Gary LeGates? blindness does not prevent him from being aware of who?s around him and where to step as he moves in his classroom.
His physical command extends to the students he has taught in Latin and French classes at Westminster High School in Carroll County for nearly 30 years.
“If you talk too much, I?ll take points away,” he said, during a recent game of Latin Jeopardy to reinforce students? understanding of history and translating verbs.
The students quieted down while he posed questions on a voice-activated keyboard, which displayed to a television screen for the students to view.
“Change possunt to the imperfecttense,” he wrote.
“Poterant,” said Gibril Fofanah, a 17-year-old junior.
“Good job, Gibril,” LeGates said.
A native of Easton in Talbot County, LeGates graduated from the Maryland School for the Blind before receiving his bachelor?s degree in Latin, French and education from Western Maryland College, which has been renamed McDaniel College.
He later received his master?s degree in the classics, which include Latin and Greek, from Penn State University in State College, Pa.
LeGates almost didn?t land a teaching position.”I interviewed at all kinds of places, but nobody would hire me,” the Westminster resident said.
But in 1977 a teacher left for maternity leave in Carroll County and he was hired.
“Carroll County [pays] for my aide who grades my papers for me,” he said
Regarding his teaching style, LeGates said he makes sure students understand he expects good work out of them. “I?m a little bit strict with them, but I try to be fair and not mean,” he said.
Westminster High Principal John Seaman praised LeGates. “My son had Gary as a teacher, and he has commented to me that he was the one he respected the most,” said Seaman.
