[Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind

[David Evans]

Dear Diane,

Thank you for the kind words.
I did write a Braille Monitor piece, back in the late 1990's, about how I 
came to know Braille.  It was called "What's in your Tool Box?"
I am glad that I learned to read and write using a slate and stylist, 
instead of by using a Braille writer.
A slate is the only really portable way a Blind person has to write things 
down , on the spot, anywhere and at anytime.
I mostly use it to write on 3 by 5 cards, which I use for my personal 
communications.
I use it for labeling and marking things as well, but the greatest use is 
just quick notes, memos and keeping a back up to my address book.
I am also Diabetic and have sensitivity issues  with separating one cell 
from the next, and as a result, I mostly use Jumbo Braille as much as I can, 
but do read standard Braille,slowly.
The Hadley School taught me very well and much quicker than I dreamed, just 
how to write my "ABC's", numbers and punctuation symbols.
It was only 5 easy lessons.  I was impatient and learned them all in just 3 
weeks, studying 15 to 30 minutes a day.  I did come back and do all of my 
lessons and sent them in and was Certified in Grade One Braille.
I still need to finish Grade Two Braille, but what I know now is enough for 
most of my needs.  I just wish that I had been taught Braille at a younger 
age and had not been in such deep denial about my Blindness.
People I knew as a kid, and that I have not seen for years, can not believe 
that I could do many of the things I did back then and that I was legally 
blind doing them.  They never suspected as I hid it so well.
I drove for over twenty years and was legally blind two years before I even 
learned how.  I just learned how to cheat the system and get around  the 
barriers.  I got a driver's license first in Florida in high school, worked 
as a fireman/Para-medic, competed in the Olympics, went  to California for 
college, got another license there, graduated college, worked in both the 
Lunar Rover program, then in nuclear particle research and reactor design, 
got married, moved back to Florida, got another Florida license and worked 
as a department head of a aviation hydraulic business until I loss so much 
vision I could no longer see to drive at all.
It was at this point I found the NFB and my life began to change in a good 
way.
The NFB philosophy helped me come to terms with my vision loss and deal with 
the denial I had built up.
I had learned to hide my blindness so well I even fooled myself.
That is until the world came crashing down on me and I was being crushed by 
my growing unhappiness at being Blind.  The NFB saved me.  The denial kept 
me from doing the very things I needed to do to move forward and be 
independent again.  I would not carry a white cane, because that would have 
told everyone I was Blind.  I made excuses and jokes about being clumsy and 
careless, anything but accept my blindness.  Going to my first NFB national 
event, the Washington Seminar in 1991, opened my eyes and broke my shell of 
denial.
I owe everything to my brothers and sisters in the NFB who taught me to not 
be ashamed of being blind.  That it is okay to be blind and  that blindness 
is only a characteristic of a person just as some people have red hair, 
green eyes or are left handed.
You could not run me away from the NFB now, with a shotgun and pack of pit 
bulls with rabies.

David Evans, NFBF
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Graves, Diane" <dgraves at icrc.IN.gov>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind


