[nabs-l] Training centers not the real world

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Valerie,

Your point about learning has nothing to do with blindness. All of us
learn indirectly from other people. And sighted people need training
too. The difference is that schools are already set up to train
sighted children. They have to be specially configured to train us,
and many school districts just aren't up to the challenge. Training
blind people is not inherently harder than training sighted people,
but because there are few blind people in the world, many folks just
don't know how to train us.

That said, there are some things sighted people learn by watching,
that we have to learn through listening. If something isn't readily
audible, then it has to be explained to us. There are, however, many
things we learn by listening, feeling, etc. without being explicitly
taught.

Arielle

On 11/10/13, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi RJ and all,
>
> I think that in an ideal world, blind students would be able to learn
> everything they need to know through regular integrated schools.
> However, in the world that we live in, Braille and cane instruction
> often falls short in public schools. Schools for the blind and centers
> are designed to fill those voids. There are certainly some successful
> blind people who never attended a blindness center of any kind,
> because they received their basic Braille and cane instruction from
> TVI's in the regular school and learned everything else at home.
> However, many of us suffered either from a lack of specialized
> training at school or from a lack of multi-sensory life experiences at
> home that allowed us to learn to do some things nonvisually. Also, for
> folks who become blind later in life, it is necessary to take some
> time out to learn specialized blindness skills.
> Incidentally, autistic children usually receive specialized
> instruction too, though it is usually integrated into some kind of
> mainstreamed school environment. Many kids today who attend schools
> for the blind full-time are doing so because they have intellectual
> disabilities which overshadow their blindness, but families and
> educators wrongly assume that the blindness is the disability that
> should be addressed. In my opinion such kids would probably be better
> served in a special-education program that addresses the intellectual
> impairments rather than blindness. But there might be more funding for
> schools for the blind than for self-contained programs for those with
> intellectual disabilities, I don't know. Perhaps cross-disability
> education needs to get better.
> I think the ideal arrangement is for someone to attend a
> blind-specific school or center for a brief period, a year or two, to
> learn the basic blindness skills in an intensive way and then return
> to integrated school or work situations. If kids have had quality
> blindness training, they shouldn't need nearly as much in the way of
> public school accommodations, so it is probably a financial advantage
> too for districts to send blind kids to specialized schools first and
> then accommodate them in public schools. This was my own experience
> having gone to a preschool for blind children before entering public
> school in kindergarten having already mastered Braille and basic cane
> skills. I really needed relatively little specialized instruction
> compared to kids who entered kindergarten with no Braille skills at
> all. I was in a rare place where preschool for the blind was right
> near my home, but perhaps we should be investing more in developing
> specialized school classes for very young blind kids. Adult center
> training, too, should really be just a temporary thing. That is why
> NFB centers are designed to train a student in 6-9 months so the
> student never has to go back and re-train, but instead can jump
> directly into work or school alongside sighted people.
>
> I also agree that contact between blind people is really important.
> Specialized school programs and centers can help make that happen
> especially in towns where blind people may not run into each other on
> their own. I know that my own friendships with other blind people
> growing up completely changed my life and my feelings about blindness.
> As an adult I still am friends with most of these folks and I still
> seek contact with other blind people, but in addition to that, I have
> a sighted husband and good friends and colleagues who are sighted.
> Again, it's a balance between socializing with other blind people and
> socializing with family, coworkers and friends who happen to be
> sighted. Things like NFB chapters or summer kids' camps can help us
> build connections within the blind community without pulling us out of
> the sighted one.
>
> Best,
> Arielle
>
> On 11/10/13, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> Valerie,
>> Excellent points!
>> I thought of the learning point you made after sending my email.
>> Sighted kids learn so much by observation. They take it in and do not
>> realize they have learned.
>> But blind kids need to be shown or told how to do things. So, we need
>> more
>> training.
>> I think your reason for schools for the blind makes a lot of sense.
>>
>> Another reason for training centers is opportunity to meet other blind
>> people.
>> At centers you learn together, have parties together, and share stories
>> together.
>> This social bonding with peers helps one adjust to blindness or adjust to
>> independence if you were blind your whole life.
>> The social aspect of meeting people who have gone through what you are
>> going
>>
>> through is
>> very powerful. You actually have friends there who identify with your
>> feelings for once.
>> Too often, blind people feel lonely or feel like no one understands them.
>> I
>>
>> know students in school who know few other blind people and none their
>> age.
>> Sure we can have sighted friends, but having blind friends does help in
>> talking about common problems.
>> So centers fill a social void. All this socialization will hopefully help
>> one's self esteem.
>>
>> Ashley
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Valerie Gibson
>> Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 10:05 PM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Training centers not the real world
>>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> This could get ugly. haha.
>>
>> I think the reason being that people who can see are taught mostly
>> through
>> modeling as children.  They watch how their parents act and react to
>> situations and they follow suit.  As blind children, we don’t get such
>> visual feedback and our sighted peers either don’t know how, or don’t
>> think
>>
>> to tell us how, things are done.  They see the world visually, and unless
>> they can think non visually, they find it difficult to express such ways
>> of
>>
>> doing things like crossing a street.  To us, things such as crossing
>> streets
>>
>> or cooking seem like a “Duh” moment, but in order for to seem like that,
>> we
>>
>> must have had someone tell us how to do things non visually.
>>
>> I don’t usually buy it when people, who have been blind their entire
>> lives,
>>
>> say, “Oh i taught myself this or that”.  Sometimes it may be true, but
>> more
>>
>> often than not, scaffolding has ucurred.  Sorry, i’m working on a psych
>> paper. it shows. :D
>>
>> For people who have been sighted and who have gone blind, hhow difficult
>> it
>>
>> must be for them to have to see the world differently…no pun intended.
>>
>> You mentioned autistic children…most autistic  children are treated
>> differently than their sighted peers or peers who are not autistic,
>> unless
>> their autism is mild enough where they can get away with “normalcy”.  I
>> could be wrong here. I only know a handful of autistic people.
>>
>> In the case of blind schools, I believe this starts with the parents
>> thinking that surely a blind school will be able to teach my child what i
>> cannot, and for some kids this may be true. Better send the child off to
>> a
>> school where teachers specialize in disabled children than risk making a
>> mistake. I’m sure this last sentence is what parents must think.  It’s a
>> valid concern, I think.
>>
>> Another reason may be that schools for the blind offer the child with a
>> more
>>
>> rounded life as far as extra coriculars.  It did for me, and I only went
>> my
>>
>> last two years of high school.  Sports are adapted so that blind people
>> can
>>
>> participate, unlike your typical PE class.  This isn’t to say that PE
>> classes at public schools can’t modify their curriculum, but many aren’t
>> going to do it just for one student, or that’s how it was when i was in
>> high
>>
>> school, but I’m sure things have changed in the past six years.
>>
>> Back to the training programs, many people have heard, “you can’t do
>> this.
>> you’re blind” their entire lives. Training centers, such as the ones
>> sponsored by the NFB, do provide confidence building skills for the
>> train.
>> This, i think, is the most important skill one can gain at a center.  For
>> those who have condifence, they may not need the center as much as
>> others,
>> but who can say.
>>
>> I hope this helps, and if I am speaking that which is incorrect in
>> anything
>>
>> that I have said, please feel free to correct me. :)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Nov 10, 2013, at 7:48 PM, RJ Sandefur <joltingjacksandefur at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Why do we send blind people to training centers? Why do we send blind
>>> people to "schools for the blind" We as blind people live in the real
>>> world,Why do we do it? You don't see mom sending Johnny who has autism
>>> to
>>>
>>> aschool for autistic kids!
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