[stylist] Just Read a Very Interesting Book

[Vejas Vasiliauskas]

Hi,
I'm still on this list, I just haven't posted much lately with 
getting adjusted to going to LCB.  I will try to contribute more 
often and get some writing done in this New Year.
Anyway...
I just read a very interesting book, called Blindsided by 
Priscilla Cummings.  It is about a girl named Natalie, who 
started to lose her vision when she was 8 and finally, as a 
sophomore in high school, had to go to a school for the Blind in 
Maryland.  As a student who is currently attending LCB, I find 
the differing expectations very interesting.  At the school in 
Baltimore, students would walk sighted guide (which is hugely 
discouraged here), and, if they had food on their clothes, nobody 
would tell them (we are told by the sighted staff if we have 
something on our clothes).  Cooking was nonexistent, since in the 
book there is a dining hall for all three meals.  Many of the 
former graduates of the school in the book seem to have ended up 
in a sheltered workshop-type environment.  They still did learn 
cane travel, Braille and technology.  The author is not blind, 
and I wonder if she had known more about what NFB centers are 
like, if she would have written the book differently.  It really 
just gave me some things to think about and re-iterated to me 
that some schools and centers just don't teach to a pupil's full 
potential.
Just some food for thought.
Vejas