do. I could write a lesson plan because I learned that. But how to create appropriate content was like, I don’t know.
So every night, I would go home and I would study Piaget, which we had learned extensively at Boston College. And I would try to say, well, this student that I have might be at this level of thinking, so maybe I can develop a lesson plan based on that.
So I learned to develop lesson plans. And then immediately, I had– at the time, they were called teacher assistants. That name has changed multiple times, but they were called teaching assistants. And I had two of them. So one of my jobs was to supervise them and tell them what to do.
And I’m thinking, OK, well, I’ve never supervised anyone, especially in this kind of area. So we developed a team. I knew how to do that because I had worked at summer camps where we were team members. So I drew from that experience.
And then we developed lessons based on what I thought, developmentally, would be around preschool. So even though the students were a little bit older, I thought they would function as preschoolers. If they were typically developing, they would be at a preschool level. So we did a lot of that.
And I have to say that I was surrounded by what I would call heroes. And in my project, I listed them all out. So there was Dr. Waterhouse, who was absolutely the best hero in terms of Deafblindness. And I used to see him walking the sidewalks.
And then there was Nan Robbins, who– we have a lot of writing about her. And then there was Liz Banta, who was a social worker. And she was enormously successful with families. So she was my hero. And then Carol Crook– her name was Carol Johnson Crook. And she was just so smart about children who were Deafblind.
So I used to talk to them all the time and saying, I really don’t know what I’m doing. And they would come and observe me. And they would say, no, you really don’t know what you’re doing. But that was really good. So I said, OK, so let’s do more of that, right?
So I think at the time, Deafblind education was– we didn’t really know. We had to follow what we had learned theoretically. But the kids were different. They’re real kids with different behaviors and different ways of learning. So one of my jobs was to try to figure that out and assess children as best I could using some assessment tools to figure out how they thought. That’s a long answer, but that was, I think, what my job was. Yeah.
Hale: Great. Long answers are fantastic. What’s the most memorable event or experience from these early years, would you say?
Majors: I guess for me, as a person, Jen, figuring out that I could share what I learned with kids based on my life. So I think what I realized– how to interact with a family. They would come and drop their children off at school. And I very quickly related to the families.
So I think when the light bulb went off, it was, oh, I can relate to these families. They’re still people. They know more than I do about their children. But me realizing that we could be a team. I think that still sticks with me now, working with that family who was very, overwhelmed and me trying to support that family.
I think that light bulb went off. So forever, I keep trying to do that, regardless of where I worked. I want to use that as my link.
Hale: Are there any memorable experiences with parents you can think of?
Majors: Well, that’s what I just referred to were the parents. So in terms of the families coming in, I think that one of the best– one of the things that was very different when I was first starting out was the students– almost all lived at Perkins. So when a family came in, they would come in to get their child for a vacation.
And I’ll never forget this one family. The mother came in one day to get her child, who was very challenging in terms of behaviors. And she said to me, you really like my child. You really like my child. And I said, I do really like your child.
And I think that experience also says, we respected each other. And she felt better that somebody could like her child, maybe not in the same way that she did, but that she was accepted. So I think that was– I still remember what she was wearing to pick up her child. That’s how memorable that was. Yeah.
Hale: So you’ve had many positions here. What are some of the other positions you’ve had as you’ve progressed through your career?
Majors: So I worked as a teacher. And after a few years, the students got transferred to the North Building. So that was new for us because we had– there was 12 children who had what we would call today multiple disabilities, right? They were Deafblind, but they had lots of challenges.
So we moved to the Hilton Building, to the North Building. And then after a few years of working there, I developed a classroom for children who were totally Deafblind. We had a little loft in my classroom where kids would have– it was a sensory thing, but I didn’t realize how impressive it was until much later when we talked about what kids need from a sensory point of view.
So I had a little swing. And I had a ladder. And so that was one of the things that I did. So at that point, I was informed by my supervisor that I was actually becoming a leader because I took an idea, and I did something with it.
And so I learned from her that being a leader doesn’t mean you have a position title. You have done something. You took a risk. And you made a difference. So at that point, the administration decided that I should be called head teacher. So that was my next role.
