[stylist] New THOUGHT PROVOKER 142- Literacy Nightmare

Sun Feb 8 23:10:16 UTC 2009

Character was always one of my worst words too. Interesting how that works.

On 2/8/09, Angela fowler <fowlers at syix.com> wrote:
> 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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