Category: the Rant Board
My school, well thankfully after this year it will not be my school. Decided to punish my friends and I for telling a 14 year old exactly nothing harmless. She yelled at us to be moving faster up the stairs, though we weren't even late to class and neither was she. But we only told her to pass us on the left it was a big deal. Now they claim we used foul language and we were rude. I don't understand why they are like this. Even if we had used bad language, its such a small problem, one that is on my record now because a little girl decided to cry about being told what she did. I honestly feel blind schools are a waste and grateful for public school next year.
Sorry meant that its not a big deal.
I call them concentration camps for the blind.
Its what it feels like, they are utterly unnecessary. I haven't learned a thing, only thing that they helped me with is math. I'm grateful I got good skills and very good with my academics.
I didn't, they screwed me over. I wasn't prepared for the college workload at all. And the food? What food? Probably supplied from the same place that supplies a prison.
Wow, seems a bit over blown if you ask me. If foul language was all she had gotten in public school, she's be lucky.
As for the food, yeah, we always referred to it as the stuff the governor's dog wouldn't eat. Glad I was only at mine for 1.5 years in late elementary/early middle school to learn braille.
Wow, that's disgraceful indeed.
I should point out however, that public schools sometimes pull ridiculous stuff Like this.
My public school doesn't put up with kid stuff, they rather deal with actual serious things. I never even cussed at this girl, but because she cried out her story was taken more serious. It sickens me because I've worked so hard, probably helped this school with its testing scores and what not. I never have had any behavioral issues, my grades are perfect. They always pick me unfortudetly to sit as an example, but this comes up and I'm really bad. It makes me so upset.
So anyways before my laptop decided to hit post, I feel their actions are sad. Not for really my sake, I'm leaving this year, and its my only year I've been in a blind school. But for this young girl. Now she can think she can cry for small little unfair worldly things that just happen, and it'll be fixed. But it doesn't happen that way, and she'll get the world slammed into her face because of them. I cant stand to think like that, but its the truth.
I'm so sorry Hermanita. That is ridiculous. I swear to you it's like the little sissy ones who don't do shit and like to make up rumors are the ones believed. So glad you're going back to public school.
Teens, if your significant other is at blind school and you ask your mom to send you there so you can see him and your friends and she says hell no, she's doing what's best for you. trust me, you'll thank her later. Lol.
Oh yes your mother is right. I remember when I had dated a guy from a summer program, who was going off to the school I'm going to now. He wanted me to go with him. At the time I said hell no, even before coming now I repeated those words. But I came on other reasons, not because I truly needed it.
sorry to hear about this, but as someone said, this kind of thing isn't specific to schools for the blind.
Like I said, darling Jodeci, remember that we're in a braud world, where different people do different things, some unapealing and some apealing. But my point is, that I find this thing of little girl drama being put up as utterly rediculous! Seriously, you'd think that blind schools would implement a strict independent learning and behaviors but unfortunately they don't. Being that I went to an elementary school for the blind myself, I can tell you that all I got from there was braille, reading and writing. They'd teach us that saying shut up, fuck, shit, and even heck and hell was bad, that only adults use those words, and, when I was in middle school, and started the sex edd all the blind kids would be like ill, that's nasty. I know this girl who's 17, and when we took health in high school and sex came up, she couldn't be inside, because the words were bad. It just bothers me how in a way we are sheltered, as if being blind would make a difference and as if we were inoscent people who do nothing wrong. Now don't jump the gun, I didn't say we're evil. All I'm saying is that in those schools there are too many acomidations, thus narrowing our independence and understanding of the real world.
Yes agreed milly, you hit my point to the spot. Its not even truly the situation as I said that I'm upset over. Its the fact of treating it. That girl among others will be sheltered because of actions like this. They will expect the rest of the world to be as such as well. I just don't like it.
Don't get me started about blind sex ed. Oh boy. That was an experience I'll never forget. Lol. I agree, there are too many restrictions at those places, CSDB was really reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally bad. I got in trouble for kissing my boyfriend, and a girl spread rumors that we were making out in the cafeteria. Because of this, my parents were called and I wasn't allowed to walk with him sit next to him, or be alone with him. Not even that, we couldn't sit together at lunch, it was absolutely ridiculous.
I can't speak for the sex Ed thing, but again, public schools will frequently discipline students for silly things like supposed foul language. They also usually have no-kissing rules, though these are hard to enforce.
The only blind school I heard of before was the Overbrooke School for the Blind in Philadelphia. That was the only one I knew about for years. My mom refused to let me go there, because I had started in public school and she wanted me to stay in the same district. I wonder what that school is like though.
Um...If you want to read a novel, I'll tell you about overbrook. I have lots and lots of stories for sure, having gone to high school there, and very few were positive. Although my public school experience wasn't great, either, in hindsight, I wish I had stuck it out there. Luckily for me, I had my public school experiences to fall back on, so I didn't end up with the entitlement mentality that most of the other students had. But you know what's funny? Our sex ed class was fairly normal. We had to do projects on STD's, and we put a condom on a banana, and we had to read articles about date rape and meeting people on MySpace and stuff. That was the one and only time that we weren't all unnecessarily sheltered. I'm still scratching my head over the lack of logic about that one. Oh, and don't even get me started on the food. it was awful. People thought I was anorexic because I ate so little in the cafeteria.
Ugh CSDB food was so nasty. Oh god. I felt bad for all my friends who had to eat that shit.
CSDB food was shit. I ordered pizza quite a lot in those days, and I had a footlocker full of chips, cookies, crackers, and other such things. And a mini fridge and coffee maker.
Well I spend so much money eating out, its ridiculous because the food is disgusting here. But my point of the subject is that not of the foul language. I am pointing out what will this girl will grow up to be. After seeing a lot of what goes on at my school, for example singing in the halls and the mentality the teens have here. I am just grateful I have been mainstream up until now.
The mentality is really fucking sad tbh. A lot of teens go to public school while at CSDB, and you could tell which ones were and weren't. The ones that had to stay at the blind school had mentality of... I don't know, 10-year-olds.
LOL to poster 3.
I call them concentration camps for the blind.
I have to agree. there ferniture comes from people who makes them in prison most times and our blankets gets washed by the prison too. I went to the one in Oklahoma for high school but I had taken some classes for BEP, Business Enterprise Program here in Raleigh and the blankets and ferniture was by the prison too. They get their towls and thing from the prison actually here in Raleigh. And by the way, there is only a fince seperating the two here.
I wasn't prepared for college either by my school and I kept complaining to them that I didn't think we were learning enough and it just made them angry at me. Sometimes we would get students from public school and they said we were so behind and slow and lazy compared to public.
What the hell? Your blankets were washed by prisoners? Did I really read that right?
Separate is not equal. I have nothing but raw compassion and sympathy for people forced into such segregation at the schools for the blind, decades after the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court.
Exactly. When I was in 7th grade, the middle and high schoolers at CSDB were learning about the American Revolution, something I learned about in the 5th grade. It was so sad to witness the fact that they were learning stuff that I'd learned three years previously.
Well bigbird, shame on you for using bad language. I mean, nobody does that in the real world for fuck's sake! Lol seriously, this is my take on it:
These so called schools for the blind seem to have no real knowledge of how to work with the blind. It makes me sick.
They either treat you like a little kid 24 7 or... Nope, that's really it. They stifle your growth intillectually and those who are content with it, they let be content with it, yet those who fight the system and try to rebel, they fear for their loss and control and try to control those kids even further.
Yes, the laundry, bedding, got sent to the prison to be washed by inmates.
Funny part was that my uncle was in that prison and would try to send his helows through the people who would drop off and pick up our laundry. LOL
Survices for the blind seem verry prejudice towards the blind.
Post 29 is spot on. I know grown adults who have graduated from overbrook, which was the school I attended, like 4 or 5 years ago, and they try to make every excuse to go back as often as they can. It's like their entire mental stability is dependent on how accepted they are by their former staff. There was a guy that I considered a friend when we both went there. Not a close friend, mind you, but someone I ate lunch with every day. We had some fun times, and he was generally a cool person. But he's one of those people I just mentioned. We now barely speak because he thinks I should be involved with the alumni association, the alumni choir, volunteering, dropping by the dorm at night when he can, etc. I, however, refuse to ever, EVER set foot in that hell again. So, the gulf between us has expanded rapidly over the almost 4 years since we graduated together. I should also add that he stayed until he was 21. I graduated at 19 myself, but that's because I was held back a year in public school, so I needed the credits. And I had to fight like hell to not have to stay until I was 21 as well. But this guy, and many others, were totally content to stay that long.