And at that time, I didn’t have an office. I had a milk crate, a red milk crate that I took from my house. And all my papers were in there. And I would go to a different cottage or I would go to a different classroom with my milk crate as my office. So I did that for a while.
And I guess that’s called flexibility, because I didn’t need an office. I just needed to be able to talk to someone. So I did that. And then I got promoted to assistant supervisor. I did that for several years.
And then that position changed to assistant ed director. And I did that for a very long time. And then, ultimately, I became the education director of the program. They’ve always been teaching positions from day one.
Hale: And you were talking about leadership. And you’re sort of credited with fostering leadership in staff and educators here at Perkins. Why is that important to you?
Majors: I think it’s important– I guess, to be a leader, you need to be able to think a little bit outside the box and then decide whether what you’re doing is credible and whether it’s worth being shared.
So I grew up in a family where my whole family was– my father was a funeral director, so I grew up in a family where I always learned to share. I kind of learned empathy from a very young age and also to be kind. So when I think of a leader, I think of all those things.
And you’re empathetic with people. You might think outside the box. You’re a kind person. And you share what you know. So that was kind of my family culture. So based on all those variables that I just mentioned, I feel like, to be a leader, it was always my responsibility to share anything I knew.
Whether people agreed with it or not was fine because disagreeing was a good idea sometimes, saying, well, maybe we should do it this way. Let’s not just do it your way, Martha Majors, but let’s try to do it in a way that better meets the needs of the children. So that’s kind of how I grew up.
So I still say to people, if you serve on a committee and– you serve on the committee, you took a risk. And that’s being a leader. If you serve on a committee and you do something as part of that committee, you’re being a better leader. And I always say– I just said to the ELPs it doesn’t mean that because I had a title equals leader.
I think a leader can be any of us who do something different to make a difference for children in this case. So you’re being a leader by saying, I have a job. And I want to interview these people that have been here for a long time. That’s your leadership. And you’re willing to take a risk. Go and talk to Martha Majors. So I define leader as very different, I think. And I’ve always kind of lived by that definition.
Hale: What are some of the programs or projects at Perkins that have been most successful, do you think, and why have they worked?
Majors: So I think– when I think back to the research that I did for my legacy project, I found so many pictures and so many articles based on communication. And we knew from – I knew from a very young teacher that my students didn’t communicate in typical ways. And I had to figure out what that was going to be like.
So one of the projects way back then in the late ’70s was actually us deciding– I didn’t decide this, but the leaders, my heroes, decided that we should actually use sign language with our students, particularly those students who are profoundly deaf. They weren’t getting information. Maybe they were watching for information, but if they’re totally Deafblind, they really were not getting very much information about their world.
So I think that was a very successful philosophical change for our program, which we still abide by now. It’s now called total communication. And over the years, I’ve worked with speech people, audiologists, other team members to really consistently define what total communication is because it’s changed over time.
Initially, it was just speech and gestures or speech and simple signs. But now it’s much more complicated than that. So when I think about communication, I think that that area, we have made a big difference, a huge dramatic difference in teaching our kids.
I think if I look at the curriculum that I developed with a variety of people– I was just looking at the expanded core picture that I have that I picked from one of the publications from you folks. And there was a big picture about the nine variables about expanding the core curriculum.
I was doing expanded core as a teacher when I was working in that functional program with my initial students. I didn’t know that. But I was doing the basic information about how do you take care of yourself? How do you become self-advocate? Maybe you become a self-advocate if you don’t have a lot of language by raising your hand or something simple like that, which requires the child to know that they can make a difference, they have a voice.
So when I think about the expanded core, we did not develop it. Other people developed it. But we use it, still, all the time. But it started in my head. I started using it without calling it a name many years prior to that. And I think that that has maintained its efficacy still.
So I think another project that’s related to that but is more curriculum-based is over the years we developed curriculum to meet the needs of the students. So in my legacy project, we started looking at the students who were now becoming adolescent age, who we knew were not going to be typical learners for high school, right?
They needed a different curriculum. And we kind of knew that. So we started developing some areas of vocational curriculum. I had a classroom where there was an extra space in the cottage, actually. So I developed what I called the work room. And it was a tiny little space that my students could go and do tasks together based on their fine motor skills.
