[nfbwatlk] Food for Thought

[Mary Ellen]

Denise,
Your response covered the ground perfectly.
My Braille teacher could not read with her fingers at all, but she was
absolutely fluent in the Braille code. She deeply believed blind people
could read Braille faster with their fingers than she could read it with her
eyes, and she expected us to become fluent. She didn't just teach us the
Braille code, she taught us to read! 
She was absolutely committed to the fundamentals, so much so that I would
get frustrated at her insistence that I demonstrate proficiency before being
allowed to move on. I could move as quickly as I understood and was
competent at the lesson she was teaching, there was no artificially holding
me back to do countless repetitions of skills I already had mastered. But
she expected us to read, and to read with speed, expression, and
comprehension.
If she told us a certain combination of signs and abbreviations was correct,
we could take it to the bank. She kept up with any changes in the code and
taught them to us immediately. I knew that she knew what she was doing. I do
not recall any time when I could not comprehend a Braille text because of
inaccurate teaching on her part.
So where do these teachers get off telling us that we shouldn't be concerned
about the Braille competency of teachers? 
Our children attend French school. The school won't hire a teacher who isn't
fluent in the language. For one year they couldn't find a certified
counselor fluent in French. They hired an English speaking woman who knew
the French language somewhat. The kids tore her language usage apart!
Braille teachers think they can get away with being half skilled (or less)
because nobody knows enough to tear them apart. It's true that one of the
best ways to really learn something is to teach it, but I don't want the
literacy of blind children compromised by the incompetence of a teacher who
is just a few steps ahead of them.


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Denise Mackenstadt
Sent: June 5, 2010 10:47 AM
To: NFBwatlk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Food for Thought


Recently I saw on a listserve for AER (Associaiton for Rehabilitation and
Education of Blind and Visually Impaired Children and Adults) a listserv for
individuals working with blind children and adults a message which has
bothered me for some time.  I do not typically respond to posts but I felt
that a small part of this post needed to be commented on.  This is for the
NFBwatlk to understand what we are dealing with in the professional area of
work with the blind.  I would be interested in any of your comments. 

Recently in response to a question posted by Sheila one of the posts stated
"Weaknesses: 1.  still no published research proving or disproving that poor
teacher braille skills are responsible for poor braille outcomes for
students.  Nevertheless,  we've gone full steam ahead addressing a "problem"
that may not exist.  Assertions by advocacy groups are not evidence, nor are
gut hunches.  We need DATA.  And thus   far no data exists."  I find it
astonishing that an assertion is being made that teacher competency in an
essential skill to be taught to students is not relevant to student
outcomes.  Lack of Data  cannot   take the place of common sense or best
practice.  I cannot think of another subject area, for example: Language
Arts, Math, Science or Art, where a decent state licensing entity will not
expect an instructor to demonstrate competence.  As a parent I would be very
concerned if my child's English teacher could not read or write English.
Let us not throw out critica
 l thinking as an alternative to non-existent DATA Collection.  I do not
want to say that legitimate research and legitimate data results are not
beneficial to best practices.  But let us not sacrifice common sense to the
altar of statistics. 

Denise Mackenstadt
dmackenstadt at comcast.net



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