[stylist] Blind and segregation

[LoriStay at aol.com]

Segregated schools are definitely a mixed bag.   My husband went to one in 
New York.   He had a class of sixteen.   Some of his friends died from retinal 
blastoma.   One young man was classified retarded, but when David got to know 
him, he realized the boy was simply deaf as well as blind, and forced the 
school to reclassify him.   Another classmate was told he could never go to 
college.   After he graduated he enrolled in college anyway, and graduated with 
decent marks.   David applied for Cornell, and the school never bothered to send in 
his grades until he pushed.   Then the school told him they would have 
accepted him if the grades had come in time.   Why was the school so nasty?   
Because David's mother didn't have money to donate.   Another boy was chosen as 
valedictorian even though David's marks were better.   Then there was the boy who 
was a discipline problem.   The school tied him to a tree!   Luckily his 
mother chose that day to visit.   Even though she freed him, he was so traumatized 
he never spoke again.
Still, because he didn't live at home, David had it better than his sibs.   
And if he hadn't been blind, he would never have graduated high school, gone to 
college and grad school or had a decent career, judging from the paths his 
sibs took.
Would he have done better in a mainstreamed school?   Probably not.   But who 
knows?   It was sixty years ago.   Schools have changed since then.
Lori

In a message dated 1/1/09 1:20:46 AM, dreamavdb at googlemail.com writes:


> I just want to add to say I mean the intellectually capable blind kids
> would have be taught seperately from the blind with aditional
> disablilities but it's ok for them to be taught at the same school.
> 
> I would also like to add that sometimes you can pick up just as many
> bad habits mixing with the non disabled. Such as smoking pot or going
> to night clubs.
> 
> I eventually got to realise these places just weren't for me, but it
> did take some time and much frustration to get there.
> 
> Sure we can be independent, but part of this is realising some things
> that mainly non disabled people do are simply not worth copying. A
> mature disabled adult would know that but a blind kid might not.
> Especially if they were desperate to fit in.
> 
> Helene
> 
> 
> 




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