Re: Schools for the blind, training centers, and how they perform.
I, myself, have quite a long, difficult education process history, but I can say that most of my experiences in nonspecialist, public schools have been miles better than any experiences I have had in any specialist schools. The only negative experience I have encountered with a nonspecialist school occurred when I first lost my vision while I was very, very young. The administration leading the school I was attending at the time simply refused to accommodate me. They refused to slightly modify lessons or inform teachers about my visual impairment. Instead, there only offered solution was to throw me in the back of a Special Education class for students with learning disabilities and be done with the whole situation. Instead of immediately withdrawing me from the school and searching for a more friendly school for me to enroll in, my parents argued ferociously with the administration for weeks and weeks on end. While they fought for my accommodations, the temporary solution was for
me to have one on one lessons with a single teacher for around an hour and a half after school days.
After realizing that they were fighting a losing battle, my parents decided to enroll me into a specialist school. At the time, things were not bad, as I was quite young and didn't understand the neggative impacts of a specialist school for the visually empaired. As I grew older, I spent more and more of my time noticing the neggative aspects of the specialist school. One of the first things I have noticed was the speed of teaching. I am not quite sure if anyone else has had any experience in regards to this, but I found that I learned more in one day at a nonspecialist school than I learned in three days at a specialist school. It was mortifying! The speed at which most of the students performed was quite low. This could be understandable in some cases, but it seemed as though the instructors slowed right down with them instead on working to increase their performance. I
noticed how different social interactions were between students in the specialist school and students in regular schools. I was quite a main streamer, so I constantly discussed the latest main stream news and updates, only to find that a couple of students knew what I was talking about. Trying to have a conversation with most specialist students was almost scary. I noticed the different attitudes students in specialist schools had versus attitudes in regular schools. I noticed how dependent the students were in specialist schools verses students in regular schools. And most importantly of all, I noticed the difference between staff members. The behavior of staff described by forum members above pretty much sums up my experiences with specialist staff. The staff at the specialist school I attended always ranted on and on about why it was so important that visually impaired students needed to attend a specialist school. They always insisted that the outside world was not a nice place
and that it was important for visually impaired students to learn among other visually impaired students. I often thought if they even ever actually stopped to think about their reasons for visually impaired students to attend a specialist school for most of them were beyond ridiculous. Students were always punished for problems that were out of their control, as discussed above, and most of the staff were unfriendly. I literally spent most of my time arguing with administration and trying to improve the situation at the specialist school, but eventually I realized that I was fighting a losing battle. The only reason why my parents believed that it was alright for me to attend a regular school was because of a relocation we went through. The specialist school in the area refused to take me in so late into the term. My parents were absolutely mind-blown at how willing the school was to meet my accommodations. So even though a specialist school may have fancy resources, I would always
rather attend a nonspecialist school.
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