[nabs-l] Training Center Questions

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Julie and all,
Excellent discussion. I will share my experience with a center, but
first I want to gently challenge some misconceptions about rigidity.
The centers recommend six to nine months in order to have a proper
graduation ceremony and get a bell. However, there is nothing magical
about getting a bell. I have known several individuals who attended a
center for only a month or two and still received benefit. In fact, I
think our esteemed Anil Lewis attended LCB for only a few months. I
have also known individuals, and myself had the experience of being
able to finish some classes early and then focus more on other
classes. Some students finish cooking class requirements after only
four months or so, and then double up on travel or Braille. I came
into LCB reading over 300 words a minute, so after a month of
training, I was able to negotiate with the staff to attend Braille
only once a week. I spent the other four hours per week in kitchen
where I really needed and benefited from the extra time. A good friend
of mine went to CCB for only a month crash course after his wife
passed away and he wanted to get some help with daily living skills.
He was already employed, so he took a month's leave from work and
funded his own training. My point is there are all kinds of situations
where center training can work and the centers are flexible about
working with students on meeting their goals in their own time frame.
To answer the original question, I went to LCB between undergrad and
grad school. I had thought about going during undergrad, but waited
mainly because I had a big scholarship and was worried about
complications from deferring my enrollment in school. By the time I
went to LCB, I had lived on my own successfully and had even studied
abroad in Australia. The main reason I wanted to attend the center was
to improve my street travel skills. While I could get around OK in
familiar areas or with the help of a mobility instructor, I had a lot
of trouble with unfamiliar environments and with street crossings. In
that regard LCB helped me to become a safer and more efficient
traveler. While I still get myself turned around sometimes, I am now
more tuned in to my environment and can get myself back on track a lot
more easily than I could before. I can also walk through a new route
once or twice and learn it instead of having to practice and memorize
routes over and over. While I think I would have been an OK traveler
without the center, I think the travel skills I gained made it much
easier for me to learn my way around new cities, and I am in my third
new city now since training. The other major benefit I got out of the
center, as I mentioned, was cooking skills and confidence to try new
recipes. I could cook a few things before training, but I wasn't
fluent in the kitchen and I didn't trust myself to know when things
were done for example. Now I am a lot more confident preparing new
recipes, managing my time and multitasking in the kitchen.
I do agree with Joe that if you think you may want to go to a center,
it is easier to do it when you are younger and have less adult
responsibilities. I think that all blind adults could benefit from
spending even a few weeks at an NFB center, but I also recognize that
for many of us, the incremental benefit may not be worth the sacrifice
of time or freedom. Ultimately you will have to think about whether
there are things you wish you knew how to do or that you wish you
could do better, and if you think going to a center would help move
you closer to those goals. That is a very individual decision.
I am happy to talk more about specific details off list if you want.
Best, Arielle

On 6/23/16, Joe via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have never attended a training center and do not regret it. For the sake
> of specificity, I'll put out there that I'm referring to the NFB training
> centers.
>
> First, there is a certain rigidity to the traditional timeframe of six to
> nine months. Yes, this speaks to a person's inability to put their life on
> hold the older you get, but it also touches on the program's refusal to
> offer flexibility. It's a zero sum arrangement of offering the entire
> curriculum as opposed to breaking it down to specific areas where the
> individual wants the most concentration. Is it feasible for someone to take
> just one class all day? Probably not, but then the training center could
> offer a minimum threshold where the student agrees to take a reduced course
> load, making it profitable for the center and practical for the student. In
> doing so one would hope the time commitment would naturally be reduced.
>
> Second, for the working adult, it's not economically feasible. Unless the
> training center student is simultaneously doing something else for
> professional development, time at the training center creates a resume gap.
> For a hiring manager it's interesting to read about a candidate who took
> time off to better themselves, but a story of how you spent time building
> your independence sounds more like a reflective college admissions essay.
> In
> the job market, the candidate who took the same length of time to educate
> themselves or hold down a relevant job will present a stronger case for
> employment. The training could work while simultaneously building
> professional development. There are students at LCB, for example, and
> probably the other two centers who enroll in college courses, courses which
> have to be paid for, but then it becomes a matter of priorities. Are you
> taking college courses for the sake of taking courses? Is your NFB training
> likely to suffer if you simultaneously take on the demands of another
> obligation? To a degree one could argue the NFB training experience is a
> total emersion for a reason.
