[blindkid] School placement question

Mon Dec 15 01:14:07 UTC 2008

Dear Karen,
I don't know many who embrace the separate placement options for blind/low
vision children. Of those who do--well they are usually employed by a school
for the blind. Your thoughts and questions are right on mark. 
I personally feel very strongly about integration on terms of equality. 

Indeed that is what the NFB and NOPBC are all about and our core reason for
being; there will be no security, equality or freedom with out integration
on terms of equality.

We have come a long way. 70 years ago nearly all blind children were raised
in residential schools away from their families. On the other hand nearly
all who went to such schools learned Braille. On the other hand canes or
normal expectations for travel were nearly nonexistent for children. They
got good educations but the unemployment rate was near 98 or 99%. So while
they were educated society would not receive them.  

Today, the unemployment rate has improved to around 74%. While that is
horrific and unacceptable compared to the rest of the population--it is a
vast improvement over the rate in 1940. The very vast majority of blind
children are today raised in their own homes. Some blind person has gone
before them in nearly every job imaginable. There are laws against
discrimination which once were open and commonly practiced-in housing and in
public places. Yet despite the laws, the practices of discrimination still
occur. Blind children are in their own homes mostly, but now the smallest
minority--less than 10% get Braille. 

Part of our difficulty lies in our very small minority. There are twice as
many deaf people as us. There are very many more who have other
disabilities. Some say over 60% of blind children have another disability.
The special ed staff who are in every school building in the nation are
trained to handle the majority. We have a shortage of teachers of blind
students.

While we are transitioning to total integration and to the elimination of
discrimination there will be children who need something today--and the best
place to get it may not be the best place we want for everyone in the end.

Sometimes someone very rural has had to get a teacher who was not even
certified--a para trained well and who knows Braille. Sometimes this happens
due to shortages in large districts too. It is not what we want in the end
but it has gotten someone who needed it a good teacher today. 

And there is a risk while we accept it temporarily that is does not "water
down" or dilute the professionalism we desire--on the other hand much of
what can be taught is not rocket science or specialized medicine-- it does
not require a master's degree or even for many things a bachelor's. How do
we figure this out and plan for the teacher training programs of the future
while trying to get large numbers into the profession today as we have such
a dire shortage? We are talking about these things and trying to figure it
out. We are trying to get the established professionals to recognize we are
equal partners--even leaders at the table, and we have been making ground
there too. But we have a long way to go.

Truthfully, in my view, the educational system for blind/low vision children
has been a total systemic failure of national scandal proportions. It
doesn't need "fixing" even-in my mind it needs to be totally re-thought and
very nearly started over with a new design in order for integration to truly
be successful. This is not because the blind students themselves have
extraordinary difficulty learning, but their access is unique and highly
specialized in that they are non-visual. Many things that our children need
could improve education overall for all children--but much of what our kids
need to learn (for access to the same things) is different-in reading media,
in technology access, in tactile needs, in traveling, in the daily task of
living, including the social realms. 

The teachers that have been coming out the last four decades especially have
had nearly no training in what they truly needed to teach our kids. We have
teachers of blind students with a master's who barley know literary Braille,
don't know O and M at all, don't know nemeth or scientific or computer or
foreign language or music Braille notation, don't know any blind people or
how they live day to day. They don't know the new technologies. This is
changing but it is painfully slow. In my opinion, a specialized three year
course at a community college could turn out people who have had three years
of Braille in every notation, child development, training under shades for
at least six months, extensive knowledge about blindness-its history-and
discrimination and the psychology of prejudice (both in the giver and the
receiver), classes in the technologies and non-visual techniques...just
think what an improvement that could be.

We need your voice and your thoughts and your leadership Karen, and
everything you can give to us. We have much work to do. I don't know if it
will happen in my lifetime, but I plan to die trying...

