[nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!

[T. Joseph Carter]

I haven't escaped the Social Security circus, but I'm a graduate student
in Special Education at Western Oregon University.  Unfortunately, my
program demands visual processing skills, and for anyone whose eyes are at
best unreliable, that's a challenge.

I am learning it even though it's hard for me because I have sufficient
creativity to find ways to do it, and because some students just cannot
process complex information except by visualizing it.  In fact, the visual
thinking is built-in to a lot of the teaching techniques I'm learning
because so many students in special education fall into that category.

The thing is, this stuff doesn't have to be visual.  The basic methodology
behind the techniques I'm learning works because it's systematic and has
constant feedback and review built in to the process.  It's all been
researched to death and the evidence is clear that the methodology works,
irrespective of its application.

That means you can teach anything with it, and you can teach rapidly.  I
am wondering how that applies to Braille instruction.  Or travel skills.
Or for that matter to most anything we feel a blind person is better off
knowing.  It's something to think about as I learn more of this stuff.

I'll put up with a fixed income for now because it means that I'll be a
better teacher in two years' time than I could be with any "faster" road
to the necessary licenses.  Besides, the potential applications of the
stuff I'm learning are too interesting to pass up.

On Tue, Dec 04, 2007 at 09:02:45AM -0500, Powers, Terry (NIH/OD/DEAS) [E] wrote:
> Great One Joseph!  
> I started out being adopted into a home of a single mother and Grandmother.  My mother was over protective.  Thanks to the NFB I fought to get my job, keep my job, get off Ssi, and get out of housing for the handicapped and elderly.  Now I have held my job for 21 years, am in my second condo, have been maried for 17 years and I thank the NFB.
> 
> Terry Powers
>   
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: T. Joseph Carter [mailto:tjcarter at bluecherry.net] 
> Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 6:35 PM
> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Teach your leaders, teach your children!
> 
> Eric, if I listened to the people around me, today I would live a very different life.  I would probably be living in a group home.  Certainly I would not be a graduate student today.  I would probably work a low-level state job that someone helped me find, a job I wouldn't have if not for affirmative action.
> 
> Probably my meals, cleaning, laundry, and other basic common needs would not be my own responsibility.  I would be living on an allowance from my paycheck, some of what remains after the bills are paid for me.
> 
> That is what happened to most of my classmates, others who were blind and who did as they were told.  They listened to the people around them who told them what they could do and what wouldn't be possible for them.
> 
> It was the NFB who told me that a better future existed for me, if I wanted it.  Nobody made the claim it would be easy.  The fact is, they told me it was going to be very hard.  I would have to do a lot of things I didn't want to do.  The Federation has offered its assistance, and that sometimes looks like others telling me what they think I should do.  They have really offered me another choice.
> 
> I don't want to see the Federation stop doing that.  The coddling isn't being done by us--we are the ones offering people an alternative.  And we seem to be the only ones doing that.
> 
> 
> As for giving people what they want, how can you know what you want if nobody offers you the choice?  I am reminded of one young man who attended the Colorado Center for the Blind while I was there.  He was 18 years old and he had never gone anywhere or done anything by himself.  He didn't even know how to cook a frozen entrée in a microwave for lunch by himself!
> 
> If you know anything about our training centers at all, you know that's not going to last.  He's going to learn to do these things because he must learn to do them.  Progress was slow because he didn't actually want to do these things himself at first, but once he began to see what he could do himself, he began to open up a bit.  He started to interact socially with the rest of us, too.
> 
> Three months into his program, his mother came to visit the center.  I don't remember much about it other than her asking in a very aggressive tone, "Who is taking my son home this evening?"  My temptation was to answer, "A city bus driver, presumably.  Same as the rest of us!"
> 
> He went home for the Christmas break, and did not return in January.  I asked what had happened to him and was told that everyone had decided that it was best that he not return during the snowy season.  I could not help but remark, "You mean his mother decided that her adult son wasn't going to have to learn to travel through the snow."  The answer I got was a very diplomatic non-confirmation that my assessment of the situation was correct.
> 
> I don't know if the guy ever did come back to the center, but I do know that if he did, every accomplishment of those three months would have been unmade.  Probably, he would tell you that things are as he wants them to be.  He never had the chance to make an informed decision as to what he wanted, though.  The choice was made by his mother.  She then sabotaged his chance to learn about the alternatives.
> 
> I'm sure his mother loves him very much.  But the thing she doesn't seem to grasp is that he's an adult right now, and that makes her old enough to be a grandparent.  The harsh, unforgiving fact is that one of these days she's not going to be there anymore.  What's going to happen to him then?
> I don't believe she has found the time to think about that too much.
> 
> Hindsight being always 20/20, even when you're blind, I think we could have done more to make her aware of the progress her son had made.  If she saw what he had learned to do himself, maybe she would have had more faith that yes, even her son could do these things.
> 
> I tell a story now and then about my experience with another mother learning for herself what her son was capable of.  Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the family context as we continue to evolve and improve the things we teach at our centers.  That's another discussion--though it is one that perhaps we should have soon.
> 
> 
> I think I have made my position on the feud with the ACB quite clear.  I think it is dangerous to our future and unnecessary.  However, I do not believe that means we all gather 'round and sing campfire songs.  We do have an obligation to stand for our principles as responsible citizens of the blindness community.  That means defending our ideas on their merit rather than attacking those who disagree with us.
> 
> On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 04:59:45PM -0800, eric calhoun wrote:
> > Hello, folks!
> > 
> > Here it is, about December 1, and I first want to say that I really 
> > have enjoyed this discussion of ACB versus NFB.  I'd like to make a 
> > few points.
> > 
> > 1.  NFB-ers must stop "coddling" people, and telling people the right 
> > way to go.  We all know that the right way to go is by listening and 
> > associating.
> > Having an NFB cane is very useful, but does not substitute the use of 
> > the long, white cane, especially in NFB-approved training centers.
> > 
> > 2.  We've got to start associating more, and bad-mouthing less.  Part 
> > of the reason NFB has blossomed into "the engine" that could, is 
> > because of leaders like Ten-Broek, Jernigan, and Dr. Maurer.
> > 
> > Finally,
> > 
> > We've got to give the younger people what they want: a chance for 
> > everyone to come to an organization where they are supported, not told 
> > how to live their lives.
> > 
> > Eric Calhoun
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