[nabs-l] is there any place for schools for the blind?
Sami Osborne
ligne14 at verizon.net
Mon Nov 3 02:25:41 UTC 2014
Hi Arielle,
While I agree with you and others about social skills and the
like, I personally don't think the first part of your message,
which states that kids who go to schools for the blind have
intellectual disabilities, is accurate.
I personally don't have any other disabilities besides blindness
and hearing loss. I seriously doubt that I have any intellectual
disabilities, as I have no accommodations for my performance in
school, since I always get good grades and get on my school's
honor roll (no, I'm not bragging, it's true,) and there are lots
of other students who are on it as well. I also discovered that
I am unlike most people in that I speak 3 languages.
And no, I did not go to a school for the blind because I have
other disabilities.
If you take a look at my previous post, you'll see that I went
because I had so many problems in public middle school, you know,
with me being discriminated against and having problems with my
TVI. Take a look at my previous message to learn more.
And, my parents don't have low expectations for me at all, on the
contrary, they want me to be the most successful in life.
This being said, one thing I didn't mention in my previous
comment is that when I first started elementary school, they had
to look into whether I should go to a school for the blind or a
regular public school, and they ultimately decided on the latter,
as they thought that if I went to a school for the blind, they
would focus more on the disability rather than me as a person,
rather than the opposite with a regular school. Once I got to
the end of the sixth grade, however, and I faced the problems I
just mentioned, my parents needed to figure out what would be
appropriate for me to succeed as much as possible. So they
decided on a school for the blind, and I think that when I
started at the school for the blind, they thought that they made
the right decision in sending me there, as I enjoyed it a lot.
Also, you talked a little bit about staying there over night.
These days, not everybody at the schools for the blind stay
overnight. They can choose to either go home every day or stay
over night if they want, but it's totally up to the student, not
the school. I personally go home every day and I'm glad I do,
because I can still be with my family during the week, like I
have always done.
I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, and I hope I won't
be punished for disagreeing with you, you know, since you're the
moderator.
Have a good night.
Thanks,
Sami.
----- Original Message -----
From: Arielle Silverman via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: Carly Mihalakis <carlymih at comcast.net>,National Association
of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 17:19:35 -0800
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] is there any place for schools for the
blind?
Hi all,
This is an excellent question and I see a few points worth
considering.
First, most kids who attend schools for the blind nowadays have
intellectual disabilities. I'm not sure this trend is a good
thing. If
someone is blind and also has an intellectual disability, sending
them
to a blind school is treating their blindness like the primary
disability when it's not. I've always wondered if the
education these
kids get at the blind schools really addresses their educational
needs
as well as a special ed program for intellectual disabilities
could.
It also adversely affects the quality of learning for kids who
are
only blind.
Second, a lot of people say that a mainstreamed environment is a
better place to learn social skills. That wasn't my experience.
I
attended public school but went to summer camp and weekend
activities
with local blind kids from ages 9 to 17. Like others have
described, I
had trouble making friends in public school. Sighted kids
usually
ignored me and didn't much care how I behaved socially.
However, other
blind kids not only were willing to be my friend, but they would
tease
me and give me a hard time if I did things that bothered them.
When I
think about my friendships now and how I interact with people, I
can
trace most of what I've learned back to my interactions with
other
blind people. For example, I had a blind best friend for several
years, who eventually cut off the friendship, and this taught me
a ton
about how to be a good friend and keep my friendships from
getting in
trouble. From ages 12 to 24, all my encounters with romance,
crushing,
flirting, dating and breaking up involved other blind people. If
I
hadn't had the company of other blind people, I wouldn't have
had any
of those experiences to learn and grow from. I know some folks
are
very happy and successful without ever befriending a blind
person, but
I don't like the assumption that interaction with sighted people
is
the only or the best way to become socially competent. The best
way to
develop social skills is just to have social opportunities be
they
with sighted, blind or both.
That said, I am grateful for my public school education because
it was
academically challenging. Unfortunately, some schools and some
families still have low expectations. In these cases, a school
for the
blind may be needed to provide essential Braille training or to
set
higher expectations. I don't think the schools should pull
young
children to live there away from their families, and I think that
most
kids' attendance at these schools should probably be limited to
a few
years. I'd also love to see more summer enrichment programs
that could
help blind kids have the social opportunities I had while still
being
mainstreamed. I don't support closing the schools down
completely
because I think that if they can help even a few families who
have no
other resources, they are worth having.
Arielle
On 11/2/14, Carly Mihalakis via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
Good evening,
Despite all this new fangled tech stuff, think about it, has
either
our relative position within the social system, or to
exceptional
opportunity really underwent all that much of a transformation?
I
mean, for you to queery if blind schools even have a relevance
within
I think you said today's society? Hell yes they do! Don't you
agree
that if an institution say, succeeds in helping a single
student,
then yes, it does have a place! Schools for the blind do in fact
serve people. As many have said, blind people with other
problems.
Are you gonna deny such people access to education for a simple
fact
of it's not squeezing into your model of educating blind people?
Don't mean to be overly harsh but, remember not to assume ALL
blind
people are made of the same stuff!
for today, Car
.
So, today I was thinking about a rather interesting question
which
came to my mind, and which I've thought about numerous times
before,
that being, the place for schools for the blind in today's
society.
A few years ago, there was a huge news story that broke in New
York
about protesters going to Lavel and NYISE (New York Institute for
Special Ed) to speak out in support of the 2 schools, which then
Governor Quomo I believe it was wanted to cut from the state
budget
and close.
And that left me wondering,
as someone who spent most of his elementary years at the NYISE,
and
the rest of my term in regular public school, finishing 4th and
5th
grade at a local school and going on to do my entire
post-secondary
education in public schools, what exactly did I think?
And to be honest, I don't quite have an answer myself.
I started 4th grade with the Braille Lite and APH's Braille &
Speak,
so obviously this is quite a while back.
But I remember in those early years I was shocked at all this
tech
that I just was not allowed to use in the school for the blind.
Yet the lite had its problems, as anyone who's used one probably
knows. For one thing, mine kept crashing every 4 to 7 weeks on a
constant schedule and promptly deleting my entire file system.
Not
good, to say the least.
But technology has obviously progressed a lot since then, wih the
Braille Note Apex being extremely stable and solid. I've never
had a
Braille Note crash, at least never as badly as what used to
happen
with the braille lites.
And now with the advance of technology some argue, and I share
this
point, that within a few years all we'll really need are braille
displays.
I mean we have JAWS, System Access, Window Eyes, NVDA, Dolfin,
and
Super Nova for Windows--Winow Eyes and NVDA are both now free,
System
Access now extremely affordable, for about $250 with a package
that
gives you way more then just a screenreader, and most if not all
have
braille display support built in.
And with VoiceOver on the Mac and accessible versions of other
platforms such as Linux there is no system that is not
accessible, and
if there is such a system, there are now ways which are widely
known
to make them accessible.
Granted we still have the applications within those systems
(Google
apps for example) which can still present challenges but that's
just a
piece of what has become a mostly accessible digital ecosystem.
So, where do you think, if anywhere, do schools for the blind
fit?
Note that this isn't a chriticism of schools for the blind--I
studied
at one, like I said, and they did have their advantages at the
time
and perhaps still have in certain circumstances,
but given that they were chiefly in existence to provide an
education
to the blind, an education that is now for the most part
accessible to
us outside of those limits, do we need schools for the blind
anymore?
I myself don't have a position one way or another, so I'm very
interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic.
--
Jorge A. Paez
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeapaez11994
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