[blindkid] Please unsubscribe me

Fri Jul 2 03:27:19 UTC 2010

Hi Heather,
The NFB has set up it's training centers to be a certain kind of 
center. In the same way you have set up your family to be a certain 
kind of family. You have carefully considered your values and your 
approach to parenting your children. If people meet you and make 
friends with you and then decide that they don't like your values or 
parenting methods, you, as would I, simply tell them that they are 
welcome to make other friends with whom they have more in common.

The analogy is useful for considering your apparent thoughts on NFB 
center policies. Nobody is forcing anybody to go to the NFB centers. 
Furthermore, there are numerous choices that blind people can choose. 
For some reason, folks want to fight and argue about how the NFB has 
chosen to establish and implement their training center curriculum. 
You are welcome to disagree but why would you, so passionately 
committed to your view on such matters as education, parenting etc. 
appear to be so unwilling to admit the the NFB has every right to 
choose the philosophy and methods which it uses in it's training?

Nobody is forced to attend an NFB center. Also, it is sadly just not 
true that all guide dogs schools insist on great cane skills with all 
of their students. Some do, but not all.

It is ironic to me that you appear to have difficulty accepting why 
some folks on the list might take acception to your strong opinions 
when you express them and yet, you are so quick to react negatively to 
the NFB centers staff expressing their opinions regarding best 
practice and exercising their right to run whatever kind of private 
enterprise they wish. Though it may not be the choice that you, 
personally would make for,  your, own blindness skills education 
experience, it is undeniable
that NFB centers are indeed serving a certain portion of the 
population of blind people because people keep going there and at 
least one centter has been in operation for over twenty years. If the 
curriculum and attendance criteria are so onerous, these centers would 
simply fail for lack of attendees. However, it appears, for a 
significant group of blind people, the NFB centers provide a blindness 
skills training experience that they do want, irrespective of the 
rules and stipulations. Why would you want to deny them their right to 
choose and a viable choice of training center?

I don't think the reasons you've shared, brief as they have been, 
should send you off our list.

Very warmest regards,

Heather Field

--- 
From: "Heather" <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 8:58 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Please unsubscribe me

Lots of people go to the centers to learn other things, like 
technology
training, braille, many compitant blind people are great with 
computers but
can't read braille well or at all, or can live on their own, but with 
a
lower quality of life because of not having such skills as cooking 
with a
stove vs a microwave, or purchasing clothing that requires any but the
simplest machine washing, because they can't set washers and dryers or 
iron,
etc.  No guide dog school would accept someoone for training if their 
cane
skills were not already very good, so while the institute might 
reasonably
ask them for a few lessons on some new technique or with a demo of a 
new
type of cane, to leave their dog in it's crate, not using it at all 
however
during the training would more or less distroy the dog handler 
relationship
and potentially the dog, period.  Hope that helps explain better.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kim Cunningham" <kim at gulfimagesphoto.com>
To: " (for parents of blind children)NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 3:58 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Please unsubscribe me

Heather,
I have a child who is attending one of the NFB training centers. One 
of the
many reasons I wanted my daughter to attend the training center was to
receive intensive O&M. I want her to feel free to travel anywhere, 
anytime
she wants. Why would anyone want to take their guide dog to a facility 
where
you would be learning cane travel? From what I understand, you can 
only get
a guide dog AFTER you show competent cane travel skills. So, if 
someone
wishes to attend a program at one of the centers, shouldn't you 
embrace all
the training while there?
Just my thoughts on the subject. Have a nice summer.
Kim

--- On Thu, 7/1/10, Heather <craney07 at rochester.rr.com> wrote:

From: Heather <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
Subject: [blindkid] Please unsubscribe me
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Thursday, July 1, 2010, 8:55 AM

I always seem to be rubbing someone's fur the wrong way on this list, 
and
that coupled with some disturbing information I have just come across 
has
caused me to wish to unsubscribe from this and one other NFB list that 
I was
on. That one had a link to unsubscribe, but this one directs me to a 
web
page and I am at school right now, about to go out of town, and need 
to
catch a bus, so no time to go poking around on the internet, when the 
server
at school is running very sluggishly due to online administration of 
finals
for summer courses today. Long story very short, I was under the 
impression
that NFB's antiguidedog sentaments had disipated, but I have just 
spoken
with two individuals who were being told at an NFB training center 
that
their dogs had to stay in their rooms and that they were not to use 
them. I
saw this come up in NAGDU and GDUI lists many many years ago, and 
assumed
that something so backwards thinking and detremental to guide dog
 teams would have been resolved. You know what they say about 
assumptions.
Bottom line, I do not feel that I am being an honest and responsible
advocate of guide dogs if I continue to interact with an organization 
that
premotes such detremental ideas. There are some awsum people on this 
list,
and everyone, even the people I don't particularly like, all have 
awsum
kids, it's about the list affiliation, and nothing more. If anyone 
ever
wishes to write me off list in the future, my email address is
craney07 at rochester.rr.com. Have a nice summer all.
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