[nabs-l] On Getting Lost

[Jedi]

Arielle,

That has to have been one of the best explanations of "aha, not ooppse" 
I've ever read! I wish we could distribute this message to every O and 
M instructor out there in the field, particularly those who work with 
kids. The problem is that they don't realize how they limit us with 
their explanations of what blind people can and cannot realistically 
do. They think they have positive attitudes about blindness, and so do 
many of their customers. Those of us who have been exposed to real 
positive attitudes know how negative most instructors' attitudes really 
are, but it's often difficult to get instructors to hear that.

Respectfully,
Jedi

Original message:
> Hi all,
> I agree with all the above comments. I would also like to make an
> observation which I think many of you can relate to. I think that many
> O&M instructors and other authorities (parents, aides etc.) have
> taught us to believe that getting "lost" means we have failed. I
> certainly remember when I was growing up, if I messed up a route I was
> taught to memorize or did a street crossing incorrectly, it was a
> failure. Since these things tended to happen to me a lot, I soon came
> to think of myself as a poor O&M student and a poor traveler. However,
> there is another way to think about getting "lost". We can think of
> the times we went the wrong way as learning opportunities. After all,
> in order to get back to where you want to go, it is necessary to
> gather some additional information or at least to find out where you
> went astray. By discovering the sources of errors you are less likely
> to make the same mistakes again. When I am learning a route to a new
> place, I often find I don't fully understand the route until I mess up
> and get myself back on track. By remembering what I did to correct
> myself, I have a better mental map of where my destination is. We can
> choose to think of getting lost as either a sign of weakness or a
> chance to improve both our knowledge of the place where we are
> traveling and our general travel skills.
> This issue reminds me of research done by a well-known psychologist,
> Dr. Carol Dweck. She observed children's reactions to failures (like
> getting the wrong answer to a math problem) and found that children
> tended to react in one of two ways. Some children would become
> frustrated and give up or perform poorly on subsequent problems.
> However, other kids would redouble their efforts after a failure
> experience and would ultimately end up doing better. Dr. Dweck
> eventually showed that the children's responses to failure depended on
> their beliefs about their abilities. Kids who thought that their
> abilities were fixed or that they could never improve tended to give
> up after failures because they concluded they were just not very good
> at the task. But kids who believed that they could build up their
> abilities through practice were motivated to try harder after failures
> because they viewed them as learning opportunities.
> As blind students we are often told that our abilities are fixed by
> our blindness and that there are certain things we just can't do as
> well as the sighted. We are often subjected to evaluations from
> professionals that put labels on us telling us what we are or are not
> good at. I think this kind of environment can push us in the direction
> of seeing temporary setbacks, like getting lost, as indicators that we
> are not good travelers. Yet we also have the option to view ourselves
> as capable of improving through effort and practice. The NFB training
> centers exemplify this philosophy by requiring students to undertake
> challenges where they are likely to mess up-i.e. address searches-and
> to practice skills like Braille over and over again. The instructors
> at our training centers understand how much we can learn and grow from
> temporary "mistakes". After all, the very purpose of training is to
> improve our skills and to be better at something than we were before.
> While getting lost is definitely frustrating, the next time it
> happens, try to think of it as a chance to learn something new-and to
> become a better traveler in the end.
> Best,
> Arielle

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