My husband illustrated the book, and I wrote up all these little things that people could do in order to get kids involved using their hands and using their strengths in terms of what they knew how to do. So I think that that ultimately turned into a very broad vocational program under the leadership of, say, Betsy Bixler– not Betsy Bixler, Betsy McGinnity.
So that is still going on. We have a very strong vocational program. I was just a small part of that. But I think going back to leadership, Jen, I took a risk to say my students aren’t learning this over here. They’re not doing math the way they’re supposed to. What can they do instead?
So I developed another piece of paper called Martha’s Matrix. It turned into that. But it’s a whole matrix based on part of the expanded core but also part of the developmental skills that young children develop, like matching, sorting, classifying, sequencing, social skills, helping out.
And I developed a grid. And so you can use that across any age based on the intellectual functioning of the child. So that is not necessarily for kids who are grade level for high school or in fifth grade. This is really for children who have more multiple disabilities. And I still teach that.
I use that with the ELPs this past year because it’s in one page, this is what I say to them. If that’s all you have is this one page, you can design a curriculum and a fine, best practice program for your student.
So I think those are the things that are long lasting– communication, curriculum, and implementation of the expanded core.
Hale: What have you found most satisfying in your relationships with students?
Majors: I think that it’s sometimes really hard to get that relationship going. And you have to work really, hard sometimes to earn their respect. Because they wouldn’t know me. Like, who are you? And they didn’t know a lot of people. When I was first teaching, they only knew their families.
So developing a relationship can take a while. But being persistent and respectful, how long it takes, I think gets a better deal at the end. So I guess I think that when you finally have that, not mastery, but initial relationship going on, when a student reaches out to you to get help, then you say, wow, I think I’ve made a difference.
So I think the relationship can be challenging. But it’s worth it all because they’re real people. But they just have different ways of communicating their feelings. So we have to be tolerant and respectful. So I think– I say to staff, even now, give it time.
They don’t like me. Well, you don’t know that they like you or not. They don’t know you yet. So you have to give them time to have that relationship. And they may not like you. We don’t like everybody. But you can respect them. And over time, you can build different relationships with that child.
So I usually say to a new staff– I usually say, just be with that child. Don’t ask them to do anything. Because they might not do it. And then you don’t know what to do. So just be with them. And by that– I use this line. Just be with and sit and see what they do.
And maybe offer them something to play with if you know they like a toy. But if not, just stay with them and see what they do. Do they reach out to you? Do they touch you? Do they look at your face? That’s the beginning of a respectful relationship. So I think that’s the most important thing all the time.
Hale: So that sounds a little bit challenging. Is there– I would say, what are the most, I guess, challenging aspects of your work besides that relationship, would you say?
Majors: I think it’s– and when I was looking at my project, my boss, my good friend boss, Carol, would say to me, Martha, what are you doing that for? And sometimes I would say, I don’t know. I didn’t know what else to do. So I did that. Because I didn’t know. We always took a risk.
So my comment was– then would say, I’m trying to do the best I can with this child, whatever that means. I’m trying to do my best. And I’m trying to make it right and good for that child. So I think that that is challenging. So it’s not– the relationship is one thing. The learning is another.
So I think that that’s another layer of, now that you’re with me, what are we going to do together? What is important for that child to be able to do? What I think is important may not be what they think is important. So I think we always– I think the challenge is, what is the best thing to teach? And then we have a whole set of strategies in terms of making a decision to how we’re going to teach it.
But I think good decision-making to do what is best for that child and always, always tell everybody that they are the focus. I’m not the focus. I might be an initiator of that focus. But it’s not about me. It’s always about the child.
And I think that’s what we all have to remember, because we might create mini miracles or not. But we’re not the person that’s– we might make a difference, but it’s because of the child we’re making a difference, not because I want the– I don’t need a big pat on the back. I need a pat on the back by saying, look at that child. They did a great job. So we can focus back to the child.
So I think that that’s what drives me to keep going. And sometimes, those children can have very challenging behaviors. Or they’re very sensitive to touch. So you think, well, that’s a challenge. How am I going to touch them if they’re totally blind and deaf? What am I going to do? So I think how they present themselves to us, it can be challenging for me to come up with the best answer.
