[stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 80, Issue 22 Anita's reply

[Anita Adkins]

Thanks for the review.  Just for everybody's curiosity sake, I did change 
the essay so that it does not sound the same concerning the blindness 
training vs. academic experience confusion, or so I hope.  I may repost just 
for a final review after it has been a couple of weeks so that anyone can 
make a final comment.  I am thankful to Donna for her comments.  Writing 
really is teamwork, even if there is only one author to one particular 
piece.  Without critique, a piece could not shape itself into what it needs 
to become, and I feel my essay is much improved with only the few comments I 
have received on it.  Also, hearing Kerry agree makes me feel better I had 
changed it because it means even more  when more than one person has 
commented about a particular concern.

Kerry, I chose to reply to this msg because your subject line would normally 
have meant I would have deleted the msg without reading, and so I want to 
apologize if anyone has ever commented to me and I appeared to ignore them. 
I just read today because it was Christmas, I was bored, and the urge struck 
me to open this particular msg, and now I'm glad I did since it was a 
message for me.  In the future, you may want to switch your msg line so it 
reflects the contents of the email; please do not be offended because I am 
just making a suggestion so that more people may read your messages.

Now, that I am not talking about my essay, I shall bring up a concern I 
maybe plan to research and write about in the future since this is a writing 
list, after all.  I did attend a school for the blind.  I had minimal cane 
training.  Kids with some vision were provided more O&M than anyone with 
practically no vision because it may have been believed these students could 
travel downtown and for other reasons I may not be aware of.  I received 
excellent Braille instruction, but again, I had no usable vision for reading 
large print.  Several students did read print, and thus, they did not learn 
Braille or, if they did, as a result, many of them suffer problems related 
to reading fluency.  I learned how to make a bed, how to vacuum, how to do 
some minor cooking and other kitchen skills in Home Economics/Daily Living 
Skills, and probably some other skills that do not come to mind at the 
moment.  there are many blindness skills I did not learn, however, and thus, 
I am lacking in these skills.  Part of this might be that I did not come 
from a family who knew what I needed and who advocated for what I needed, 
and so part of the blame lies with me and my family.  Part of this is 
because I was academically smart, and thus, it may have been easy for those 
responsible to think I knew the other stuff already.  I don't know.  I do 
know that part of the reason is because some of these skills were not the 
focus for me or others unless they related to something I needed in order to 
achieve academically.  For example, I needed to get to and from school every 
day, and so I was taught to shoreline, meaning I had one foot on the 
sidewalk and one foot on the grass.  I won't continue down this path, but I 
find it an interesting topic to take a look at for a research paper in order 
to improve the lives of future blind students. I also want to make sure to 
say that I feel the lack of blindness skills taught to me was not alienated 
to my particular school.
So, for now, thank you for the ear to speak what I am thinking as doing so 
will help me to write it down in a more formal way later, and pondering it 
will also enable me to think up a plan for conducting research on the topic.

Merry Christmas to all.  Anita
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kerry Thompson" <kethompson1964 at gmail.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2010 3:58 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 80, Issue 22


> Anita, I don't have anything substantive to say about your essay, which I 
> thought was very good. Good luck getting the scholarship and with your 
> college career in general.
>
> Donna, "non-traditional" is the term that seems to have become accepted 
> for an adult (someone older than eighteen to twenty-two) who returns to 
> college. Anita's target audience will recognize the term. I also was 
> puzzled by the disjunct between academics and blindness training, 
> especially at a school for the blind. But, she only has seven hundred 
> words. The point I took was that she didn't get all the blindness training 
> she really needed, but she has become a successful person anyway.
>
> Jim, yeah, I'll probably have a good time, even just listening.
>
> Merry Christmas and happy, safe and peaceful holidays, everybody.
>
> Solidarity and Peace,
>
> Kerry
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