[stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER 142- Literacy Nightmare

[Aziza C]

My spelling was horrible because I relied on contractions. So, my
TVI's when I was younger started testing me on both, braille/spelling
tests. I don't know when I finally figured out the difference, but I
struggled as a kid.

On 2/8/09, Angela fowler <fowlers at syix.com> wrote:
> I learned Braille when I was a kid, at the same time sighted kids learn to
> read print. Its ingrained in my memory, I will always be able to read. I'm
> not the fastest reader in the world, however, and I'm an awful speller
> because I have always been mostly dependent on computers and audio tapes to
> access information. It is no accident that for the brief time I was at the
> Colorado Center for the Blind my Braille skills improved dramatically. I had
> a Braille class every day after all, and I also commandeered the refreshable
> Braille display as often as I could. My spelling improved too. Now that I'm
> in college, and dependant more on audio, that has all gone down hill.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Robert Newman
> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 10:00 AM
> To: 'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'
> Subject: [stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER 142- Literacy Nightmare
>
> Fellow Writers
> RE:  Literacy Nightmare
>
> This is my newest THOUGHT PROVOKER. It asks educators, who are not
> supporters of Braille, a question that I have always wanted to ask. If you
> have not read the PROVOKER, it follows.  Recall that I collect responses and
> post them upon my web site for all the WWW to read and learn from and that
> URL is- Http://thoughtprovoker.info <http://thoughtprovoker.info/>   If you
> wish to receive THOUGHT PROVOKERS sent directly to you, just write me and
> ask, at-  newmanrl at cox.net
>
> THOUGHT PROVOKER 142
> Literacy Nightmare
>
> "Give Our Children Literacy! Give Our Children Print!" chanted the crowd.
>
> "This is CNN and this is the scene outside Central Elementary School. These
> parents are angry and dramatically sending their message to the teachers of
> this school and to the State Department of Education." The camera's lens
> shows the front of a school.  A mass of people march back and forth  the
> length of the block, waving large labeled placards.
>
> WOMP, WOMP, WOMP! The sound of a helicopter is heard over the audio and the
> view zooms up to an aerial shot.  We are looking down from a significant
> height to a view of the school's entire property, which is surrounded by a
> shoulder-to-shoulder phalanx of adults. The focus sharpens to the teacher's
> parking lot, where police officers negotiate with parents blocking the
> driveway to not allow the drivers of cars penned inside to leave.
>
> The news anchor's face again fills the screen. "You've viewed the scene,
> read the placards, and heard the chants. Now walk with me into this throng
> and we will learn the specifics of what this is all about.
>
> "Miss, pardon me." The anchor thrust the microphone at a woman waving a
> placard labeled LITERACY NOW. "Could you tell our viewers what this
> demonstration is about?"
>
> "Literacy! An efficient method of reading and writing. Our children are
> being denied this right."
>
> Seeing the camera, marchers crowd in.
>
>  "My daughter gets one hour of teaching per week to learn to read!"
>
> The man behind her shouts out, "The teacher who instructs my son to read and
> write is not certified."
>
> A man in a business suit edges in front of the mike, "They tell us that with
> the increasing development of technology, computers reading aloud to us is
> good enough.  Good enough!"
>
> The first mother grabs the mike, "In my daughter's class they turned off the
> computer monitors!"
>
> "M'am, are you reporting the students are being denied seeing what is being
> displayed upon the screen?" asked the shocked anchor.
>
> "Not exactly." interjected another marcher. "My daughter tells me they allow
> it to be switched on, but it's out of focus. She comes home with a
> headache."
>
> A man's face fills the screen. "My son tells me, in his class they have the
> font programmed to either enlarge up to a ridiculous size, forcing you to
> scroll and scroll to read, or the text is so tiny you have to stick your
> nose up to the screen like you are smelling it." With a dramatic gesture he
> thrusts forward a sheath of papers. "It goes beyond the computer. Look at
> these hardcopy handouts."
>
> First showing what appears to be a worksheet, but is so light in contrast
> that its nature is questionable. The second is in very tiny print. A third
> is several pages stapled together and is in gigantic bold letters. "They
> tell us it allows our child to function in the print world. But I ask you,
> is this adequate in terms of being competitive?"
>
> Another female voice gets the anchor's attention. "Oh, and the books, too!
> They are either very large volumes that the average student refuses to use
> or they are audio!"
>
>  "Miss, for the sake of the viewers who have just tuned in, could you
> clarify the major point of what your group claims is happening here?"
>
> The most efficient method of reading and writing is being withheld from our
> children! They say print is becoming obsolete. Literacy for our children is
> being greatly restricted and we are not going to allow it anymore."
>
> The face of the anchor again fills the screen as he gives his closing. "Is
> the strongest method for reading and writing for these children being
> systematically taken away? Is literacy being threatened here in this school
> system? These parents think so and when you take away the student's
> strongest method of literacy, what do we expect will happen?  This is CNN
> action news."  And the screen faded to a last view of the angry, marching
> parents.
>
> "AAAHHH!" Marlene, a sighted teacher of blind/VI children, sat bolt upright
> in bed, hand to her head. "Oh my God, that was a nightmare! Where did that
> come from?" Yesterday's memory of running into Brad, a former VI student
> came to mind. "
>
> Brad had been almost bitter when he said, "I should have learnt Braille in
> elementary school; it would have been more efficient for me than print.
> Ever think what parents of normally sighted kids would do if you didn't
> teach their children the most efficient method for reading and writing?"  He
> said he was learning Braille now as a college student.
>
> Marlene flashed back to the scenes in her nightmare. Surely Brad was the
> exception?  It was just a nightmare, not reality. Surely?
>
>
> Robert Leslie Newman
> Email- newmanrl at cox.net
> THOUGHT PROVOKER Website-
> Http://www.thoughtprovoker.info
>
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