chair and laughs before he carries on drawing a picture with his wax crayons.

He turns eagerly as the teacher starts talking to the class, resting his chin on his hands as he listens.

To the children in Primary II at St. George's Preparatory School, Matthew Johnson has always been rather special and on the day, two weeks ago, that he first read aloud to his teacher, Mrs. Carol Jack, "you could hear a pin drop -- and then they all cheered.'' Five-year-old Matthew was born totally blind but, thanks to the system of `mainstreaming' now in place in Bermuda's schools, he is able to lead a normal sort of life that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

`Mainstreaming' is a relatively new approach in education for the handicapped: instead of specialised schools, many children are now taking their places alongside their peers within the regular school system.

Most teachers seem to agree that the concept works if -- and they emphasise the `if' -- each child is supervised by specialists and there is a `teacher's assistant' to help on a daily basis.

The experiment at St. George's seems to be a runaway success.

Matthew's parents and teachers are especially pleased that, apart from some help from his classmates in terms of mobility, he has become "just one of the crowd.'' This, says his mother, Mrs. Maurice Johnson, is exactly what she and her husband hoped would happen, "so that he could be like any other child.'' Mrs. Marty Davis, a specialist teacher for the visually impaired, has been working with Matthew through the Child Development Project since he was a year old. Now, the past four years of painstaking training has prepared him to cope with a tougher schedule of academic skills than normally confronts a child at the outset of his school career.

Describing Matthew as a very bright and friendly boy, Mrs. Davis says, "There are two aspects that we have to concentrate on with Matthew. The first is his academic needs -- learning braille, and so on -- and secondly, orientation and mobility skills.'' This began with such basics as adapting his home with little `guiding' bells, through to marking certain key points of the classroom with velcro and educating his fellow students on how they could help to normalise Matthew's life.

"We teach them to do `sighted guide' and blindfold them so they know what it feels like to be blind! They were given a chance to use Matthew's cane to sensitise them, and for safety reasons.'' With Mrs. Davis responsible for several other vision-impaired students throughout the public school system, it was vital that Matthew had a teacher's assistant who could work with him every day on a one-to-one basis.

Mrs. Joann Dill has filled that function for the last three years, first of all at the Kids Venture Nursery (just opposite the school and where Matthew first met many of his school peers). Mrs. Dill, who earned her degree from Trent University, has been studying braille this past summer with Mrs. Jean Howes.

Watching the easy friendliness between Matthew and Mrs. Dill, it comes as no surprise when she says, "He is like my own child! In three years together, we've had time to develop a close relationship. He's a really loveable child.'' She was impressed, she says, by the way he has settled into his new routine, tackling the mysteries of reading and writing braille and using computers.

Mrs. Joan Doyles, teacher of Primary I, had Matthew for a whole year, and any misgivings she may have had quickly disappeared.

"He settled in right away. Although he couldn't see to read words, he remembered them by the spellings. By the end of the year, he was in the top group in all subjects, even though he was the youngest in the class.

Socially,'' she adds, "it all worked very well and he was very happy to come here to school. He came with many of his friends and with their help, and Joann's, he soon learned how to find his way around and to move safely around the room. In the gym, it was amazing to see how his body movements improved so quickly. The children were trained to help him out, and they loved doing that.

And Joann has been fantastic with him.'' This term, Matthew has started to learn braille with Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Dill.

"He uses it like any other child would do writing. Just two weeks ago, he started to read it, and he is so proud of himself!'' She explains that a lot of preliminary groundwork has to be covered before a student actually begins, through the use of his fingers, to master braille. He does this in addition to his other lessons.

When Living visited Matthew at school, he had just learned to write the word "like'' in braille. An obviously happy little boy, he seemed genuinely fascinated -- and amused -- to learn that braille is a form of shorthand, and in its own way, similar to that used by many reporters. He immediately understood that he had his own special way of writing "like'', just as shorthand-writers have theirs.

Besides being extremely musical and, according to his music teacher, having perfect pitch, Matthew is a highly `mechanical' child, who is mad on tools.

"His father spends a lot of time with him in his workshop and he is really enjoying how to draw by using a tracing wheel. He also goes sailing and already seems to know all about `tacking','' says Mrs. Davis.

His other great love is computers -- which is just as well, since computers reveal a whole new world for the visually impaired which, in many cases, lead to full-time and useful employment as adults.

Matthew began learning to touch-type when he was five.

"We are also going to get him a new programme where they use talking, because children get visually tired doing such fine motor work at this age.'' In the "writing to read'' room, Matthew demonstrates his remarkable dexterity on the computer, telling us to "listen to when it boots up.'' Then, he proudly shows off his newly acquired skill on his braille writer -- which resembles an old-fashioned typewriter. "Feel how heavy it is,'' he says, winding the paper carefully into the machine. He punches out the embossed shapes that are, for him, already becoming words. This machine, and another one at home, have been provided for him by the Bermuda Education Assistance Trust, which was set up to help children who are being main-streamed.

At the moment, his supervisor, Mrs. Davis is just completing a three-year programme which will give her certification as a teacher of the visually impaired, through the University of Arkansas. After obtaining her degree in elementary education, she did her Masters in Special Education. Before coming to Bermuda with her husband, Mr. Delmont Davis, she worked for 14 years in Hartford, Connecticut, at the Oakhill School for the Blind.

Asked how she became involved in such a specialised field, she admits, "It was an accident, really. I met the principal of Oakhill socially, and then a little while after that, I happened to see a job there advertised in the paper, and I applied and got it. I was a teacher for 11 years, and then assistant principal and finally became principal of the school.'' In Bermuda, Mrs. Davis travels around the Island for the Department of Education, working with two totally blind children ("the other one is Tamara, and she is at Somerset Primary, and also doing wonderfully well''), and a half-dozen students who are classified as having "low vision''. Much of her work with these partially sighted children involves the use of special glasses, hand-held telescopes so that they can see the blackboard, or standing magnifying glasses.

With more teachers and assistants being trained, and through the use of increasingly sophisticated technology many of Bermuda's handicapped children are being successfully integrated into a normal educational system.

FUN AT SCHOOL -- Five-year-old Matthew Johnson with Patricia Coyles and other classmates at St. George's Preparatory School.