[Pibe-division] Comment

Robert Jaquiss rjaquiss at earthlink.net
Thu Jun 10 14:07:37 UTC 2010


Hello:

     All of your comments are very interesting. I was one of the instructors for the BNAT program. I lectured and demonstrated various types of equipment and always made a presentation on tactile graphics. It was amazing to note the differences between classes.
     For example, one of the classes of students were the most lethargic group I ever worked with. I gave my usual half hour talk with show and tell on tactile graphics and only had two or three questions. It was as if the class had been asleep. Other groups such as the ones Sheila was in were much more animated and they asked lots of questions.
     One group stands out in particular. For confidentiality I won't mention where they were from. During one of the exercises the students were supposed to use Word with JAWS to do a simple task. One of the students asked me what was under her keyboard. I looked at the label and told her what kind of braille display it was. It turned out that she needed a more basic answer. She had never seen a braille display before. She was duly amazed when I showed her how you could center a line of text in Word and the braille would also center itself on the line. This from a person who had been in the field for twenty years.

     I am convinced that one part of the problem is that teachers don't get the ongoing education they need. Conferences such as CSUN, ATIA and some AER meetings occur during the school year. Districts cannot afford to have their staff gone for several days during a week. Then there is the cost of the conferences themselves. CSUN is held in a nice hotel, and I think the rates were over $150 per night. The cost to attend CSUN is over $400. Five nights in a hotel, the registration, food, preconference workshops and airfare mean that it could easily cost $2,000 to send one teacher to a conference. By comparison, our NFB convention is a super bargain.

     Teachers in general have the same problem. My parents were school teachers. My Father taught Mathematics and Computer Science. My Mother taught Choir and Band. They would go to conferences and look at the beautiful displays of the latest technology. Then they would comment that the school was broke. My Father was the first teacher in the high school and probably the district to have an overhead projector. He purchased it with his own money and it cost nearly two months pay.

     All this to say that we are not alone in our struggles to get a good education. Hope all this makes sense.

Regards,

Robert Jaquiss
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