When I was younger, which was many years ago now, I kept thinking that families are going to be challenging. And then when we started– when I served as part of the initial assessment team, I realized that families might be challenging because they’re overwhelmed. They don’t know what to do with this child. This isn’t the child they maybe thought they were going to have.
And so I decided that it was better for me to work with them to be empathetic, as appropriate, and to say you’re a team too. Let’s work together to see what we can do. So I think sometimes we think families are challenging. And maybe they might be. But I think that if they are, my job has always been to say, why?
Now, how can I get to know you differently so that we can make a team together? Because they usually have a reason, right? But we have to ask the question nicely and with respect. And sometimes, as we all have different things going on in our life, so do they. They may have six other kids. They may be in a very challenging situation in their family that has nothing to do with their child who’s Deafblind.
So we have to be understanding. And we don’t have to pry. We don’t need to go that far into that. But at least, if we can better understand– I’ve spent years talking to staff, saying they’re dealing with something else. And you don’t need to know. You just need to be empathetic, and you understand.
If it’s hard for you, let me know. Because I love– my love is actually working with families. I love to work with them. I still am in touch with many families. We reach out at graduation. We reach out. So when the child is older, what do you think I can do now?
So I think I’ve always had that, I’m going to say gift, of being able to have a relationship with families. And I have this thing that I used to say to my admin assistants. I’m always going to call them back. And they know that. It may take a day or two, but I never want them to think we don’t want to talk to them.
If they’ve been angry about something, I understand that. But I will always call that family back. And I think that’s really important that they’re– we’re there as a team, so we have to respect them.
Hale: So you had mentioned ELPs a while back. Can you tell me about your international work?
Majors: Yeah. So as part of the– when Mike Collins moved from the director of Deafblindness, he was a really big advocate at the federal level then. He spent a lot of time in Washington. And as you know from a lot of his writing, he made a difference in Deafblind education. He made changes that nobody else was willing to take a risk to change. Or he made changes with other people who are risk-takers like he was.
So when he and Kevin Lessard actually were able to write the grant to the Hilton Foundation, he started asking staff around campus, would you like to do some work? So some people were hired full-time to work with him. But I didn’t do that. I instead started working with, at the time, Aubrey Webson, who had– he was in charge of many countries, including Africa.
So he asked me if I would like to go to Africa. So I said, sure, I’ll go to Africa, right? So I started my work with him in Ghana. And then because he and I worked so well together, and he was not an educator, but I was. So he was a great thinker. So we could put our ideas together on how could we promote more activity and education in those countries. So that’s where it started.
And then so I went to many countries in Africa. I worked in Ghana for 10 years. I used to go twice a year to Ghana. And then that expanded to Malawi, to South Africa, Uganda, not so many times. And one other place. I actually did not consult in Kenya. And then that expanded through Dennis Lolli. He was the consultant to other parts of Europe.
So I spent seven years going to Istanbul to the Sabanci Foundation School– what is it called? Sabanci School for the Blind through the Sabanci Foundation. And I went there twice a year. And then later I started– then I went to Argentina. I went to Armenia once. I went to other countries.
Then I started projects in Egypt. So I’ve been in Egypt now for almost eight years doing consultation to Egypt. And my theme has always been program development with an emphasis on curriculum development, advocacy.
As it turned out, most of those countries really had great relationships with the Ministry of Education. So it was a great opportunity for me and the consultant from Perkins to really talk to them about advocacy for children who are Deafblind and making sure that they get noticed, making sure that they get accepted, recognized as children who was Deafblind who need something a little more special.
But underneath it all, when I think about my legacy project, I think what I did often was mentor people. So if I think about my themes, I developed a lot of things. But I also think that my– I guess my relationship-building and how I can help people that don’t know know more. So my philosophy has always been, Jen, to share what I know.
So I always think when I go someplace else, when I’m on the plane thinking, oh, my god, what am I going to do, you’re going to share what you know, Martha, in some way. So that’s what you have to do. So I think that sharing, for me, it turns into a mentor situation where I can help them think– if I’m there, I can give them feedback. I can listen to them.
