[nabs-l] Training centers

[Sean Whalen]

Antonio,

Is it justifiable to use financial resources to buy a student a laptop that
that student could benefit from but does not need?

What do we mean by "need?" None of us really need training, we could all sit
at home without skills or technology and collect SSI, right? A need is vague
and undefined until you put it in the context of an end to be achieved by
fulfillment of the need. I didn't need e-texts to complete classes in
school. I could have used readers. I did, however, need e-texts to perform
up to my potential in classes, as I very much struggle with retaining
information when it is read aloud to me. Needs are not what matter. The cost
of the things we need to achieve a goal weighed against the prospective
benefit to be gained by attainment of the goal are what matter.

I absolutely believe that any blind person could benefit from attending a
training center. This said, I certainly do not believe that all blind people
need to, or even should, attend a training center. I chose to do so because
I was never taught to read in school. I felt that the benefits to be gained
by learning Braille, plus whatever other useful computer tips, travel tricks
and life lessons that I might pick up along the way outweighed the cost of
my giving up 6 months of my life to undertake the training. I have no doubt
I could have been successful in life without spending time in Ruston, but I
definitely feel that I took more away from the experience than I gave up to
go. Each of us must make our own calculations based on cost/benefit analysis
to determine what is the best option for us as individuals.

Attending an NFB center is no guarantee of life success. Not attending a
center is no guarantee of failure. Plenty of people who attend centers won't
reach their true potential, and plenty of people who do not attend will do
so.

Saying that anybody could benefit is a far cry from claiming that everybody
ought to attend. Frankly, I think that people benefit in one way or another
from almost every experience each of us has. This might not make them good,
enjoyable or useful experiences, but there is still some benefit to be
gained in virtually all circumstances.

More to the point, whether, and how, to get training is a highly individual
choice and wholly dependent on the particulars of one's skill level, age,
family situation, employment status and prospects, and myriad other things.
Anybody who tells you that everybody should attend a center is being
doctrinaire, but anybody who cannot acknowledge the benefits, in many cases
vast benefits, that good training can yield is being equally rigid and
dogmatic.

By the way, I'm not claiming that you do this. I just found your post to be
a good jumping off point.

All the best,

Sean