Concentration camps for the blind? I like it. As for OVerbrok I went there for two years while I lived in Philadelphia and, like Turtle, had nary a positive experience there. Then when I was 14 I started attending summer camps at the Oregon School for the Blind. Granted the sumer camps were actually quite fun since with a few exceptions things were fairly relaxed. But then after I graduated High School, public school thankfully, my folks insisted that I attend OSB's "transition" program. This program was, according to its mission statement, was designed to prepare the blind for living on their own and for attending college. The problem is that the classes were so large that you rarely if ever got one-on-one time. So my cleaning and cooking skills, while perhaps passable, are probably not as efficient as others. And don't even get me started on relationships. OSB had rules about that, basically only handholding was acceptable. Yet there were couples who got away with a lot more evenin front of the staff. Then my x and I would get yelled at for things we hadn't done.So even thirteen years later she has this fear of sex or even more innocent things couples do, or rather she has a fear that if she allows things to just go where they will, she'll get in trouble. And I tink it's as much to do with the School for the Blind, which she atended basicaly from preschool o the age of 21 (that's the cut-off ae for OSB), and while she did attend High School in a regular public school she wishes she'd stayed with the blind school.
I know someone who went to overbrook and she is fine. However she told me about this one guy who, with every step would mutter, "gonna piss on the floor, gonna shit on the floor." My point is that such places discourages normalcy.
Its just so sad, very sad to me. I see your posts, and I look around me at this school and just feel so bad. I am so grateful I was mainstreamed up until now, because I ear what would I be if not. Some of the kids cant help it I know because of mental issues. But others are just lacking it because they are not taught how to cope with day to day situations. With this situations and others I am sure to come, its almost as if these people will grow up to believe the world is covered in white daisies. That's sad about the girl who believed she be in trouble about her sex life. But I can see why it be like that. Its just so not cool though. But its allowed to happen, and allowed to go on.
It really breaks my heart to have parsially lived and witnessed the treatment and misguiding blind people when facing the world.. Again, being mainstreemed in highschool, and completely without services in Mexico taught me so much independence and enhanced my levil of confidence, making it easier, in a way, to understand many things and learn them on my own. I wish blind schools would be different.. :(.
Personally I think they're a waste of money.
I think it is something that varies from school to school though. On here we've mainly discussed a few out of the many schools that are probably out there, and I don't want to jump to the conclusion that every single one of these schools is a terrible place, even though the majority might be. It's the same thing with centers that are made to train adults who go blind, or who did not have any help growing up as a kid. Not every one of them are bad. I won't condone what you all have said on here, and I'm sorry that you have to go through those inconveniences. These things need to be heard so it can be put to a stop, it needs to be more widely recognized.
Ok, and who here said all schools are the same? Not all of them are bad, but, most of them are not good, period.
Yeah exactly, and I haven't heard a bad thing about centers for the blind. According to a friend of mine, CCB treats you like adults, which is awesome and I can't wait to go there, but back to the topic at hand here. Hermanita, why did you have to go to TSB anyway, if you don't mind me asking. YOu can tell me in private if you like, I was just curious.
It doesn't have to be said directly. That's how I interpret it though. It makes about as much sense as saying that because Duncan Doughnuts and Starbucks coffee tastes like shit to you, then that means all types of coffee taste like shit, because they are the two biggest brands of coffee.
Not necessarily. I have rarely heard good about a blind school. Maybe not all of them are bad, but honestly, 75 percent of them are not good. They stifle education and social skills.
Thank you, Sam! Because no one person has mentioned the blind schools as not beeing good, but most people, so there.
Hahahahaha exactly. A friend of mine was really upset when her mom took her out of blind school. Please don't ask why I really am not sure. Lol, but now, she's grateful her mom took her out.
I was part of the first generation to be officially mainstreamed in California in the late 60's. I was lucky to have a blind VI teacher who was proficient in Braille. My mom was adamant that I attend public school. Sometimes it didn't work out so well, especially when we moved to rural Idaho and I had an itinerant VI teacher who showed up once every two months, whether I needed him or not. In high school, one VI teacher I had kept pushing me to get recorded books for math and French, and I convinced him that I couldn't learn sentence structure or equations without Braille. In my twenties, I met people who'd gone to the California School for the Blind in the fifties and sixties, and they said they were fully prepared for college. I wouldn't doubt that the situation has changed a lot for schools for the blind, and that one in particular, because the majority of the students have other disabilities or developmental issues. I do think that any institutionalized setting like that is going to cause the inmate to live a sheltered life to at least some extent. Jo, I think you're right about the fourteen-year-old girl. She'll learn to cry wolf all her life, and that is sad. All in all, I'm glad that I went to public schools, and I'm glad that you've had that experience as well. This should prepare you well for life after high school.
I'm in total agreement with the posts here, blind schools are a complete waste of time. Back in 2001 I went to the South Carolina School for the deaf and blind to use there dormitory facilities while I was in college. I have lots of crazy stories about that place but won't get into them here. I also think blind schools mess people up for life. I've always been able to tell those who went to blind schools versus those who didn't, such as myself. It seems like the people who went to blind schools all their lives have absolutely no social skills whatsoever. lol. I was lucky enough to be mainstreamed from elementary through high school. I refused to go to any school for the blind except SCSDB and I only went there out of necessity.
I'd not go so far as that last...it -can be easy to tell that a person went to a school for the blind, but sometimes it's not evident. Or, if it is evident, it's for an entirely different reason. At least two people I've known very well went to a school for the blind for at least awhile, and these people in particular both turned out extremely well. Perhaps they were the lucky ones.
There's a school not too far from where I live, the W. Ross Macdonald School in Brantford. I was asked, apparently, if I wanted to go there when I was young, and I guess I was undecided. My mom basically said I'd go there over her dead body, so I ended up mainstreamed. There were struggles because of it, but I'm glad it happened that way. Having visited W. Ross, I can say that the only really good thing about it is its library, which smells lovely and is very quiet and peaceful. I witnessed, indirectly at least, a lot of behavior at that school that frankly alarmed me. Some of it was likely from people who had other problems, but it was still rather offputting, to say the least. I went there to pick up or drop off reading material, that's pretty much it. From the few times I ate there, the food was decent, though not excellent. The parts of the building I saw seemed to be clean, but I also never went into the dormitories or anything either.
And never mind all that. What I'll say is this. I think schools for the blind are often defined by their, shall we say, less flattering attendees more often than not. Soetimes there are bad staff, bad situations allowed to continue, poor living conditions, but more often than not it seems to be people that anti-blind school folks go on about.
I'm gonna have to agree about an earlier post though, and say that such silliness as prompted this topic in the first place happens everywhere. If it is more prevalent in that particular school, it's a shame, but bad judgment and favouritism and overprotective behavior will occur anywhere.
My folks pretty much felt the same way since they like me have observed the effects that blind schools often have on their attendees. Apart from my x girlfriend of thirteen years ago I knew a girl whose mother, after adopting her andher sister from India, put them both in the Oregon School for the Blind in place of public school. The result was that the elder girl in particular, who is now in her early thirties, must live in a group home because she has no concept of how to do things for herself. When they tried to enroll her in college she couldn't cope with the increased workload and the fact that asignments were not immediately available in braille for her the way they were at the blind school.
I wonder if people had character judgments of people who went to segregated black-only schools in the 60s and before? All I knew as a kid was those places were "boarding schools".
But anyone with a remotely decent education of modern American history knows the struggles the blacks, and the U.S. Marshall Service who protected them, faced during Integration. Fuck the word 'mainstream', and all that psychology raggedy-ass bullshit, it's desegregation, is what it is. And, I am one of the lucky ones. I think it totally out of line to judge someone who spent a lot of time locked away in an institutional facility like those places. Hell, even prisoners want to go back if they're there long enough: it's not a blind thing, it's called institutionalization. If you didn't crawl out of under a rock, you have heard of it.
Why do even we look at the blind and / or disabled differently regarding desegregation? Separate is not equal period.
Now, I was told from day one, the public school people can't change what they're doing for just one person, you gotta pull your own load, and we had help from the state or however they did that, the people travelling around who would Braille out worksheets for us and the like. There are some obvious considerations, learning Braille is one.
But desegregation cost people their lives, people. This business about forcing kids to stay in till they're 21? You could only do that if you'd broke them first by institutionalizing them. Never mind the legal part: I don't know how you would force someone who is of age. Unless you first had them limited and trapped in some way.
What's amazing is that we are even having this discussion in 2013, when other minorities have long since been fully integrated.
I was sent to this school for a punishment. Not all the kids that leave here though are that bad. I have a handful of friends with good social skills. But I enjoy public school, even though I was the only blind kid at school. But I see many of the young ones here and they really do cry for wolf. Even some of the teens, the behavior is just crazy here.
For a lot of people who do come out of there not so bad, at least that I know of in Colorado, CSDB was really, a last result. They get sent there as a punishment. It's sad that that's the way that has to work, but it is very true. You can tell which of the kids have spent time, no matter how little, in public school and which ones haven't.