> David,
>
> I was truly impressed by your post.  I commend you for having taken the
> initiative to learn Braille at age 49.  Most middle aged adults who lose
> their vision, very sadly, don't opt to learn Braille.
>
> You know, when I was a child growing up in Indiana in the 70s, I was not
> very happy at the school for the blind, and always had these fantasies
> about how much better my life would be if I could go to a public school
> like "normal" kids.  I too, used to tell these grandiose stories about
> how I was going to have an operation which would restore my vision, and
> how I really had some vision, which was untrue.  This was a lot more
> preposterous and difficult for me to pretend, since I was, and am
> totally blind due to retinoblastoma.
>
> However, having said all that, one thing that I gained from the school
> that I have always taken for granted, and have learned that I should be
> eternally grateful for  is the gift of literacy.  I use Braille every
> single day of my life, and cannot imagine trying to muddle through
> without it.  How independent can you be if you can't take notes, can't
> label things, can't even participate in a card game.?  There just are
> not words to express what a tremendous injustice is being done to
> today's blind children. It's horrible!
>
> I will say though, that even at ISB, I saw injustice being done.  I saw
> peers with very low vision being forced to read print because they had
> the vision, when Braille would have been so much less frustrating.  I
> was in class with a boy who would get frustrated and throw these huge
> temper tantrums because he couldn't read his own writing, and because it
> took him so much longer.  I remember we would be taking a spelling test
> or something, and the teacher would be ready to move on and he would
> always scream, "I'm not ready yet!!!
>
> Finally when we were in about the 5th grade, they decided to teach him
> Braille.  I don't know if his parents advocated it or what, but they
> finally got with the program and taught him Braille.  The transition
> was amazing.  I mean, once he  mastered the Braille,  the temper
> tantrums just stopped.
>
> I knew others though who weren't as lucky.  It was really kind of sad
> that, even at the school for the blind, it seemed like vision was the be
> all and end all and was highly  was superior.  It seemed like the more
> vision you had, the more responsibility or trust you were given, and if
> you had any vision at all, by George you were expected to use it.  What
> the totally blind gained in literacy, we often sacrificed in self
> esteem.  Sadly, though, maturity has taught me that this would likely
> have been even worse in public school.
>
> Anyway, I truly thank God that I did not have to fight to be literate.
> Literacy is such an integral part of life.  Again, I think it is
> wonderful that you took it upon yourself to learn in middle age.  Good
> for you!
>
>
>
> Diane Graves
> Civil Rights Specialist
> Indiana Civil Rights Commission
> Alternative Dispute Resolutions Unit
> 317-232-2647
>
> "IT is service that measures success."
> George Washington Carver
>
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of David Evans
> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 5:05 PM
> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> There are some facts that need to be stressed here.
> Back before ww-2, most blind children were sent to a residential school,
>
> where they were educated and taught all of the skills of blindness
> including
> some kind of trade skills.
> Regardless of the amount of vision they had, they were taught Braille as
>
> well as print , if they had any vision at all and something like 84% of
> all
> blind students were literate in Braille, print or both.
> After WW-2, children were mainstreamed into the Public schools, mostly
> because some people felt that they would have better social skills and
> because more parents wanted to keep their children closer to home
> instead of
> sending them off to a remote school some where.
> There are always some blind children who have the need to attend a
> residential school instead of getting what they can from the Public
> school
> system, especially Deaf-Blind and those with additional disabilities as
> examples.
> Since the advent of mainstreaming into the Public schools, literacy in
> general and Braille literacy specifically have declined tremendously.
> Today
> Braille literacy is only 8 to 9% and general literacy is not as high as
> it
> was, even with the increase in the numbers of blind children alive
> today.
> Along with mainstreaming, into the Public schools, real education
> declined
> sharply and so has employment for the Blind.  Employment has always been
>
> difficult at best for the Blind, but the lack of teachers who could
> teach
> Braille and understood how to work with blind students has been
> systematically eliminated and discouraged in the Public schools and in
> many
> of the rehab agencies because the people in charge held low expectations
> of
> the blind and had the attitude," they are blind and can't do anything
> anyway
> so why bother teaching them."
> Public school districts generally lump all of their "special needs"
> students
> together with an overworked and underserved teacher who is given poor or
> no
> resources to provide the specialized training that is needed for their
> students who have a wide variety of disabilities and the ones that act
> up
> and are the most disrupted usually get most of their attention.
> The teaching of Braille has been discouraged by every fantasy
> imaginable.
> I was fed the same old lines myself, for years, that Braille was "old
> fashion," "bulky and hard to learn and that all the new technologies
> were
> going to replace it.  I bought into this idea until I was exposed to the
>
> outstanding examples I found in the NFB.  It changed my belief and
> attitudes
> and at the age of 49, I taught myself Braille with the help of the
> Hadley
> School for the Blind.  I learned and was using Grade One Braille for all
> my
> personal written communication in just 3 weeks and learned how to use a
> slate and stylist, which I carry everywhere with me now.  "
> I make good use of technology, but I have also learned that as long as
> the
