[stylist] learning braille

[Barbara Hammel]

Gee, I would agree with you and yet why is it that our children are having 
Spanish shoved down their throats?
I think that at the age when foreign language is an option in school, it 
should be sign language and braille.  (Or at least have them included as 
options.)  Any foreign language speaker can learn English.  A deaf person 
will never learn to talk and hear what's said and a blind person will never 
learn to read print.
I do understand about that slippery slope and maybe this would be headed 
down it, I don't know.
Barbara
Snow is God's way of reminding us that beauty can be found even in the 
coldest hearts.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 10:30 AM
To: "Stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [stylist] learning braille

> Robert and all, I think we are missing the important point here.  Is our 
> goal to get the entire world to read Braille or evoke equal respect from 
> society because we are blind?  Here's a brief example of what I mean by 
> evoking respect even though we are different.
>
> My family eats only kosher foods.   For dinner last night I made meatballs 
> in an Italian sauce.  I used ground beef, tomato sauce and Italian spices. 
> Now someone might say, "How can you make an Italian sauce without pork 
> products?"  My religion forbids me from eating pork products.  Someone of 
> Middle East descent might say, "How can it have been good if you didn't 
> use cumin?"  I have a friend who is allergic to tomatoes and has developed 
> her own sauce for meatballs without using tomato sauce.  All of us are 
> different and there is no law that all of our eating needs be met the same 
> way.  Let's take it a bit further.
>
> When talking about "how nice" it would be if all children learned Braille 
> to better understand folks without sight we are starting a journey down a 
> slippery slope that can be extended in many dangerous directions.  No, not 
> every one is forced to eat only kosher foods.  Not everyone should be 
> commanded to eat pork and not everyone should be forced to live as if they 
> too had an allergy to certain foods.  We're all different.  Realize that 
> and respect the right of every individual to be different.  Everyone 
> should not be required to read Braille, communicate with their friends via 
> sign language, walk with a white cane or spend their life in a wheelchair. 
> Yes, there are people in society who are handicapped, but society has to 
> learn to respect those things that make them different.  If a man in the 
> grocery store sitting in the wheelchair asks a standing person to reach 
> for the can on the high shelf they should do it with a smile on their 
> face.  If a blind person asks where the rest room is answer him and ask if 
> he can be of further assistance.  You get the picture.
>
> There are those in society who demand that all people subscribe to their 
> religion.  They claim that if this isn't accomplished they will kill all 
> people who reject their teachings.  We all know how these people are 
> referred to.  We reject their premise that all people are the same and 
> therefore must live the same way.  We can't "demand" that all first 
> graders learn Braille and we can't command that a first grade class in the 
> public schools learn Japanese because one child might be from Japan. 
> Let's keep excelling in whatever it is we do best and gain the respect and 
> acceptance of society because we deserve it.  Judith
>
>
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