>
> Of course there is the matter of paying for the NFB training itself. I
> would
> venture to guess the vast majority of training is paid for with government
> funds. If a person is between jobs, perhaps it makes sense to seek training
> since one need not worry about the income requirements to be eligible for
> certain services. If an adult is gainfully employed, are they making enough
> to afford training? More to the point, is the employer likely to extend
> that
> much leave for the employee to receive independent living skills? If so,
> that is one heck of an employer we should all be wanting to work for. :)
>
> Next, for me there was never a uniqueness factor. The biggest selling point
> for an NFB training center is the level of confidence cultivated by
> confident, and competent, blind instructors, but does one necessarily have
> to attend an NFB training center to find this confidence? I could teach,
> and
> actually have taught, people different skills in my local area completely
> free of charge. There are means to learn technology and cooking from any
> number of community resources, meetups and the like, and one could argue
> these training scenarios would be preferable because one would presumably
> learn these skills from fellow sighted teachers. That seems like a dual
> teaching opportunity, but if blindness-specific training is what is being
> sought, the number of instructional podcasts by blind hosts for blind
> audiences is off the charts. Braille could be learned and improved upon
> through Hadley courses, pen pals and consistent practice.
>
> The only possible exception is travel instruction. Yet, it's only a
> possible
> exception, because NFB training centers could employ field travel
> instructors who could be deployed to specific areas to provide individual
> instruction similar to what guide dog schools offer as follow-up service.
> Again, this is an innovative strategy I wish modern NFB training programs
> incorporated into their curriculums. Nevertheless, most state agencies
> offer
> instructors on contract who could fulfill travel instruction needs, many of
> whom have graduated from the Louisiana Tech program.
>
> Putting all that aside, what a wonderful outreach opportunity for local NFB
> chapters. It would kind of be like putting your money where your mouth is.
> I
> learned how to confidently navigate the DC Metro system with the help of a
> local chapter member and became loyal to that chapter for that reason
> alone.
>
> Finally, I never bought into the marketing tactics. Guide dog schools do
> something similar where they try to sell you on independence if you get one
> of their canines. Likewise, I personally felt like NFB training centers
> worked hard at peddling their own special independence product. With
> certain
> exceptions, you will get out of a training program, any training program,
> whatever you put into it. If the NFB training centers were selling
> something
> ground-shaking, one could argue the unemployment rate among the blind would
> have seen a persistent trend downward, but either the centers with the
> scores of graduates each year aren't actually independent enough to reverse
> the statistics or the NFB is following suspicious statistics to start.
>
> Having said that, the committed person should attend a training center if
> that is their heart's passion. There is a difference between taking online
> college courses and living the campus life. Perhaps the person feels they
> need the total emersion to gain something valuable, and no one should get
> in
> the way of that desire. But, do it for yourself and not because someone
> else
> said you should do it. The reasons I've outlined here stem from my own
> cynicism and sheer stubbornness. I fell into the hands of terrible
> recruiters who were vocal about their value of the cane over the dog, of
> their belief that the NFB way was the only way, and of their views that
> without training I would have difficulty finding a job. Well, I'm on my
> second guide dog, did not rely on the NFB to chart my success, and my
> salary
> says my marketability is doing just fine. Some of the crazier independent
> blind people I know never had anything to do with the organization. I
> include this bit not to give those friendly center ambassadors the virtual
> finger. Some of those ambassadors are some of my current friends, but the
> point is everyone needs something to spur them onto picking up and
> developing the skills needed to navigate life. Attending a training center
> is going to build that motivation right into the experience. If the person
> can find the motivation to go at it alone, they're going to be just fine.
> After all, there is NFB philosophy at work outside of the centers. If they
> need an extra boost, there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking time off.
> If you're reading this and thinking you may want to go to a training
> center,
> do it early. The year after high school seems like the most ideal time in
> your life to knock it out. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to
> accommodate the training, and then people run into the difficult but
> understandable dilemma of weighing the pros and cons of going for training
> versus the inevitable reality of looking for a job. That's letting life
> control you. You need to control it.
>
> Alright, that's my twenty dollar's worth. This was in no way a personal
> bash
> against centers or the awesome people who have posted favorable reviews of
> their experience, just a different perspective to consider in making
> decisions.
>
> Joe
>
>
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