Ok, Sir Lio, I, personally am not judging people for going to school for the blind, it's not my place. Things were much different for the blacks in the 60s, because as time passes within generations things evolve. I'm not saying it's ok to judge people, but, since we're talking aboute blind school here, many of us who've been to one of those and a public school can see the difference in behavior and many other aspects of studence. People are not bad, and going to a blind school does not define a person, but, for many of os it has not been all that pleasant or helpful as has been when attending public school. What I'm saying, Jodeci, is that now I can understand, if you were sent there as a punishment, is because you were to learn a lot from it, and I bet, it's not all that enjoyable, it's, a punishment.
Exactly Milly. I didn't really need any skill building, sure my mobility needs work on but that's because my instructor fell behind with me for the past five years. I'm good with travelling just need more experience. But really other than that I'm not learning a thing here. I went from AP courses to boring regular classes. I forgot how slow it moves, and especially slow because not all the kids get the material. But as I still say, most of these people will leave the school expecting the world to be easy. Let me give you an example of this girl. She says she'll be a lawyer, she doesn't do her work and her average is a seventy. She says she'll go to ACc. Which is a small community college down in Austin, but she is also looking for a house to buy here. Then she expects to make it into harvard after two years. Does this sound reasonable? She cant even take care of herself, very messy she is. And this school helped her think this way.
Hahahahahaha lmfaooo!, not reasonable or realistic whatsoever. But Again, it's not her fault, but the lack of skillbuilding, if I may say, that is implemented in such schools. Also, they tell kids they can be whatever they want to be, however they want to be. For example, I was 7 at an elementary school for the blind, and they always taught us we could be whatever we wanted. I guess I took that too seriously, and after a piano lesson, I told my teacher: "Miss Kuka, You know what I want to be when I grow up?" "What?" She asked. And I enthusiastically replied: "I wanna be a pilot!" She laughed, and then said: "Will you do Miss Kuka a Favor? Be sure to tell her the name of the airline you're flying!" After we finished a piano lesson she'd ask me: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" I said: Practice, Practice, Practice." Sorry all, couldn't help it, Good times! My point is, though, that we could be whatever we dreamed, and they teach us, that the world has no limits. It's sad, if one doesn't get out of that cloud
I wasn't referring to anyone on this thread, judging the victims of institutionalization is just a common problem. If I call someone out specifically I usually do so in name or post number.
And yes, the anyone can do anything bit sounds ridiculous. But that is not just for the blind or sighted: Artistic people like my daughter are hopeless when it comes to taking apart electronics, and that has nothing to do with sight, lack thereof, gender, or what have you: she's just not real patient with any of that stuff.
I know you weren't, Lio, I was just speaking for myself. But, since we're talking about blind people going to blind schools, it's rediculous, for both blind and sighted, I say.
Wow, that was not my experience at all. I never felt that any of the staff had much hope for us poor blind students. I think that's because, as a previous poster pointed out, more of the students who attend schools for the blind nowadays have multiple disabilities, mostly mental or cognitive in nature. The staff look at every student the same way, basically seeming to think that they're going to either end up in sheltered workshops or do something like folding pizza boxes. They had a job skills program, if you wanted to be a part of it, but the more sensible among us stayed far, far away from that. You would either end up doing things in their workshop, like making these shoe shining kits, or, as I said, you might go to Pizza Hut and fold boxes, or, if you were really lucky, you might get to bag groceries at one of the local stores, Target in particular.
Quite possibly, the true irony is that "mainstreaming" has worsened the institutionalization of blind students, making the majority of students in schools for the blind those with multiple disabilities. The sad truth is that public schools are straining to educate disabled students, too. The problems are simply different.
I was mainstreamed sinse 4th grade and I am greatful. However, there are times where I think a blind school would have been good for me. I E, I would have been learning alongside my peers instead of having to put up with the rubbish of ostrisization. So I understand that everything has pros and cons. All I can go by is what I've witnessed/heard about.
I honestly think that there should be some kind of co-op program between schools for the blind and public schools... say, public schools for academics and schools for the blind in life skills situations (cooking, cleaning, O&M, etc.) I know sometimes it is not always practical, but in larger urban centers why not?
I had a friend who was mainstreamed for most of her life, but she received no assistance from the local school system. She went to the school for the blind for several years of high school, and found it very helpful, but she is also definitely of the mind that it is also up to parents and families of the student to both encourage the student and reinforce any of the living skills that are taught.
:) I was main streemed all of my life, went to blind summer camps as a kid the people I met there um...!!, lets just say I never bothered to keep in contact with them. If I had not gone to main streem school I would have never played football "american not socker" as a blind person and I would have never participated in power lifting. I am od the mind set blind schools are good for summer programs to keep the students mind sharp and life skills up but to keep them there 24 7 until there adult hood no!!. How do they know that "rocking" is not socially exceptible in a public setting or another setting? How do they know that other blindness related habits are not good to have in their adult life, it could cost them a job. Most of my friends are sighted, because of that they would point out some of the crap I was doing at a yung age, so this is my stance on this topic.
here is the article link: http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-10/sports/sp-44304_1_high-school-football
Honestly I cant think of anything truly embarrassing, concerning habits go in public. Sure I have the normal shake my foot when I'm sitting idly in a chair, but nothing really. I used to be able to see, before I lost my eye sight to cancer. So I saw how people acted, and I still keep those images with me today. I do not rock, and have a few friends who do. But even one or two of them went to public school. They still rocked, I believe its something they pick up. But many don't care about lots of things here. A girl goes around, her hair a mess, her ordor reeking of fish, so much I can say. But she was mainstreamed at one time.
Hmm as to these so-called isms, well there were some royal stink-a-lots in the public schools when I was a kid, but I mainly took the odor as a cue to avoid them.
Only the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan say they stink because they're n****ers and some of you all immitate him by saying they stink because they're blind.
That doesn't make sense to me Leo. I'm not at all saying they stink because they are blind. They stink because they stink. I've always been high up on if I smelled or what not, made sure I never did and never do. Its one thing I can say, it makes an impression upon me, so I'll like to make a good impression. A woman or young lady in my opinion, should take regular showers, clean for if not she'll have unnecessary ordour lingering around even after the gift has come and gone. She doesn't have to wear perfume if not wanted, sometimes I forget, and I am grateful I burn sandal wood in my house, so that's my little spritz if I forget. But she doesn't bate, doesn't take care of herself properly, when I was her roomate I had to tell her to take out the trash. For she was dirty with that crap, leaving nasty things that should be done in a bathroom. Many people have tried to tell her, but she's in the mindset she will be taken care of, now that she has been going to this school for six years.
But she probably would have been that way, even if she hadn't gone to the school for the blind. I agree with leo on this. There are a lot of things you can blame on the way schools for the blind are, mainly how secure a person feels about their place in society as a blind person, but personal hygiene isn't one of them, unless a lack of hygiene is some kind of manifestation of that insecurity. But even then, most people don't actually do that. You might read about rape victims and hoarders and so on who deliberately live in filth to repel people, but that's not the majority of society.
I've met plenty of both blind and sighted people who smell like a shower is a completely foreign concept to them. This somewhat comes from living around many Amish people, but then I moved to Philly, which was a stark contrast. Either way, though, hygiene habits are one of those things you pick up from your parents. That doesn't mean you can't change them when you're old enough to know better, but 9 times out of 10, if you see a dirty, smelly kid, the parents are, too. It's just sad.
I met her mother, her mother is very well dressed and nicely masked. By masked I mean done up with her makeup and hair, your what nots. From what I understand and what she says, she feels its unnecessary because she is blind to take proper care of herself.
That's just ... inconceivable. My blind Vi teacher woulda whupped my ass for that attitude. LOL But really, I don't even understand that reasoning, nor do I want to. It's scary and barbaric.
Some few blind people I've known seem to take an out-of-sight out-of-mind approach. If they can't see it, it doesn't matter a lot. I have the slightest touch of that (as in, if I go out and my hair is a little on the odd-looking side I probably won't lose sleep), but I'm not going to fail to shower, I'm not going to wear stained clothing (as long as I know it's stained, of course, and just about all the time I do), and I'm sure as hell not going to smell bad. I think some people care too much about how they look, and everyone's mileage will differ on that concept...but, ugh...no, I detest the idea of anyone making excuses to ignore hygiene.
Right o, hit it on the nail Sheperd wolf. I don't expect and I am sure others feel the same of others to be the greatest everyday, all the time. Sometimes I feel like crud, but I try to look as good as I can because of my personal opinions and what nots. I however don't think just because your blind there is no reason for hygiene to be ignored.
bodily uncleanness is rather a biohazard. Wonder why it makes your eyes water? So did pool chemicals if I left a cap unscrewed on a bottle in the shed. It makes you sweat and your eyes water and you nauseated, because your body wants to be rid of it.
It's hazardous.
I don't know how they can't smell it themselves, though, that mystifies me.
