HEllo Ardith,   
      
   On Mon 2011-Jul-25 13:20, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   RW>  Sometimes the teachers can be the best advocates for   
   RW>  the students, but sometimes not, which is why we have   
   RW>  such programs here in the states as the individualized   
   RW>  education plan,   
      
      
   AH>           We have IEP's here too.  As a teacher, I wrote some of   
   AH> them....  ;-)    
      
     THought you might.  oUr systems are similar in many   
   ways I understand .   
      
      
   RW>  which is supposed to be developed with professionals *and*   
   RW>  parents, but first the parents often have to be educated,   
   RW>  both to understand options and possible outcomes.   
      
      
   AH>           Yes.  The professionals often need to be educated too,   
   AH> however.  I'm reminded here of Nora's kindergarten teacher... a   
   AH> woman with whom all three of us got along famously.  When she told   
   AH> Dallas & me "I don't know anything about [various medical issues   
   AH> pertaining to Nora]" I chuckled & replied "I know that stuff.    
   AH> You're the expert in teaching kindergarten.  So... we'll put our   
   AH> heads together!"  As a former teacher & as a parent, I expect to   
   AH> work on a collegial basis with professionals.  AFAIC the real gems   
   AH> 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    
      
      
      
      
   AH>  A person who can see well enough to read large print   
   AH>  and/or who is satisfied with being read to by synthesized   
   AH>  voices may not feel motivated to learn Braille, however   
   AH>  ... from that standpoint you were fortunate in some ways.   
   AH>  At the blind school you probably didn't have a choice &   
   AH>  your classmates were learning it too.  ;-)   
      
   RW>  YEs, but back then there were the dreaded "talking books"   
   RW>  on record, or reels of tape.   
      
      
   AH>           I remember those.  I used them on occasion when I wanted   
   AH> my students to hear how English was pronounced a millenium ago.  But   
   AH> in my experience kids generally prefer to have some opportunity to   
   AH> 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.   
      
      
   RW>  Also, and maybe you don't want to get me started on   
   RW>  this one, but the "professionals in the field" had   
   RW>  this grand experiment called "sightsaving" going on,   
   RW>  which they started after WW II when the system was   
   RW>  receiving a large influx of blind children thanks to   
   RW>  the babies blinded by incubators,   
      
      
   AH>           Hmm.  I was dimly aware of the theory as one of those   
   AH> 1950's "use it or lose it" ideas which probably did more harm than   
   AH> good to me & others I know but I hadn't yet connected the dots.  The   
   AH> timing is interesting... [wry grin].    
      
   INdeed, it had its root in implementation in imho a bit of   
   laziness.  WE don't have enough braille teachers to meet the needs of the   
   system, so we'll do this.  tHe theory ended up   
   further handicapping a generation of blind youth, and that   
   slide down the slippery slope continues to this day.  US   
   blind activis types have been sounding the alarm on the   
   braille literacy crisis now for a generation.   
      
      
   RW>  or Retrolentral fibroplasia (spelling)    
      
      
   AH>           No problem... you added one letter to a suffix, that's   
   AH> all.  My best girl friend in high school had twin brothers with this   
   AH> condition.  Retrolental fibroplasia is the abnormal proliferation of   
   AH> fibrous tissue behind the lens of the eye... most common when   
   AH> incubators were first used & the ideal quantity of oxygen was yet to   
   AH> be determined.  I didn't realize the "sightsaving" stuff had been   
   AH> going on for such a long time, however.  One of my friend's   
   AH> brothers, who AFAIK was totally blind, went to the school for the   
   AH> blind when there was still such a thing here.  I do remember the   
   AH> panic my older colleagues expressed when they were required to teach   
   AH> kids with special needs.  They'd been trained in a lockstep era   
   AH> where the only alternatives were to shape up or ship out... where   
   AH> left-handedness, introversion etc. were regarded as perversities   
   AH> which must be eliminated... and thus the learning curve in many   
   AH> cases was fairly steep.  :-)    
      
   IT still is.  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.  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.   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)