Hi, Richard! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

Sometimes the teachers can be the best advocates for
the students, but sometimes not, which is why we have
such programs here in the states as the individualized
education plan,

We have IEP's here too. As a teacher, I wrote some of them.... ;-)

which is supposed to be developed with professionals *and*
parents, but first the parents often have to be educated,
both to understand options and possible outcomes.

Yes. The professionals often need to be educated too, however. I'm reminded here of Nora's kindergarten teacher... a woman with whom all three of us got along famously. When she told Dallas & me "I don't know anything about [various medical issues pertaining to Nora]" I chuckled & replied "I know that stuff. You're the expert in teaching kindergarten. So... we'll put our heads together!" As a former teacher & as a parent, I expect to work on a collegial basis with professionals. AFAIC the real gems actually appreciate that. :-))

Usually CNIB and other such agencies have to go by a legal
definition of blindness, often here in the states defined
as 20/200 in the better eye with correction,

That's what I was taught at university many years ago. Although the textbook is quite outdated now, I think these numbers are still valid.... :-)

or a certain field of vision, can't recall what those
criteria are.

Tunnel vision, yeah. I don't recall the details either.... :-)

A person who can see well enough to read large print
and/or who is satisfied with being read to by synthesized
voices may not feel motivated to learn Braille, however
... from that standpoint you were fortunate in some ways.
At the blind school you probably didn't have a choice &
your classmates were learning it too. ;-)

YEs, but back then there were the dreaded "talking books"
on record, or reels of tape.

I remember those. I used them on occasion when I wanted my students to hear how English was pronounced a millenium ago. But in my experience kids generally prefer to have some opportunity to interact with the reader.... :-)

Also, and maybe you don't want to get me started on
this one, but the "professionals in the field" had
this grand experiment called "sightsaving" going on,
which they started after WW II when the system was
receiving a large influx of blind children thanks to
the babies blinded by incubators,

Hmm. I was dimly aware of the theory as one of those 1950's "use it or lose it" ideas which probably did more harm than good to me & others I know but I hadn't yet connected the dots. The timing is interesting... [wry grin].

or Retrolentral fibroplasia (spelling) <arrrgh>

No problem... you added one letter to a suffix, that's all. My best girl friend in high school had twin brothers with this condition. Retrolental fibroplasia is the abnormal proliferation of fibrous tissue behind the lens of the eye... most common when incubators were first used & the ideal quantity of oxygen was yet to be determined. I didn't realize the "sightsaving" stuff had been going on for such a long time, however. One of my friend's brothers, who AFAIK was totally blind, went to the school for the blind when there was still such a thing here. I do remember the panic my older colleagues expressed when they were required to teach kids with special needs. They'd been trained in a lockstep era where the only alternatives were to shape up or ship out... where left-handedness, introversion etc. were regarded as perversities which must be eliminated... and thus the learning curve in many cases was fairly steep. :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Hi, Richard! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

We have IEP's here too. As a teacher, I wrote some of
them.... ;-)

<grin> THought you might. oUr systems are similar in
many ways I understand <g>.

Uh-huh. Folks in Canada as well as the US also have the Vietnam war vets to thank for a bit of consciousness-raising about wheelchair access. :-)

As a former teacher & as a parent, I expect to work on a
collegial basis with professionals. AFAIC the real gems
actually appreciate that. :-))

THose who really have a grasp of what's going on wish for
that sort of relationship with all the parents of their
students <g.>

Those who really have a grasp of what's going on know how much there is still to be learned, when any one answer may raise ten more questions. :-)



[re "talking books"]

in my experience kids generally prefer to have some
opportunity to interact with the reader.... :-)

YEp, and it's difficult if at the learning stage you
use recorded books and readers to learn much about
your written language.

I imagine it would be! Even now, I read to our young adult daughter on occasion. It helps that (unlike the majority of other students I've known) she'll ask about words she doesn't understand. If she doesn't ask directly, I can tell by her raised eyebrows or by a slight shift in her body position that she's puzzled about something. I know she's paying attention because she will correct me if I've misread a word or she'll insist I look it up if she doesn't approve of my explanation. For a teacher, it can't get much better than this. For a student, it's important to get feedback from the opposite direction too. Who else would notice & chuckle openly in delight, after all these years, when their kid uses a new word?? AFAIC a recording is no serious competition. ;-)

tHe theory ended up further handicapping a generation
of blind youth, and that slide down the slippery slope
continues to this day.

I'm seeing much the same phenomenon WRT English grammar. During the 1960's some influential linguists felt dictionaries should be descriptive, not prescriptive... and sought to improve on ye olde parts of speech etc. The net result seems to be that very few people can write a coherent sentence nowadays unless they are in the "fifty-five plus" age category or learning English as a second language. Parents thanked me for teaching traditional grammar during a time when other folks supported the idea that whatever the majority of kids in grade eight said was okay. Although hindsight may be 20/20, there is no going back because the younger generation of teachers never learned this stuff. :-(

WE reject what we don't understand, or try to ignore it
altogether. THey started me in that "Sightsaver" thing
when I first started school, but my mother wasn't going
to have any of that nonsense.

And since her brother was blind, she knew whereof she spoke.... :-)

SUch things have caused me over the years to develop a
bit of schepticism toward any professional that comes to
me with an attitude of "trust me, I know what's best for
you" and won't discuss his/her intended course of action
in much more detail than that.

Their preferred learning style is different from yours & mine. They like to be told what to do, where you & I thrive on analyzing individual needs and doing whatever is necessary to maximize somebody's potential. Whether the individual in question is a performer who wants you to make them sound good or a kid who can't relate to standard teaching methods we're in our element. :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)