I'm sure if she lived with her mother, sho would've looked like her, clean and all. I personally can't bare the idea of not showering for 1 day, I mean, really? I'm blind, but others can see me, I talk to people, I'm around them and they can smell me and see me, for goodness sake! Not only that, but, Even if I don't look glamerous, I look clean, and well taken care of, because, mainly I want to feel good about myself! And about the trash? Holy shit! I don't get it, I can't! How on this planet would I live with nasty trash in my room? Ugh! I seriously can't understand that reasoning...
I am very thankful that I've been mainstreamed all my life. My parents debated whether to send me to the Iowa School for the Blind, and I'm eternally grateful to the teacher of the blind who told them absolutely do not send me there. However, I was involved with their summer program one year, and that was more than enough for me. Their mobility teaching was a joke, as were the classes. There was honestly a class that was simply story time. I was 11 years old, but we would sit and listen to audio books more age-appropriate for someone six or seven. The sad part was, most of the students around me went to the Braille school the rest of the year as well as for the summer, and were of that six or seven year old mentality, so they loved it. That was also the summer that we made a dish in daily living skills class that I knew I wouldn't like. When I politely declined to eat it, the teacher grabbed my face, forced it into my mouth, and held my mouth closed until I swallowed it. Then the school absolutely did not want me calling my parents to tell them about it. I was finally able to get through to my mom, who hauled ass down there, gave the principle a piece of her mind, and took me out of the program. The sad thing was, the principle couldn't see why Mom was so upset. It was pretty unreal.
I've learned that quite often, you can tell by someone's behavior whether they went to a school for the blind or were mainstreamed. This isn't always the case, but more often than not I've been able to.
I understand mainstreaming and public schools are not perfect. They certainly have their problems. But I'd personally take the problems that came with being mainstreamed over those of schools for the blind.
Exactly!, and, It seems as if people who are at those school are used to having things done for them, it's so sad. When I was in Mexico and volunteering at the school for the blind, it was pretty bad, except when I worked with babies. Because, many girls my age and under, smelled bad, had things done for them all the time, until I made them do their own when I was there, and they were careless, because they were used to having things ready and in their hands. They were babied all the time, and, one told me she wanted to study in Europe while she couldn't even walk to school independently 4 blocks away from her house because she was afraid! I'm not saying they do all these things because they're blind, but because they're not given the chance to do their own things, to take care of themselves because they're so called taken care of, because they are made to believe that the world is full of rainbow colors and that everything can be done and given to them because they're blind. After a year, when I was asked my opinion from the director of the school, I clearly expressed what I had observed, and, not surprisingly she disliked it, and expressed her discomfort about it. I wasn't rude, but since she asked for suggestions, she thought I'd give her nothing, and, she was unwilling to improve. She thought that I could do a lot because I was in the united states, which was more offensive to me, because I know people from all over the world who are independent. Luckally, I learned a lot when I was mainstreemed, yes, it has it's problems, but I learned to seek help when I need it, to advocate for myself and be independent, and to share what I have, who I am with others.
I'd just like to say that this attitude of, "you can tell who went to a school for the blind, and who didn't," is absolutely ridiculous, and quite unfair.
although some people went to a school for the blind, myself among them, I can with total confidence say that I don't have those isms that many people speak of, nor is there any other giveaway that I was a student there, unless I'm talking about it directly.
I'm a firm believer that, while the schools for the blind that I've seen, have many a negative thing to be directed towards them, people's lack of hygiene doesn't fall on them.
Unfortunately Chels, in a lot of cases in this state, I really can tell who went to a school for the blind all their lives, and just a school for the blind, weren't mainstreamed for some classes while they were there, they just took blind school classes all day every day and who didn't. Stupid question, did you take public school classes while you were at TSB? I can't remember and I wasn't sure, so I thought I'd ask. I know a lot of exceptions to the school for the blind rule, like one of my friends from this state and several friends out of state. I know, at CSDB, that the staff would do a lot of shit their students should have been doing themselves. So many of the girls especially were babied completely and it was sad. You even had to get parent's permission, say, if you had a significant other or a friend and you wanted to go out to dinner with him, your parents or someone had to come down and drive you and chaperone you at dinner with that person. It was ridiculous, and of course their attitude to significant others in general was fucking ridiculous.
I took a few classes this last January and Febuary. My teacher told me that when he found out i had gone to a school for the blind before, he had exspected that I would come in with lots of blindisms and not make it through the class. I came out doing great and the only issue he had to tell me was that i got to defincive to my other class mate, but she was a controlling bitch and I would have to to get her off my back. She had this bad habbit of looking down on everyone and would put her fat nose in my business and tell me how I was doing it wrong and should do it like she thought I should. Things that she was not only wrong about but wasn't the best way for me to go about it all.
But i now have my own place I am working and I am doing amazingly well.
I feel as if that blind schools should help teach blind people, who other wise, wouldn't learn how to do things that they need to know like life skills but, I don't think that they have made it well enough to replace a public school. Unfortunantly public schools aren't always responcible enough to do what they need to in order for a blind student to succeed .
I currently go to Tsb, and I have two classes I take at a public school. Honestly I feel I would've gone crazy if I had not been able to get into these classes. From what I understand you have to be there two years before they decide if you can be mainstreamed like this, but they made an acception for me. I can say and agree with you Sam. Not everyone yes for sure, you can tell if they have been or they have not. But the majority you can, and sadly its what counts.
Yes, one can tell, no matter how rediculous it seems, again, who's being judgemental? We're talking about the majority, not the minority, so, yeah... Good ior you. I don't have those isms, even if I went to and worked at a school for the blind, thank you very much...
I see that hermanita. Definitely, well you can also tell which ones at the blind school were mainstreamed or go to public school for part of the day, and which didn't.
Those schools also have double standards. I'm gonna tell y'all two little stories. One is about a girl I know, one is about me. This girl I know, was the boy craziest thing I ever met at the tender age of 11. Anyway, long story short, she got this long term boyfriend and began having sex at the age of 13. They both went to blind school, she had been mainstreamed before, and he was mainstreaming. Anyway, she was a psycho and we lost touch for years. My friends and I, as cruel as this is, made the joke that she'd be preggers before she left high school, trust me, she bragged about all the sex she had. The csdb peeps knew about it, but I'm pretty sure they turned a blind eye, no pun intended, to it. Well, my friends and I were right, she had her baby at 17, I just recently saw her again and I'm pretty sure she regressed as far as maturity level. She's letting her mother practically take care of her son, which is bad because her mother's bat shit and she has less maturity than when I met her ten years ago.
Now, here's my story of why I say this is a double standard, Csdb turning a blind eye to her having sex. When I was 14, I began dating this guy while I was down there for spring break. A girl I was rooming with, who I thought was my friend, blabbed to the dorm supervisor that I was doing all sorts of things with this guy that were, well, relatively high schoolish things to do, like making out in the cafeteria. Which, actually, we never did, that's the funny part. So, the dorm supervisor or someone told the lady in charge of short term placement students, who called my mother and then my father and told them what I was doing. My father went ballistic, he basically yelled at me on the phone for an hour about how I was supposed to be there learning about technology not doing stuff with boys, blahblahblah, all that stuff that some dads say. Then, for the rest of the week, we weren't allowed to walk anywhere together, sit next to each other in rooms, any of that, teachers knew about it and inforced that shit. His roommate had to take me to where he was so I could sit with him at lunch, it was the stupidest thing I'd ever had to deal with, and after that hellish week, I've never had the desire or will to go back to blind school. If they were going to stifle me like that, that was enough, especially at a time where I was rebelling and not taking too kindly to authority and just wanting to be happy for once, and I was at the time. OH, here's the kicker. The teacher, who tattled on me, said I know you're probably mad at me and this is your life, but he's not good for you. He's not a good person. That's why she said she called. That made me even madder.
Was she your teacher, or your mother? Who the fuck is she to decide weather he was good for you or not? She could've kept her pie hole shut, and her stupid thoughts to herself! What a bitch! God! that really gets my goat! And if you were doing those things, what the hell does she care? After all, he wasn't for her, he was your guy! I mean just because you're blind you can't do what normal human beings do? Shameful, that's exactly what I'm talking about!
And what I meant by normal, before you jump the gun, is that many people think that being blind is not normal, ignorant, but unfortunately true.
I know how it is at schools for the blind, Sam, but I stand by what I said about this perception that you can supposedly tell whether someone has been to one or not, being ridiculous. by that logic, you shouldn't have to ask me any questions, cause you'd be able to tell if I also went to public school.
to answer the question, though, I did go to public school, in both middle school and high school, for multiple classes. I had to fight for how many I wanted to take in high school, but I won that battle, much to their dismay.
I thought you did Chelse. what I meant by the whole perception thing is this. You could tell which students spent 24 7 of their life in blind school and you can tell which ones were mainstreamed at some points. Maybe, since I know a good number of friends who went to TsB, they seem to turn out a decent number of strong willed fight for what they want awesome individuals like yourself, which is awesome. I wish CSDB had that track record. sadly, i feel they hindered their students more than helped them.