> sighted still use paper and pen to write things down and carry them
> with
> them; there will be a place for Braille in the hands of the Blind.
> It is a well known axiom among the Blind that 96% of all working Blind
> People know and use Braille in their work and their lives.
> Something else that the residential schools did was they taught
> employable
> skills to the Blind, i,e, chair caning, piano tuning, sewing,
> weaving,and
> other such manual skills that the Blind could always sell as personal
> services.
> The Blind of China invented the first trade unions back 2,000 years
> before
> the birth of Christ to set prices, standards and to regulate Blind
> trades
> that included basket weaving, pottery, massage and even prostitution,
> which
> were considered common Blind trades back then.
> The parents of Blind children have had to fight alone with the Public
> schools systems to get them to provide the education and help that their
>
> children need and have to keep fighting the entire time their child is
> in
> school for what the Law says is their Right to a Free and Equal
> Education
> that evidence shows they are not getting in Public school.
> They use excuses such as "well, the child has too much vision to be
> taught
> Braille, inspire of the fact that maybe the child has RP and will lose
> their
> ability to read or even see print as a young adult, as happened to me.
>
> As a former resident of Roseburg Oregon, now living in Florida, I can
> say
> that the legislature of the State of Oregon does not care about the
> lives of
> Blind children and likely has political motives behind their vote to
> close
> the Oregon School for the Blind.
> They have wanted that land for some time and de-funding the school is
> the
> way they intend to kill it and steal the land and the birth right of all
>
> Blind  children in their State.  This whole thing Bothers me, the whole
> situation stinks and I hope the smell comes back to haunt each and every
> one
> of these legislators who voted to close this school.
> Shame on them and a pox on their House for doing this unnecessary and
> despicable act of murdering the School for the Blind of Oregon.
>
> David Evans, NFBF
> Nuclear/Aerospace Materials Engineer
> Builder  of the Lunar Rovers and the IF-117 Stealth Fighter
> Legally blind since age 16 due to RP.
> Without a good education they doom blind children to a life of idealness
> and
> little potential.
> Lucky for me, I got a good education and have done many things people
> thought impossible.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve P. Deeley" <stevep.deeley at insightbb.com>
> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>
>
>> You are maintaining a complete campus for  31 students.  There is
>> something
>> known as cost efficiency.  I believe the days for schools for the
> blind
>> are
>> just about over.  In the 1960's, the Kentucky School for the Blind had
> a
>> census of 150 or more.  Now, there are very few blind students on the
>> campus.  In the day, KSB had one of the most respected wrestling teams
> in
>> the state of Kentucky.  Those days seem to be gone, sadly.
>>
>> Steve
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "T. Joseph Carter" <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
>> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 8:39 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] Oregon votes to close school for the blind
>>
>>
>>> Full time students?  31.
>>>
>>> Served each year in some capacity?  About 400.
>>>
>>> Twenty years ago?  I don't know, it was a lot more-but Oregon has
>>> changed its laws in the interim to forbid placement at the school
>>> unless there is no other placement possible.
>>>
>>> The school is being closed for students that are only allowed to be
>>> there because there is no other placement possible.
>>>
>>> The first argument to close the school was that the buildings needed
>>> substantial maintenance, including seismic upgrades.  We countered
>>> this by pointing out that funding for this maintenance has been
>>> secured time and again, but the Oregon legislature has consistently
>>> redirected it over the past 20 years to efforts to close or relocate
>>> the school, rather than maintain it.  Consistently, as in every
>>> single time.  They dropped that argument.
>>>
>>> The next argument was that enrollment was down and the cost per
>>> student was extremely high.  They argued that Least Restrictive
>>> Environment forbade placement at the school.  It would save money,
>>> too!  We gave the correct definition of LRE and pointed out that
>>> counting costs for 400 and dividing them by 31 is outright deception.
>>> We also pointed out how much closing the school would cost elsewhere.
>>> They mostly dropped that argument.
>>>
>>> The following argument was an empassioned plea to save these poor
>>> children from a life of seclusion.  Those poor children came and told
>>> the legislature that they were not secluded, that they had no other
>>> chance at the same education anywhere else in Oregon, and that they
>>> needed this school.  Another argument down.
>>>
>>> Finally, the legislature abandoned any pretense of arguing that this
>>> was "for the sake of the children" because we'd proven it was not.
>>> They stopped pretending that it would save money, because it would
>>> not.
>>>
>>> The effort to close the school was put forward by Oregon Democrats,
>>> and they maintain a strong majority in the Oregon legislature.  So
>>> they crammed it through with little public comment, offering
>>> minimally required time for an amendment to be published before it
>>> was voted on (without public comment, of course), and then they
>>> pulled every shenanigan they could to try and escape public notice,
>>> since the public almost unanimously opposed this bill.
>>>
>>> Joseph
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 07:18:26AM -0400, Steve P. Deeley wrote:
>>>> How many blind children were currently enrolled in the school in
> 2008?
>>>> How many blind students did the school have 20 years ago?
>>>> Steve
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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> 40insightbb.com
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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