We often learn from each other. I’ll say, oh, wow, I never even thought about that. I never thought about that. Good for you. I think that’s great. I’m going to bring that home to my teachers. So I always like to think that my international work was– I hope I made an impact. But I think it came from my understanding of content and being able to share that content and then mentor other people to do it as well.
So as a result of that, your question was related to ELP. So I’ve always worked with the international program forever and ever teaching the ELPs. So I usually do x number of hours per year with them. And then if they’re from a country that I’ve consulted with, then it just makes the consult even richer because they already know.
So I can go and recognize them for the great work that they’re doing. And they all do enormously impressive work, all of them. So it gives me another chance to have a different level of relationship with them because now we can have a conversation where we can respect what we’ve all learned. So I love working with the ELPs.
Hale: What is the reason you would say that you’ve stayed at Perkins throughout your career? Have you worked any place else, or is this it?
Majors: Well, that’s why Dave Power and Ed said, you are very, very unique. And yeah, I’m so unique. I get that, right? But I’m unique in a way that I’ve never left, right? And I’ve always been in the education program. I didn’t leave to go to finance. Or I didn’t leave and come back. I never left.
Once I got here, I never left. So I think I stayed because I really, really, really like the challenge of working with a child who is Deafblind. And the school is very progressive, as you know. And so I’ve worked under many directors, all of them since Dr. Waterhouse. I know them all.
And I’ve had experiences with all of them in terms of their leadership and their philosophy of [running a] school. And I think I’ve always been respected as an employee. And I guess I think if I work hard, then I’ll be able to stay, right? So I always try to do best practice. I always try to be the best worker that I can be.
And I’ve always been challenged in ways where I can do more. So the challenging part– in a positive way. I see the challenging part as positive. I can try to do that. Or going to Turkey for the first time. Yeah, I can try that. So I’m a risk-taker. So if I wasn’t a risk-taker, I probably wouldn’t have stayed as long.
But if something new was coming up, I can always try to contribute to it because I guess I have confidence that I can take a risk. So somebody asked me, why do you know to take a risk? And I said, well, you have to think about your confidence level. Do you know enough about what you’re doing to take a risk?
When Ben Smith hired me, the answer was, I took a risk because I thought it would be fun. I had no idea what I was doing, right? But over time, I learned that taking a risk, if you have enough information, you can say, maybe I can make a difference. So I’d like to make a difference around children and their families.
Hale: So when I came to Perkins, I didn’t know a lot about Deafblindness. It really amounted to Helen Keller. And I think a lot of the general public is the same. And I’m wondering, what do you think is most surprising to people you get to know about the Deafblind program at Perkins and the capabilities of students and that sort of thing?
Majors: Well, I worked for a long time with– it was marketing. It was publicity. They’ve had different terms of how they define themselves. But when I talk to donors after they’ve been with them for a long time, the people are– because they’re not well informed– and they don’t have to be until they meet us. And then they have to be better informed.
And they all think we have Helen Kellers. That is what many people think. People on the street think, oh, do you teach like Helen Keller? There’s some very, very, very bright and capable people who are Deafblind.
But there are a lot of people who need more accommodations to curriculum or they need something that’s more individualized. So I think that my goal has always been– in staying respectful to defining who these children are, they’re not really Helen Keller. But they’re as good as Helen Keller in a different way.
Because I don’t ever want to be disrespectful to say, well, just because they’re not Helen Keller doesn’t mean they’re not important or they’re not going to learn, right? So I think it’s a very challenging answer, Jen. And I think we all have to be careful how we answer that because we have to be respectful of every student, every single one, all the time.
Hale: What are you most proud of in your work at Perkins, would you say?
Majors: I guess seeing progress with the children, whether it’s my progress or me mentoring somebody else so that child makes progress. So I think seeing the differences in children over time. And when I go back now, I’ll see somebody, and I’ll think, oh, my word. I remember when they were in preschool, and we developed this program. And look at them now.
So being proud of the children and watching their growth, even if it’s baby steps, because sometimes our children take baby steps. But they’re making a difference in their own lives. So I want to recognize that. So I’m proud of how the kids learn in their own special way.
And I guess I’m going to go back to mentoring. And I’m only going to say this because people tell me this. And I don’t really know. So when people leave Perkins for many good reasons, many times they write me a note and they say, Martha, you have really changed my life. You’re such a good listener. And you are such a good mentor. And without you, I wouldn’t have stayed at Perkins for so long.