Yeah Millie, totally agree Darling. The funny thing about this story is I find out more stuff about it as I get older. For example, my stepmom told me the making out in the cafeteria accusation probably a year after it happened while we were talking about it in passing, this was after Aaron and I ended things. He wasn't a bad person, just immature and stupid, hence the relationship lasting 3 months. Lol. Then, I came to this realization. The teacher in question who blabbed, had a thing for my father some time before that, I think they dated for a little bit, obviously didn't work out because, duh, he married my stepmom, not her, and my dad thought it may've been an excuse to call him with something on me, or get back at him, or something because she was still in love with him maybe? Lol. My dad have a few theories on that, but the reason she did that, makes a bit more sense to me now after I'd riddled that out.
Ah, I get it now, well, she could've just kept to herself, then! It's noone's fault she was unsuccessfull as a woman, lmfaooo!
It's good to see not everyone that goes to a blind school is a lost cause, and not everyone uses it as an excuse to act out abnormally. Fortunately you guys realize that there is more capabilities within yourselves than the employees of these schools seem to see. Not everyone has that sort of mind set. So, have any of you tried redirecting those who do not? Some can, while others are set in their beliefs, and what they were raised to believe is the best, if not the only way things are to be done.
you can certainly do your best to educate people, but if you set out with the goal to wanna change people's minds, of course that likely won't happen, and will only set you up for disappointment.
I agree, you can usually tell the difference in those who went to a blind school, those who were mainstreamed a bit while there, those mainstreamed, and those who went to training centers...
I know a lot of people who came out of TSB knowing nothing useful, but took the step of going to a training center that could actually do some long term good for them, like LCB, or CCB. though, honestly, the training center they're affiliated with there in Austin is just as bad as the blind school.
I had a lot of good, and a lot of bad experiences at TSBVI over the summers I attended. Some of the staff are really good, and others just are not... Sadly, its these sub par staff that in my opinion give the school such a bad reputation.
the good staff I know there don't take sides, don't really have favorites, and don't put people down, tell them how they should be living, or anything like that. they just are there to help.
the bad staff on the other hand, have been known to yell at kids until they cry, do all they could to cause them trouble, such as accusing them of breaking rules they didn't, and snooping threw your stuff with out cause. While its true they can search your stuff at any time, for any reason, it is generally policy to have probable cause.
I do agree with that,, my ambiguous Texan friend. I do agree completely. It really is dependent a lot on who's runnin things around there and the staff. Some of the CSDB staff was fantastic, like their music teacher and principal That was it really. Honestly, the rest of the staff treated us like we were children, or were too god damn lazy to teach us anything.
I get so fucking sick of reliving CSDB in my dreams. Someone, please, chop my head off.
I can tell the black kids who went to school in the hood, and the black kids who went to school in the suburbs. And I can tell the Mexicans whose parents have green cards and those who don't.
Oh wait, that's racist, but doing this to the blind isn't, I dono what political word you would have to come up for it. Wouldn't it be just as funny as ridiculous shit if someone was on some sort of diversity council at a university while spouting this?
I'd bet you the real story is, those with the so-called isms most likely stick out to you, or would to me if I was there, because they're social deviants. As you have illustrated yourselves. So this is no different than people who swear up and down the things about blacks and Mexicans I put at the beginning of this post.
Truth? When I went to the one blind summer work camp, yes, there was a guy or two who didn't take a shower regularly. This is also something my military friends have complained about one or two guys in Basic Training. But since they're not skinhead-wannabes, they don't make up words about isms for it. They know it for what it is.
Most people just skated on through, did their work, worked hard, played hard, fucked around, fought, got yelled at some, normal teenage types of things that happen. But just like you would tell your local white supremacist, that he or she was only looking at certain parts of the population, I dare say same goes true here.
Now I am and always will be a proponent of desegregation. U.S. Marshalls died for this in Southern states. So ditch the second-rate schools, like you all are talking about, have the summer programs for people if they want it, and leave it at that. But unless you think that shaved head really would look good on you, I'd skip the mumbo jumo about being able to tell who's from the hood, or in this case the blind school, and who isn't. At least the skinheads were honest, and wouldn't be trying to sit on any sort of diversity council, or students rights organizations.
The truth is, you sit by someone on the bus who stinks to high heaven. Hell, I had that experience as a store owner, and yes, it did in part have to do with me being blind. A stinky guy came in, mumbling and poor-mouthing, and I could not see that he was in a 3-piece suit. So yes, I thought he was homeless. I didn't take the view it was his ethnicity, disability, orientation or something else. Now I did turn out to be wrong on that front. Homeless people aren't dressed up in 3-piece suits. But anyway, biohazardous stinkpotscome in all shapes, sizes and persuasions.
Hell, the statement that people from the Middle East "usually" stank was denounced as obscenely racist when I was at university. And there were people, every bit like you, who said they could tell who was raised in what part of the Middle East based on how they smelled. Take a step back, see how silly it all looks.
And remember the countless in any institutional machine who are just passing through, neither top achievers nor the flunkies you describe. Because us middle path people make up the majority of your society.
Lio, I'm sorry but in a way one could tell. Especially because this is a blind comunity, it has been said by the majoritty of what has been going on with people that attended such schools, their behaivior, and comparing those that been mainstreemed, again, by the majoritty, yes, one could tell. Noone has said all people who've attended such schools have every ism and conduct pattern, but it has been lived by many of us here. It is what it is, sorry!
Then the skinheads are equally justified in their statements of "it is what it is" about other minorities. We cannot have this two ways.
Spend some time with some real racists, substitute a few words and a minority here or there, and you will see the parallel. It's uncanny.
Well now, I don't know. Those are just generalizing terms. Skinheads will blatantly attack in the name of the white race and make racist remarks. From what I've seen, there were no predjudiced remarks directed at blindies, yes I call them blindies, if you have issue, sue me. Anyway, I wasn't saying they're bad and they should be put down or anything ridiculous. We were just saying from our experiences. Everyone is entitled to speak their minds, yes, even skinheads, even those cunts at the westburro baptist church, I can't believe I wrote that. I hate those fuckers with a passion, but sadly, you get those extreme cases like that when you have freedom of speech. Saying that you can tell a difference between a blind school kid who was stuck there all day and someone who's mainstreamed is just something I see, because, especially in Colorado, you fuckin can tell. Trust me. As for the people not taking showers regularly, I do agree with something someone said earlier about some blind people don't think they should clean themselves regularly because they think if they can't see, it doesn't matter? Yeah I saw some of that myself, some blind people are in the mentality of, "If I can't see them, or see how I look, why the fuck should it matter?"
Right, and if those people with that mentality go to a blind school they show more so called blindisms because they are sheltered from the real world.
I never rocked back and forth or poked my eyes.
The provincial government tried to get me into the jarico hill school for the blind here in the late 70's. I'm glad the family were so strongly against it, for extremely good reasons. I saw the effect that school had on survivors of that time period in the 70's, and I'll tell you this, it's beyond a sad state of afares.
Leo, in trying to liken this to racism, you make a critical error. You assume that my words convey a sense of hate, dislike, or superiority that was never implied. Making an observation which as far as i've seen is factual does not imply that I have a condition akin to that of racism. So, I suppose the more politically correct way to express what i'm seeing would be to say "Many individuals i've run across razed in the care of blind institutions lack social cohesion, express some form of deviant social behavior, and tend to view the world much differently than you or i." Taking the isms out, while politically more correct doesn't really change what's being said... Its just euphemistic language at its core. Even though, I've met a lot of sighted people razed in single parent homes, or in low income areas, or with any number of factors that could in theory explain why they don't fit the norm our society prescribes. Just because I didn't stress these points as well, it doesn't mean I haven't observed them. It just wasn't the right venue for them, because they had no baring on the subject at hand... It is human nature to categorize, look for differences, and generally play in to the Us or them tribal mentality that kept us alive thousands of years ago. At best, that's about all you can accuse me of doing... You can't rightfully connote any emotion to my above statements, because I didn't associate or express any...
James, thank you for saying what I could not. Lol. Agreed with that statement.
Exactly. Not everyone who goes to a scool for the blind will turnout that way, but I have observed more often thanot that those who attended a scool for the blind and only! a school for the blind tend to have problems once they've reached the cut-off age and can no longer stay within the comfortable confines of the school.
I must wonder why such schools are not done away with.
Because when people come to visit and observe, they are careful not to expose the bad aspects that exist within the school. Basically they hide the true colors, and they make it out to be something better than what it really is.
Now I'll be honest, I haven't been to one of these schools, but that would be my assumption from what I've heard about the sheltered workshops that exist. My old roommate from LCB told me about it. LCB didn't make him go there, but the previous training center he attended attempted to force him to go and he refused. I guess he had seen what goes on in those places before he could be bribed in to it.
