The Irony of Jericho

How curious that Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind, where I was forced to go from 1964 to 1970, was located above Jericho Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the biblical Jericho, Jesus healed a blind man. Some three-thousand years later, sight-impaired children were sent to a school called Jericho.

We read in Mark 10:46 (BBE) of this man and how he was healed completely. "And they came to Jericho: and when he was going out of Jericho, with his disciples and a great number of people, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind man, was seated by the wayside, with his hand out for money."

The modern-day place where I was sent for six lonely years wasn't named after Jericho of old but for Jeremiah Rogers. He was a lumber man who had a camp in that area during the 1860s. Jerry's Cove, as the beach was called, soon had its name corrupted into Jericho and the name stuck.

I remember how we used to love the spiritual song about Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho. How we wished we could have Joshua rescue us, burn down the school, and take us to our homes. Our music teacher doubtless wondered why we sung that song with such earnestness.

And Just as we cursed our Jericho, Joshua cursed that city in his time. Joshua 6:26 (BBE) relates, "Then Joshua gave the people orders with an oath, saying, 'Let that man be cursed before the Lord who puts his hand to the building up of this town: with the loss of his first son will he put the first stone of it in place, and with the loss of his youngest son he will put up its doors."

Jericho of old was rebuilt, just as Joshua said. We read in 1 Kings 16:34 (BBE) that, "In his days Hiel made Jericho; he put its base in position at the price of Abiram, his oldest son, and he put its doors in place at the price of his youngest son Segub; even as the Lord had said by Joshua, the son of Nun."

And though some blind folks decry the lack of braille lessons being taught to visually-impaired children in public schools, I'm glad that Jericho was closed in 1992. Three-hundred deaf students and alumni filed a class action suit against the British Columbia government because of sexual molestation which happened in the school for decades.

As far as I know, no children died as a result of the new Jericho School for the Deaf which was built in the neighbouring city of Burnaby, I suspect that more attention is paid to the children and their situation.

I wrote my second memoir, Deliverance from Jericho, about the time I served at that institution and what it was like being there. You can order print copies directly from me through Messenger or by e-mailing me directly.

On Saturday, I'll be posting about the time of the school year which all kids look forward to. I had a special fondness for the end of June because I knew I'd be home for nine wonderful weeks of freedom from supervisors and bullies.