[blindkid] Advice needed about school incident

Thu Nov 5 20:24:34 UTC 2009

It is all very confusing, isn't it? The best bet is to milk dark cows  
at night for chocolate and white milk in the day for white milk-- that  
way you're doubly safe!

I also thought that Lions were all boys and Tigers were all girls of  
the same collective species and thought to be a Lion / "boy" it have  
to have a mane. (Somehow I had missed that whole "loiness" concept.)

I felt quite foolish when I learned differently but then my dad told  
me that when he was a youngster he thought that dogs and cats were the  
same species but that Dogs were the boys and Cats were the girls.  
Felines, Females? Hmm, that made a little sense.

When I stopped and thought, I realized that since dad grew up to be a  
college professor even with the whole dog / cat thing in his youth, so  
I figured the Lion / Tiger thing might not mean I was destined for  
total failure after all! LOL...

Richard

On Nov 5, 2009, at 1:31 PM, Barbara Hammel wrote:

> You mean chocolate milk doesn't come from cows milked in the dark  
> either? And the white milk doesn't come from those milked during the  
> day? LOL!!!!
> Barbara
>
> The Hawkeyes are 9 and 0!  Let's go Iowa Hawkeyes!
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 9:20 AM
> To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org 
> >
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Advice needed about school incident
>
>> I appreciate your feedback--
>>
>> Your story is interesting, in particular the notion that a blind  
>> child would possibly think that one grows into having vision, and  
>> especially  so since I have heard virtually the exact same thing  
>> from other adults  who were blind since birth. There is definitely  
>> a tale of caution  there. One never knows what a child (vision  
>> notwithstanding) is going  to assume. For the longest time (as a  
>> sighted young child) I had  reached the seemingly obvious  
>> conclusion that "white milk" came from  the predominantly white  
>> cows and chocolate milk from the brown or  black ones. It made  
>> total sense to me. I think I had even worked out  that cows with a  
>> good mixture of light and dark patches would dispense  both kinds,  
>> depending on the "spigot" used. I never really asked  anyone, I  
>> just intuitively "knew" this. Fortunately for me, there was  no  
>> longstanding impact from my misguided assumption in this case.
>>
>> We never try to withhold information of that nature and we don't   
>> withhold much of anything at all. In fact I can only recall   
>> withholding things that seem not to be age appropriate except in  
>> that  we all (I would assume) sometimes try to give out information  
>> only as  quickly as our kids can process and deal with it at  
>> times-- For me,  this is generally related to knowing how things  
>> work-- Kendra wants a  full and complete understanding and  
>> sometimes it takes a while to  build enough foundation to get to  
>> the particulars of how a certain  machine might work, for example.  
>> Kendra would, I think, like to  understand a lot more about how and  
>> why electricity works sometimes  (especially as related to audio  
>> recording), but I have yet to work up  to a clear explanation of  
>> electrical theory for ANY first graders, so  that really has little  
>> to do with blindness-- How do I "adapt"  something that does not  
>> exist to begin with?
>>
>> Thinking of not discussing the stolen food is the only thing I  
>> believe  we have given serious thought to avoiding and that was,  
>> again, mainly because it was hard to see the benefit of her  
>> learning so far away  from the actual event. Besides, it is my  
>> nature to try and protect  anyone I know (child or adult) from  
>> hurtful things that are sometimes  said or done in life; something  
>> I have never quite worked out in life  in general.
>>
>> Kendra absolutely knows it is respectable to be blind, though I  
>> guess  I tend to use the words "fine" or "okay" more. She  
>> understands that  some kids can see with their eyes and some cannot  
>> and the same is true  for adults and that is fine, just like some  
>> kids cannot hear with  their ears or walk with their legs. In fact  
>> one thing we have really  liked about her current and previous  
>> school is that some kids there  use walkers or wheel chairs--  
>> things that Kendra can notice without  any intervention so SHE can  
>> initiate a question like why a classmate  us in a wheelchair.
>>
>> I have not tended to focus on the ratio, but she knows for example   
>> that she is the only child who cannot see with her eyes at school  
>> but  that at other places like the Center for the Visually  
>> Impaired, many  people there are blind an she sees sighted and  
>> blind kids away from  those places at times also. We remind her to  
>> use her cane "like Anil"  when she is not touching her cane back- 
>> and-forth as she knows Anil  Lewis quite well and that he is also  
>> blind. She is aware of the  distinctive sound that he as an NFB  
>> cane user makes as he travels so  it is a great reminder for her.  
>> (Sometimes her cane tends to "hover" a  few inches off the ground  
>> otherwise...)
>>
>> We absolutely want Kendra to know not only that it is respectable  
>> to  be blind, but to grow up knowing successful blind adults that  
>> she  encounters just like any other "grown-ups" from time to time.
>>
>> Richard
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Nov 5, 2009, at 9:09 AM, trising wrote:
>>
>>> I had similar things happen as the only blind high school student.  
>>> Someone took food, ate part of it, and had the whole table  
>>> laughing  when they put the french fry back on my tray and I ate  
>>> it, not  knowing it had been bitten off of. This was a painful  
>>> experience for  me, as I was the social outcast that no one would  
>>> eat with at  school. After the incident I described, I was almost  
>>> relieved to eat  alone. As to being told I was totally blind and  
>>> others had vision, I  think at age six I thought adults could see,  
>>> because my parents  could. This meant they could drive, read using  
>>> eyes instead of  hands, know colors and read my temperature on a  
>>> glass rod when I was  sick. I thought kids read Braille and went  
>>> on a small bus to school.  I got told in no uncertain terms by  
>>> another little girl that I was  wrong. She rode on a bigg bus,  
>>> rode a bike with two wheels, had 26  kids in her class and was  
>>> learning to read with her eyes. The way  she said it made me feel  
>>> inferior. It took until I was out of school  and found the  
>>> Federation and my husband who is also a part of the Federation  
>>> before I realized that it was respectable to be blind. It  was  
>>> sure grand to realize our techniques were not inferior, but just  
>>> different!
>>>
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>>
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