That's very accurate, coming from someone who's never been there. When I first took a tour of Overbrook, the staff did their best to make it sound like a wonderful, welcoming place. The really sad part was, I'm usually good at seeing through lies like that. I have been able to pick up on potentially dangerous situations or people while others I try to talk to about my concerns say I'm crazy, or paranoid, or both, but the truth is that more often than not I'm right. However, for some reason my radar didn't seem to register until I'd been there for a couple of months.
Margorp is probably right, but also it is not seen the same, people would be up in arms about segregating blacks but they are fine with the segregation of the blind. What I've tried to illustrate is mainly society's differing attitudes towards us than they have towards the Mexicans or blacks or other groups.
The issue I see with that analogy, Leo, is that while black people should be allowed to learn exactly in the same manner as white people (and every other race, for that matter) blind people can benefit from things being done somewhat differently. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for mainstreaming, with as much independence for the student as possible, but you cannot deny that blacks can read, write, cook, travel, and do all of the things that other races can, in pretty much the same way, whereas blind people often have to either be assisted, or taught whole new ways of doing things. Again, I don't necessarily advocate for segregation, but i do see its benefits, far more than segregating blacks from whites, boys from girls, etc.
But once a blind person is shown how to cook, clean, etc, they will do just fine and do not always need to be assisted.
Oh, absolutely. Generally, however, one is in school or of school age when learning such skills. I mention what I do only in the context of Leo's post; I'm not sure that comparing schools for the blind with race segregation is comparing apples with apples.
I honestly don't feel that comparing race and this situation is really all that in the same level to be doing such things. I don't recall being blind is a race, nor do I recall it being anything that you keep claiming Leo. I honestly don't know what is your point in the posts, but go on if you must. On another note, yes Sam. That's why I mentioned earlier about that girl who would not shower, because that is how she saw things. It should be that way.
Hmmm. I can understand both sides of this argument. People make judgments based on how other people act all the time, not necessarily meaning to be harmful but it can be interpreted as such. However, racism is certainly taken as a more heavy attack. You don't often hear people making stereotypes about "those sheltered blindies from that school," but you certainly would hear an uproar if a hate crime was directed at a racial group, or a group with a certain sexual orientation. I agree with those who say this isn't quite as drastic.
I can only go buy what I've seen as I said earlier... If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it's not a black person! Sorry leo couldn't help that. lol.
While I can s"ae both sides of this arguement, I don't see race having anything to do with blind@s. I think James's post was right on! And, while people are assisted at the blind school, they are babied and that's uneieptable! So, what can I t"all yhis Noone's said that blind peopleare bab, or that they're not nice people, nor are we trying thato kill them like people out done to the blacks in the war, I mean, come on!, all we're saying is that blind people lack in many thifferent social skills because they are being babied all thetime the treated as if they aren't able to do a darn thing for themselvs! And wehave nothing againsthat them either, like peopledo against rases, I mean rasists! thank you very much!
Please excuse my many typos...
No more coffee for you. lol.
God, you write like you went to some blind school or something! Grins.
Lmfao Margorp. But it could be a black duck. Lmfao sorry couldn't help myself. Yeah, race really has nothing to do with this issue at all, I think that's a wee bit more drastic.
Agreed. I definitely see where the race comparison comes from, but I think it is, dare I say it, overkill.
Like I said, I think that race has nothing to do with this, sorry! And, talking about being extremests here...
Awwwie milly your little typos made me smile. So cute, and a lot of them aren't like you. What were you doing darling?
Millie, no more drinking and zone board trolling. What have I told you about that? :P jk jk.
I can see te race comparison. The sad part is that while you're more often than not automatically labeled a racistif you commet about someone of a different race, even if your remark wouldn't actually be considered offensive under other circumstances, I've observed that most people don't so muc as bat an eyelid when a lind person or the blind in general get similar treatment. GT as for Overbrook I definitely agree with you. Those were probably two of the most miserable years of my life. TO be fair they had a worthy goal, the mainstreaming of te handicapped with the non handicapped, but they went about it entirely wrong. And I'm sure that if I could send the knowledge and experience I have now back to myself at that age I would have fought tooth and nail to avoid going there. I suspect as I've said before that my sojourn at that school is why I have such a problem with math even twenty-plus years later.
Hi all. I admit that I’ve gone to a blind school for almost all of my school years. I’m currently a junior there now. The food is, well, digestible for the most part. Some things, like mac and cheese, are undercooked so that the noodles are partly hard and absolutely disgusting, and so are the grits and anything like that, ugh just thinking about it makes me shiver in disgust. But the kids there are of a mixed batch. You have the definitely mentally retarded, the semi-normals, and the “as close to normal as blind can get” kind. I have two semi-normals--muties maybe? LOL--in my class. One has been, I dare say, brainwashed into believing anything the school says as literal and absolute. She has no sense of getting around things or experimenting. For example, we have braille notes issued to us by the school. Speaking of “issued,” gosh they use such old terminology, and half of the staff there don’t have any idea of what the technology does, which I often use to my advantage, but often gets kids in trouble for no reason because of the stupidity of the staff and their fear of all this mind-boggling new toys in the hands of teens. Anyways, she wanted to write a note to me on the braille note, then changed her mind, because she didn’t want anyone to look at it. Hello? The braille note doesn’t have internet connectivity. The braille plus 18 can act as a flashdrive to the braille note, allowing direct file transfers between devices. Only her and I would ever know about the note, if she deletes it from her device. They wouldn’t dare try to mess with mine. Another girl has outbursts whenever tension in the room is even the slightest above normal and whines and, from what partially sighted people have said, covers her ears. Could you imagine how much she’d be taken advantage of in the workplace? Hint hint, some men like a girl to be in fear. She is also of low maturity, but I put up with her, for she can make me laugh sometimes. The problem is, they’re both very excellent students academically. But mentally they’re much younger than the 17 or 18 years their bodies have existed on the earth. And while I myself may not be the perfect model of societal normalcy, with my laziness, my preference to be at home indoors rather than going places, my lack of interest in sports, and my eye-poking, I still can pick up trash around my room, heat things in the microwave, and basic things like that. Regarding education, we’re in 11th grade, and we just got done studying how to use apostrophes, plurals, and such things as that. Sure it was a review, but we spent days on that. Also, and I’m not sure if I should blame the school or myself on this, but my math skills are horrible. I’m sure its me though, because the two other totally blind kids, which are girls, are perfect at it, and pretty much everything else they do academically. Another problem is, the school keeps firing all the good teachers. There was a piano teacher who, I dare say, is the best our school will ever know. He was enthusiastic about the piano, and I learned more with him than anyone else. I learned my style of playing that year, and he helped with that too. He breathed life into the piano. He poured forth his spirit into it. He brought it to life! But now, we have a teacher who is adequate, but she just isn’t as lively. She treats the piano like some sort of foreign language that she learned well, but hasn’t mastered its idioms and little things that natives know. Sure she can teach it, but not to the extent that the other could. Its no fault of the new one, I think. Its just, some are born with talents, and others aren’t. Regarding if mainstream is better, it all depends on the school. Our school allows the taking up, confiscating, of personal devices, which to me should be illegal unless it is a matter of law. Also, the girl with outburst issues can curse all she wants, and teachers just pretend not to hear. Oh, if only those crazies knew how good they have it. If I were to say “damn!” Over a messed-up broiler, I’d be sent to the office right then and there. Erm, I mean Brailler, stupid fucked-up Macintosh spellchecker, learn from my mistakes! Anyways, the staff don’t generally treat us like babies. In the dorm, we have to iron our own clothes, wash them, and all that. And in the independent living center, we have to cook our meals and make weekly menus, which not even sighted people do. What do you all think of this? I mean, I’ve read the posts about blind schools not making kids do anything, but ironing daily or weekly, for the whole week, seems a bit much to me. And many staff members do discourage rocking and all the blindisms.
I'm no fan of blind schools but the problem this thread is about could happen in mainstream schools too. Who is going to read your record anyway apart from other schools?
I feel really lucky to have gone to a not so bad blind school, and that the majority of my education has been in mainstream school. One thing I totally agree about is that they breed an entitlement mentality in their students. It makes me so mad because blind kids shouldn't grow up to believe that just because they are blind the world will bend over backwards for them. It won't and when they leave these schools they often struggle in the real world, especially when they continue their education. They have to fight to get textbooks and the right support, and instead of understanding that it's shitty but that's how things are they give up. It makes me so sad because it isn't the fault of these kids, it's the schools that teach them that.
At the blind school I was at I found the bedtimes really stupid. We had to be within our houses at half 10, even when we were 16. I could have kind of understood if they said stay on campus, but after that time we couldn't even visit students that weren't in our house. Maybe it's because I have very relaxed parents but I found that extremely difficult.
