[stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER 142- Literacy Nightmare

Sun Feb 8 21:24:59 UTC 2009

Yes, contractions mess us up too. I just now figured out how to spell
character! There's a couple others, but I can't remember what they are.  

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Aziza C
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 10:40 AM
To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER 142- Literacy Nightmare

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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