[nfb-talk] NFB centers

Thu Dec 13 15:13:30 CST 2007

Dear RJ,

The primary difference between the NFB Centers, and other rehab centers, is
that the NFB uses "full emergence" techniques training methods that use
sleep shade training to prevent you from using any remaining vision as a
crutch.
You wear the sleep shades all day for everything, mobility, independent
living, computer training, and cooking, cleaning, Braille and pre-employment
skills.  In short, everything you do.
The reasoning behind this is so that you learn to depend on learning good
skills of blindness and not on using any remaining vision to cheat, as most
of us do.
This builds a very deep sense of self confidence and helps to develop better
problem solving skills.
You grow, as a blind person, by stretching your self by facing up to the
challenge.  Even a turtle doesn't get anywhere until he sticks his neck out.
As a student and a NFB center, your are taught all of the basic blindness
skills under sleep shades and then must perform certain task, using those
skills in order to graduate.
After receiving mobility training and being taught the general area, they
will take you out in a van, under sleep shades, get you twisted around and
drop you off somewhere on the street.  You will then have to orient
yourself, figure out where you are by using your skills and navigate
yourself back to the campus.  They observe you from a distance, for your
safety, but do not interfere unless absolutely needed.  This test is often a
pivotal moment in a Blind students life.  A place where they have to make a
decision about themselves.  They can sit there for hours and think about it
or get up and use the skills they have learned to get back to the campus.
Some students feel scared during this test.  It causes them to question
themselves as to how confident they are in their mobility skill.  There is
nothing like the feeling of being disoriented and lost to get you to get in
touch with your inter self.  It places a mental and psychological barrier
there that you are forced to confront.  Getting pass that barrier can be the
most liberating experience in your live according to the students I have
talked to.  In that moment, you have to make a decision as to which side of
the fence you are going to be on.   
 Students are also expected to take part in other activities like skiing,
back packing, rock climbing or maybe even white water rafting, unless they
have a medical condition that prevents them.  The students are encouraged to
do everything that other people do, such as going out to dinner in town, the
movies, and the fair, shopping, church and even community service projects.
This is the point of the testing and the training, to make you a well
rounded person.     This is why, many people refer to NFB trained students
as members of the "super Blind."
Not because they are super powered, but because they are super trained, have
the great blindness skills and confidence in themselves and have learned to
believe in the power of blind people.  
For graduation from the independent living course.  You will have to go to
the store and shop for all of the fixings for a small group of people.  You
will have to use your mobility skills to go to the store and back, your
training in shopping skills in finding and purchasing the goods, bring them
all back to the center and totally prepare and cook the meal and serve it to
the other students.
The other classes are handled in a similar fashion.
The students are also expected to take part in community activities which
include traveling to a national convention for the experience and fun of
meeting so many other blind people.
Most everyone makes it through the center.
The training is designed to not only build good blindness skills you can
depend on, but to instill in you a positive philosophy and sense of your own
self confidence and ability to problem solve.
The training is not easy and the people are not going to pander to the
students.  They are going to train and mold the student into the best blind
person they can be or want to be.  This is boot camp for the blind.  The
military doesn't make sure that a raw recruit has his or her teddy bear and
security blanket or tuck them in at night.  If you have a problem with
something, the NFB staff will sit down and talk with you.  The other
students are encouraged to help one another and speak their mind about
things.  They commonly ask "why" as to the reason certain things are taught
the way they are such as the wearing of sleep shades.
The wearing of the shades forces a person to depend on and learn to heighten
their other blindness skills and learn to depend on those sharper skills
which, in turn, builds great self confidence.  This self confidence and
great skills set will make a difference in your life.  The training also
forces you to think about yourself and what you believe in.  It helps you to
search your sole and, hopefully, make the changes in your habits and mind
set through the NFB philosophy.

As to limits placed on students that attend such centers the rules are about
the same everywhere. They are responsible for your safety and until they
know more about you and know that you are safe, mature and responsible, they
are going to keep you on a short leash.  You earn the ability to travel off
campus as part of the training process and even encouraged to travel off
campus as part of the training.  After all, would your parents let you run
around, unsupervised when you were a small child?    Often the students are
young and don't have the judgment skills of an older adult.  Some would use
this "freedom" to just go and get drunk, screw around, get into trouble and
maybe get hurt somewhere.  Being hung over or missing classes because you
stayed out all night is a sure sign of immaturity on the part of a student.
The instructors are there to teach, not to be your nursemaid.  You tow the
line or you go home.  
As for quiet hours, I would say that everyone has them to some degree.
Learning common courtesy for others is also a learned skill.  Other students
maybe studying, reading, working on the computer or just trying to sleep.
Learning when it is appropriate to be a bit quiet is a learned social skill
and one that not all blind people learn.
I have had roommates who would go out drinking and come back into the room
several times to wake me up just to tell me the bar closed at 2:00 AM and
they were going to an all night bar up the street.  Then they would come
back in, and wake me up, by turning on the TV set at a loud volume, and then
lay there making bus reservations for nearly 2 hours, talking loudly on the
phone.  They would then sleep in come morning and miss half the day's
activities at the convention.  This person was not trained in a NFB center
and I will never room with them again.   they were not the best example of
what a good blind person could be.
As the public judges us based on their preconceived notions, which type of
blind person do you want setting the bar for the rest of us to be judged by
society?  The dirty bum blind guy selling the pencils in a tin cup or
someone who shows confidence in themselves and their skills?  The General
Public is going to judge us all by the best and the worst example they have
seen.  You pick.

David Evans, NFBF.  
-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of GMail
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:36 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] NFB centers

Much different than that. I couldn't explain all of it to you, but what you 
are talking about is nonexistent. From what I understand, you are free to go

where you please, and you expected to work, unlike some of the centers. They

are very challenging, but it's very beneficial. I'm sure I haven't said 
everything. Perhaps someone who's been to one will be able to tell you.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RJ Sandefur" <rjs59 at hotmail.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:53 PM
Subject: [nfb-talk] NFB centers

What are NFB centers like? I've been to a rehabiliation center, and it was a

bad experience. We had "quiet hours," which we had to observe, and in order 
to go off campus, a student needed a mobility clearence. David, I'm talking 
about the center in daytona Florida! RJ

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