I don't think blind schools were a bad idea when they were created, it was the only way a child could be educated then, but now things are different. Their money would be better spent doing outreach work with public schools that have a blind student, supporting them with teaching the student complex braille codes, for science, languages etc.
lmfao! I don't remember what I was doing, perhaps typing too fast. Anyway, Holly and others, you're right. All I can say is that in some of those schools people are katered too much. Either way the education system in the schools, at least in the state I live in is horrendous. Heartbreaking. I just feel bad when blind people are given opportunities and many acomidations and then don't take advantage of them, because they can repete classes twice or so if they fail and stay in High School till they're 22. Then the teachers get so sick of failing sighted students that they pass them so that they can get the hell out of there. It's sad. Lets kater some more? :P
I totally agree. We here have to go to our rooms at 2130, then bed at 2200. Oh we definitely get everything handed to us here, and so many opportuoities. :d
After being bcak in public school for quite sometime, I cant say how much more happier I've been. No more dealing with slow classes or crazy children.
I have to agree with you there. Blind schools are a good idea in theory, but in practice, they just go downhill. There's one in Worcester and it's so closed-off, they're in their own little environment. Although I'm biased because there's someone I really hate at that school. Thing is, in my area, it's a multi-disability school.
I have definitely made my opinions clear on here about desegregation, whether it be Brown Vs. Board of Education, or any such act that has not yet happened for many blind people.
However, there are a couple of claims I am having a bit of challenge with.
The Chick and I did compromise with the daughter on the bedtime situation, she thought ten o'clock on a school night - she is in fact a teacher, so teacher + mom = double duty that way lol. I am kinda more relaxed, so long as you get your fool ass to school in the morning and don't sleep through class.
Anyway how people do things has nothing to do with the blind in that event.
As to the food? I find it ironic that on a board where we're talking about desegreagation, getting the rights for the blind which black people have had since the 60s, that we're talking food. Listen squeaks, I grew up hearing horror stories of the hash they slung at the GIs in Vietnam, by teachers and coaches and others who had been there. Your institution food isn't half as bad as that.
Institution food, for better or worse, is mass-produced for a reason. Government and nonprofit groups typically get a contract for a dollar amount for food. Their food service contractor who bid into this contract at that amount is going to produce product for that rate and still makes them a profit. They gotta eat and live too.
Some are better, some worse. But yeah that's industrial / institutional food for ya.
As to the so-called handed it to them? Hmm, I had my freedom "handed to me," if you want to throw around that term: never shuttled off at five years old to a big bad boarding school, went to school with others of my own neighborhood and all that. You could call that coddling if you wanted to. What I'm saying is, that sort of verbiage is so much monkey pooh that gets flung around.
If you want to close the places down? I can see that: We did in Oregon, and it was disgraceful to find out we'd been paying for a public institution that wasn't even accredited! Hadn't been for ten years or so before it was shut down!
I'm opposed to most forms of institutionalization anyway. Even the Chick says, where she works, that in some ways locking all of the same sort of people with the same problems up with each other, well she uses other words for it, will make them act out and gang up and all.
Any time you have a concentrated number of people of a particular group together, the extremes are going to seem a lot more the norm than the exception, and here is where people like the skinheads I grew up with, start thinking all of a particular group act a certain way.
I to this day, though, do not understand how Brown Vs. The Board Of Education did not apply to us. Separate is not equal.
Oh and where the Chick works, these girls are also behind in school, can't really read, can't do too much. She has had to show them how to do some very basic things. Some of you all should get it outa your meth-infested little heads that being slow or learning deprived has anything to do with being blind or sheltered or any of that.
These babygirls at the place the Chick works at are anything but sheltered, and yet in many ways they resemble what you all talk about.
Wow. I wonder 1f my school is also uncreditted. That would be such a wripoff!
Being learning deprived, or failing school definitely isn't exclusively related to going to a blind school, and it happens to kids in all different environments. But it is something that happens a lot at these schools. I came out with very good grades, in the UK you have to take standardised tests in all your classes, so for schools to maintain good standing they need kids to pass these. But I was one of the few, and it seemed as you got older the likelihood of you getting good grades decreased. Personally I don't feel like I was pushed as hard at that school as I am now.
So many kids were expected to do badly that if you were doing reasonably well you weren't pushed, whereas in a mainstream environment I found that targets are much higher and the expectation to succeed is also greater, but perhaps it's the school's I chose to go to.
I did have some very good teachers, particularly in maths, and also for chemistry. I don't know if I'd have done so well in these classes if I'd have been in a mainstream school at the time. But then again that brings me back to the point I made in my first post, just because a blind school can help you with maths and science that doesn't mean they should still exist, it suggests that provision for blind students in public schools should be improved so there isn't that gap. I honestly think government funding would be better spent on that.
Yeah, I'm in a school with a VI unit and they treat us just the same. I went on an open-day to a blind school and I did some of the work there and it was dead easy. Hopefully I'm not bragging.
thank you, leo, for talking sense in your posts.
while the views I've expressed here haven't changed, I have this to add.
to those of you who complain how horrible schools for the blind are, have you taken any initiative to attempt to promote the change that you claim to wanna see?
In the U.S., sadly, many students are not pushed. The top ones usually get over-pushed and the bottom ones generally not pushed at all. This is because it nets out to averages, so make the smartest work harder and it compensates for the weaker ones. I am not a educator and don't really understand all the debates about these things, the Chick has participated in some. But she says over and again that a child's first and best teacher is the parent. Lol sometimes in the positive like when I read to the daughter, and a few times in the negative when I was out running around letting the baby girl do as her mama didn't really approve of.
I guess the answer that is expected is no, right? Well let me tell you something. Speaking for myself. I worked in one of these schools out of the country for a year. And I didn't just sit there observing, I mean complaining on how horrible there education system was, or how everything was givin to these blind kids. For your information, I did so much and worked very hard to try and make a change. At least in that school, but you gotta start somewhere, right? So my answer is, yes I have. And Leo, who said that being learning deprived or slow has anything to do with blindness? I think that what has been said countless times, is that some, not all, blind students of these instetutions are smart but have not had the education they could have, and so forth and so on, and that's why they are sheltered and entitled and such. Again, this doesn't apply to all, but the majority. And meth-infested? ... Anyway. Your freedom is not handed to you, but it is what you make of it. You can be totally free, partially free or completely dependent. I think if you go back to the posts, you can understand what has been said about things being handed to them, how they are treated and educated. And blindness has nothing to do with race.
It is the same concept though.
And you argue well for the Brown Vs. Board of Education by clearly stating that their education was not equal, e.g., that separate is not equal.
I was not targeting you specifically more of a general post.
I think it is different to race, I understand that this is a debate of inequality but you don't "have" to go to a blind school. Yes, sometimes a family is encouraged to send their child there, but it isn't like it's blind school or no school.
Also you've got to look at why blind schools were first created, it wasn't to segregate kids, it was in fact to give them a good education, because mainstreaming was unheard of. You could argue that it's a form of segregation in itself, but back then there wasn't disability legislation and often, certainly in the UK, blind schools were excellent. For example, our education system had tiers, there were comprehensive schools and grammar schools, to go to a grammar school you had to pass certain tests to prove academic ability. In the case of at least one of the blind schools it was a grammar school, meaning its aim was to provide a first class education to blind students who otherwise wouldn't have had it. There weren't qualified teachers of the visually impaired working in local schools, there weren't statements of special educational needs setting out what schools had to provide for a student so blind schools filled that gap and enabled students to be educated.
So in that way it is totally different to race, because the principles on which these schools were founded are entirely different. And I think that's why they haven't been abolished, they aren't seen as forced segregation or anything like that. I'm not pro blind school but I would say that they were founded with good intentions, despite the fact that they may no longer be suitable in today's society.
Ah that is a fair explanation. I had been told that had I started school before 1976 in Oregon I would have been forced to go to a blind school. I don't know if that is true or not, but if true, it is a form of the same sort of segregation. Though, as you pointed out, coming from different intentions.
Perhaps it would be best to say we're not judging the intentions, but the outcomes. At any rate you made a very rational argument here.
One thing I hate here is that they have the authority, somehow, to take our personal devices, like cellphones and such, at bed time. They can even do it to me, and I'm an adult. We won't learn responsibility if we don't have the ability to. And for those of you who are adults, do you ever have to iron your clothes? We do, every night, or we iron all our clothes for that week on Sunday.
Lol nothing wrong with having to iron your clothes, at least that teaches you something I suppose. I don't think I ironed once when I was at a blind school!
I only remember being shown how to iron clothes once, in a daily living skills class that was basically a joke. As was the case with everything else in that class, the teacher, fearing her students would get hurt, would simply do everything hand over hand.
Iron your clothes? Is this the 1950s?
Many rooms for business travelers at hotels don't even have a ironing board and iron anymore.
Wash 'N' Wear (1970s technology?) has eliminated most the need for this.