Or I really miss my mentoring from you. Where I am now, I don’t get that. So thank you very much. Or you were always my mentor, whether it was personal or professional. You’ve always been my mentor. So I guess what I’m proud of is that I make a difference in staff.
Hale: Fantastic. Is there anything I haven’t brought up that you would like to talk about at all, any topics or thoughts?
Majors: I have a PowerPoint that I’ve got here, Jen, because I think when I was talking about my end, my stepping down– Ed Bosso used to say, Martha, when you do your legacy, you have to talk about you. And it’s really hard to talk about me. And I’m working really hard today to talk about me.
But I think there’s some things at the very end of my legacy project that I would like to share because I think I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I was going to say. So when I did the legacy project, it’s divided into decades.
So I have tons of pictures from the Lanterns and Deafblind Perspectives and all those things. But there’s a couple of things– and I also have an image of a tree. My daughter drew a tree. And when she first did it, my roots weren’t very big, and the branches were very small. And my last picture of the tree is that I branched out to a lot of people.
I think I made a difference in people’s lives educationally. And my roots are well founded, so they’re strong roots. So I think there’s an image that I have of how I grew. And I would like people to really do that for themselves, to say how they’ve grown.
But I’m looking for the– I just want to take a minute. When I did the legacy project, I really thought about, as a leader, I was always consistent, a consistent advocate for students who are Deafblind. And I always talked about their idea of self-advocacy because I think, we have to remember that they can be good self-advocates, too.
So a couple of things I said is that my journey and my dreams I wrote for me. And I also wrote for you so that you can start your journey and create a journey that’s meaningful to you in the world of Deafblindness.
And then I have, it’s now your turn to be me. Whatever I am, I’m always going to be me with whatever quirks I have. But I want I want staff to be able to have a turn to be professional. So this is what I wrote, that you will believe that all children can learn. You will impact families and students and colleagues. You will take a risk. These are all– the “you wills” are all in capital letters.
You will embrace students who are Deafblind. You will keep learning and you will have fun. Be passionate. Be dedicated. Be an advocate. Be a mentor. Be creative. Be a leader. Be courageous. Be the person you are. And have a sense of humor.
I hope that many of you have a future with us educating students who are Deafblind and their families. And the future is yours to create. OK, that’s it.
Hale: Thank you. That’s fantastic. I’m glad we have that.
Majors: I thought it would be– because I’ve thought so hard about it. So you can do with it whatever you want.
Hale: It’s nice to have it in your voice. It is.
Majors: Yeah. Yeah. Because I’ve got that voice, right?
Hale: No, it’s just– so I think the power of oral histories is it’s a personal story from that person. It’s very impactful, I think. So I really appreciate you taking all this time to share.
Majors: Yeah, it’s something– when I think about it, when you say how did you stay so long, I keep thinking, well, I just love my job. I just love my job. Whatever I was asked to do, I tried to do it the best I can. I’m not always that successful, but I have I’ve always had a positive image of I can make a difference in some way.
So if you’re asking me to try to make a difference by creating a new document, then I’ll try. I think the other thing that I can’t ignore at all is that I was surrounded by very strong team members, right? I wasn’t necessarily the leader. My title didn’t matter, but my teams always were very responsive.
When we rewrote curriculum, we did it together because they all had the same mission, right? Perkins is a place that shares a mission. And I think that’s really important for new people to come on board and say, this is our mission. You may not like it. And you might leave. But if you stay, you can make a difference, too, in children and their families.
But because we had a shared mission of, let’s do a really great curriculum or let’s make sign language better or let’s make sure that the facilities are all accessible for children or– we just got some money from a donor to create a Snoezelen Room. And so the mission for that was to create the best one we ever could make. And they did a great job.
But the mission gets implemented every day by staff in the Deafblind program. And they work so closely together because we share that mission. And we may have difference of agreement as how we’re going to get there. That makes us stronger. And that makes us better. And then therefore the kids get a better program. So best practice is really important to me.
Hale: Super. Well, thank you.
Majors: Sure. You’re welcome.
