[Pibe-division] Comment

[Carrie Gilmer]

Right on Denise, exactly dead on right on. Thank you for not being
frustrated, bothered and angry in silence. Carrie

 

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From: pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:pibe-division-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Denise Mackenstadt
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 1:07 PM
To: pibe-division at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Pibe-division] Comment

 

Recently on AERnet I noticed a post that bothered me.  I have responded and
I am sending this response to the PIBE list.  Every time I think that we are
making progress something like this comment is used to justify not providing
for the needs of blind kids. Here is the post and my response:

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 critical 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, NOMC

Mackenstadt Rehab Services

(206)419-9555

cane.travel at gmail.com

 

 

 

 

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