Even my shipmates have tricks to get around this using a wet towel in the dryer with the uniform shirts to get the wrinkles out. It works.
As to confiscation of property? Hmm in public school we could have property confiscated. These days, when the daughter was in school, they could take a cell phone from a young fool caught texting in class, and use it to call the parents and all.
If you are of age, I don't know how they could legally confiscate property, but if you are of legal age, be a man and get your ass outa there. get your diploma and get gone. As to the State spending our money to house adults in a public institution / boarding school, I could go off on a wingnut-sounding rant about how wasteful that is, with budget cuts and all these days. Hahaha.
Actually, if I understood what this person was saying correctly, their property was confiscated simply because it was after lights-out. That, to me, is wrong, no matter if the person is an adult or not. However, yes, if you're an adult, you definitely have more justification to fight it than a minor would, simply by virtue of being "legal."
Its always gonna be the 1950’s in blind ness organizations, no matter what happens. The thing is though, even if I didn’t iron my clothes, no one, not even the teacher, commented. No one seemed to notice any difference. And yes, I’m working my way to getting my diploma, thank you. Its just the fact that all these years, I’ve never had to try to be adequate in school. I’ve always done pretty much well enough to pass. So now, in high school, with all these long-term projects and all, its kinda hard to keep it all straight. Its like going from coding in HTML to coding in binary. There didn’t seem to be any middle stage. But yeah, I’m 19 in high school, somehow.
Sounds like you got screwed by the blind education system.
Leo, its simple enough, this is how a teacher of mine explained it. Courts have ruled time and time again, that while a student of a public state school is on the schools property, they don't have rights to free speech, or property. that's just basically how it works. He did sight the cases that set up this precedent though I honestly can't remember which ones now.
In a lot of public schools, you still have the problem of equal funding, and equal learning. this same teacher who told me the above publicly in one of our classes told me privately that 65 percent of his students technically could not read, or write on grade level, and that over the past few years he's been a teacher, those numbers were only going up. Our system constantly sets the bar lower, and lower, so they can push kids threw, because they need the money granted to them only if students pass.
I even saw this in Texas, the minimum grade required to pass the state level exit tests has been dropping. I've spoken to a few teachers that work at the school for the blind in Texas, and even they say they're teaching material 1 to 3 grades behind the students grade level, just as teachers in public school need to do time and time again.
I think our educational problems go way beyond public vs segregated schools, but at least states like Texas are transitioning to sending students who only have one disability, like blindness, back to the public arena.
I am shocked at this, but not too much. It makes since. Even now, my brain, academically, feels sluggish and heavily underused, while a friend of mioe has made honor-role basically all her life. She doesn't even have to try. I don't in english and assistive tech, but I absolutely suck at math, especially systems of equations. Something about math never seemed to alick with me, but almost everything else does. I was in public school during fourth and fifth grade, and usee a talking calculator through it all, the manual way being too slow for the teachers. So yeah, that's where I stand in education. I'm not sure how, or if, I can improve.
So I gotta go back to the braille jail today, and I'm pretty pissed. I thought I'd be going back tomorrow at the earliest, but nope, its today. And on top of that, I'm dealing with a freaking girl that one day shows her love and emotions just fine, and the next day she only says "morning" to me, like I'm some fucking god damn shitty afterthought! Ugh it fucking pisses me off and hurts me at the same god damn time! I'm totally considering trying being bi, probably more gay guys around here that'd have fun and all than adventurous girls. But that's for the sex addicts board. Anyways, I'm moving to the independent living center, on the semi-independent side again this year, and I'm gonna hate ironing all my school clothes for the week on Sunday. All, on fucking Sunday night!
LOL the Braille Jail. I've heard that one lots of times.
Yup, love that term. lol
I'm curious as to the policy for wireless devices/networks in dorm rooms. I gracuated from braille jail in 2001, before that stuff was in common use.
I know in public school, the Daughter was expected to keep the cell phone turned off and put away all day, not just in class but even in the halls. I'm sure there were some incidents of variation from that as these things happen, but the general concensus, in the public schools, was no cell phones.
Of course a boarding situation would have to be different I expect.
Just adding perspective of what they expect at the public schools. Also schools are a bit NSA-ish about what the high school kids can and cannot be doing on their computers, not just the obvious.
It's a whole different world from when some of us were school-skippin'-fool-age.
When I was at Overbrook, there was no wireless internet in the dorm. There also wasn't any place to hook up a laptop through an Ethernet cable in the dorm rooms. if you needed to use the internet, you would have to go on any of the 3 computers that were available. They weren't great, but they would get the job done for schoolwork. Of course, lots of stuff was blocked, but some of us not only found ways around it, but installed programs on the computers, which we weren't supposed to do either. Sometimes an IT person would come by and get rid of all our games, and ITunes, but since no one would take responsibility for installing the stuff, we would just be told not to do it again, and of course we would anyway, lol.
I've gotten so tired of this scchool. Yeah, we have wifi, even though my wifi at home is twice as fast. I just hate that all I have at home is one full day, Saturday, and the only moral teachers I have are politically correct idiots afraid of being sued, and no spiritual teachers. The blind schools do so much more than they tell others. They isolate and teach the kids rules and things they'll never use! Anyone had to iron after getting out of braille hell? Anyone had to correctly set a dinner table? Anyone had to use systems of equations? Ugh I just hate this place so much! Oh and never meditate when a dorm parent, they will yell at you and just annoy you more.
Uh, yes, I've had to iron. Yes, I've needed to know how to correctly set a table. Both casually, and formally. That stuff isn't that hard to learn.Its also stuff that to a point, people pick up by watching their parents do it, or are taught by their parents.
If you have guests over, and you make them a meal, you're going to need to know how to set a table, end of story.
Just as some situations require that you ware dress clothes that have either been ironed, or extremely carefully folded as to not accrue wrinkles. that's just how the world works.
to add to James's last post, everyone, whether blind or sighted, all has to do things we don't like to do, throughout our lives. that's yet another way the world works.
Gosh its snowing like crazy here! True though.
Ironing and correctly setting a table isn't bad at all. Dresses, suits, shirts and jeens. I learned to do all this at home, not a school. And till this day I iron and set the table, so... It's just part of life. :)
Ok. So, I went back to CSDB to do some braille challenge rookie stuff with the center two weeks ago, and honestly... it was really sad. The kids were awesome. Really really good kids. The staff? Fucking awful. Seriously. One kid wanted to try slate and stylus and his teacher yelled at him and said he couldn't do it. He had partial vision, but still, he wanted to try. Also, one kid was hitting another with his cane, and instead of the teachers using it as a moment to teach and tell him his cane is supposed to be on the ground, they took it from him and guided him around. How are these kids supposed to learn independence if everything is being done for them? Or if their cane, which is like a part of their body, has been taken away. And also, I had a friend, who was a senior, but she got in trouble for... staying at her public school too long. Yeah. I didn't hear her reasoning for that, but she's a very good student, so there was probably a reason it happened. I'm just glad she's at public school and not getting the substandard education, this girl knows what she wants, and she's one of very few kids there, I feel, who will make it in the world because she has a dream to go to college and be something. Ok, rant over. I just thought this needed to be said.
I'm never going back there for any reason.
From personal experience I can say schools for the blind are hell.
They delay your learning so freaking much and apparently from what I've heard years later cause 4 times as much dramas.
You can't even tell someone to shut up without being regarded as "using fowl language."
I was only there for 2 years when I was in like, first and second grades, but I'm sure glad I got out of that.
in the past, I've said that they're a good thing, at least to some extent. however, part of me does think differently, now.
the older I get, the more I think that schools for the blind are no different than segregation; I wish that most, if not all kids could be mainstreamed, so that they'd better learn how to make it in the world.
It would be nice if there were some kind of compromise.
Lots of kids who are mainstreamed don't get satisfactory mobility training, or learn how to do lots of basic things independently.
In a perfect world, these are the kinds of things schools for the blind would teach. I suppose, then, they would provide services that some summer programs for kids already do, except it would be on a longer-term basis.
Since it appears that most schools for the blind are currently failing on all counts, though, it will probably be much easier to mainstream kids who don't have any additional disabilities other than blindness.
Even so, a lot of kids are still going to slip through the cracks, academically and otherwise, so that solution isn't perfect. Nothing in life is, of course, but it just sucks that some people would actually have a better experience at one of these places than they would in public school. That is a sad, sad state of affairs.
Also, even if schools for the blind became places that only served kids with multiple disabilities, the staff would need better training to handle them. From things I've seen in my own experiences, I know that a lot of these teachers should be fired, if not drop kicked. Their behavior is at times abhorrent and disgraceful.
Just because someone is mentally challenged doesn't mean you can talk down to them, have a condescending tone to your voice every time you speak to them, talk about them and other students while the student in question is sitting right there, etc. I used to see that kind of bullshit all the time, and it made me indescribably angry.