Carrie Gilmer, President
National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
A Division of the National Federation of the Blind
NFB National Center: 410-659-9314
Home Phone: 763-784-8590
carrie.gilmer at gmail.com
www.nfb.org/nopbc
-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Steve & Karen Leinart
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 2:03 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] School placement question

I'm following this thread with great interest, as we also face school 
placement issues for our own son.  I'm curious about something, and 
rather than being contrary, I'm truly trying to understand the reasoning 
behind the "resource room" or "resource school" sort of placement for 
blind children, and why we should embrace that placement option.  At 
first glance, our school district seems to embrace the concept of LRE... 
children with Downs Syndrome, CP, and many other needs are routinely 
placed in their home school, with full time aides, pull-out therapies, 
etc.  But children that are VI/blind or HOH/deaf are routinely placed in 
schools with resource rooms rather than their neighborhood schools.  
Why?  I'm really trying to understand this.  To me it seems to further 
the prejudice against VI/blind people (or HOH/deaf) by indicating that 
their "disability" is so severe, so unique that it can only be 
appropriately handled at a special school.  The child grows up with 
that, and the students that they would otherwise go to school with also 
know it.... they see the kid in the neighborhood, but know he has to go 
to a special school because he's blind.  When they grow up, how willing 
will those kids be to hire a blind person?  I'm sorry, I'm struggling to 
understand why this is okay.  I understand that you have to pick your 
battles in life, and that it's best not to battle with the school every 
step of the way.  Perhaps I'm tilting at windmills, but isn't this a 
battle worth fighting?

Karen Leinart

Carol Castellano wrote:
> Hi Stephanie,
>
> I guess you have also visited the classroom in your neighborhood 
> school that Kendra would be in and felt that you could picture her 
> there.  I like the idea of the neighborhood school, too.  It seems 
> that the problem you will be facing is this:  if you succeed in 
> getting Kendra placed in her neighborhood school, will the district do 
> what will be necessary for her to succeed?  Might they just do the 
> minimum and wait for her to fail so that they can prove to you that 
> she belongs in the school with the resource room?  From their 
> perspective all the work has already been done and things are all 
> ready in the other setting.  To them, a decision to place Kendra in 
> another school will seem unreasonable.  Very difficult indeed.
>
> Carol
>
> At 10:48 AM 12/12/2008, you wrote:
>> I should have stated that my husband and I did visit the resource room
>> school twice, in two different school years.  We did the same with the
>> other school we want her to attend.  Kendra's TVI was with us for the
>> most recent visits to both schools as well.  For confidentiality
>> reasons, I did not want to disclose everything but I will quote some
>> sections from a letter I wrote to the head of TVIs after our last visit
>> to the resource room school:
>>
>> 1.  We did not observe any Braille signage in the building.  Doors were
>> not labelled with the Braille room numbers, nor with the teachers'
>> names.  In order for children to develop independence in orientation and
>> mobility, it is helpful for them to have such information.
>>
>> 2.  There were no Braille books in the kindergarten classroom we
>> observed but there was a shelf of print books.  When I questioned the
>> TVI about this, I was told that the children could walk to the resource
>> room for a Braille book.  Blind children should have the same access to
>> reading materials as the sighted children have.
>>
>> 3.  The children did not initially have a Perkins brailler in their
>> classroom.  When it was commented upon, one was brought into the room.
>> Blind children should have the same access to writing materials as the
>> sighted children have.
>>
>> 4.  The two blind/visually impaired children we observed were seated
>> separately from the sighted students in the classroom.  Whether this was
>> by their choice or not, they did not seem to be integrated into the
>> classroom activities.  We observed them working with a separate teacher
>> at separate tasks.
>>
>> 5.  The most upsetting thing we observed at our last visit was a
>> para-pro placing a printed worksheet in front of a blind child, telling
>> her "here is a fence, color it in" and then placing a crayon in her hand
>> and putting the child's hand over the picture.
>>
>> When we visited (SCHOOL X) two years ago, we brought up many of these
>> concerns (lack of Braille signage and lack of Braille classroom books,
>> in particular).  It was disheartening on our second visit to see that
>> none of these issues had been addressed.  These were not surprise visits
>> so our conclusion was that the things we observed were typical of how
>> things are run at that school.  I would be happy to talk with you,
>> either in person or on the phone, if there is any other information I
>> can provide about our visits.
>>
>>
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