I was reading a blind school's alum site. Their school recently closed.
They had commentary on their school's closing: Comment on Closure
What struck me is how simlair their feelings and arguments for specialized blind ed were to deaf ed.
Just an hour or so of Braille/blindness skills training in the mainstream, vs. having it all intergrated into the actucal curriculum/school day! Also, a big thing seemed to be the dorm experiance, and having blind friends and stuff like that......sound familiar? (and I do know that a lot of blind kids tend to have major social issues in the mainstream)
And I remember Lady Duke (one of our old Deaf Blind members) saying that she'd attended Govenor Morehead, and found that there was a simlair debate in blind ed.
One of my friends went to Perkins School, and HATED it (he said it was very strict and very watered down curriculm, as well as a lot of....mentally impaired students) However, he said that there were just blind kids there who LOVED it.
Granted, I do think that the alums of the blind school were talking from a time when most blind kids were "just blind." (ie they were the kids who'd been given too much oxygen)
Demographics have definitly changed in the pediatric blind population......In other words most kids who are blind also have something else, whether it be autism or mental impairment or whatever. I think I read somewhere that 70% of blind kids also have an additonal disabilty. (and that does seem to have been true for a while) Matter of fact, WPS Blind Children and Maryland School for the Blind have on campus populations comprised of blind Plus kids. (with MSB having a program for kids with mild secondary issues) I believe the ONLY schools that have a significent number of academic blind kids are: FSDB, Oklahoma School and Overbrook School for the Blind. Wow.......I am amazed something simlair didn't happen with Deaf Ed. I was reading a book about deaf ed from the 1980's (when a lot of the students were multihandicapped or oral failures) I really think that they would have been amazed that there are now quite a few state deaf schools that offer a pretty decent edcuation, and that we're still around.
Also, here's another interesting corralation.........You know how everyone associates Braille with Blind Ed? It was actually pretty popular in the 1960's, and 50% of blind kids were Braille literate. But now only 10% of blind kids are. They are trying to reivive it though, since there's been corralations with Braille literacy= high employment rate
Holy cow........hopefully something like that won't happen with deaf ed and ASL.
They had commentary on their school's closing: Comment on Closure
What struck me is how simlair their feelings and arguments for specialized blind ed were to deaf ed.
Just an hour or so of Braille/blindness skills training in the mainstream, vs. having it all intergrated into the actucal curriculum/school day! Also, a big thing seemed to be the dorm experiance, and having blind friends and stuff like that......sound familiar? (and I do know that a lot of blind kids tend to have major social issues in the mainstream)
And I remember Lady Duke (one of our old Deaf Blind members) saying that she'd attended Govenor Morehead, and found that there was a simlair debate in blind ed.
One of my friends went to Perkins School, and HATED it (he said it was very strict and very watered down curriculm, as well as a lot of....mentally impaired students) However, he said that there were just blind kids there who LOVED it.
Granted, I do think that the alums of the blind school were talking from a time when most blind kids were "just blind." (ie they were the kids who'd been given too much oxygen)
Demographics have definitly changed in the pediatric blind population......In other words most kids who are blind also have something else, whether it be autism or mental impairment or whatever. I think I read somewhere that 70% of blind kids also have an additonal disabilty. (and that does seem to have been true for a while) Matter of fact, WPS Blind Children and Maryland School for the Blind have on campus populations comprised of blind Plus kids. (with MSB having a program for kids with mild secondary issues) I believe the ONLY schools that have a significent number of academic blind kids are: FSDB, Oklahoma School and Overbrook School for the Blind. Wow.......I am amazed something simlair didn't happen with Deaf Ed. I was reading a book about deaf ed from the 1980's (when a lot of the students were multihandicapped or oral failures) I really think that they would have been amazed that there are now quite a few state deaf schools that offer a pretty decent edcuation, and that we're still around.
Also, here's another interesting corralation.........You know how everyone associates Braille with Blind Ed? It was actually pretty popular in the 1960's, and 50% of blind kids were Braille literate. But now only 10% of blind kids are. They are trying to reivive it though, since there's been corralations with Braille literacy= high employment rate
Holy cow........hopefully something like that won't happen with deaf ed and ASL.