Learning to Read

Learning to Read

LEARNING TO READ

by Patricia Maurer

Patricia Maurer, the wife of the President of the

National

Federation of the Blind, didn't learn to read

until she was well

along in school. Her blindness wasn't the

problem. It was

simply that nobody had offered her the

opportunity and the

stimulation to learn Braille. Today she has a

college degree, is

a certified teacher, and is the mother of two

active sighted

children--a boy named David and a girl named

Dianna. Here, as

she tells it, is the story of how she learned to

read.

I was standing in the check out line at the

grocery store

with a friend. She was reading from the front

covers of the

magazines displayed on the rack. She read quickly

and fluently.

She was reading aloud because she knew I was

interested in the

information on the cover if only in passing.

As she read to me, I thought of the millions of

things that

are out there to read and how people often take

reading for

granted. At this stage in my life, I suppose I do

myself, but I

doubt I will ever do so in the way that others

may do.

I have been blind all of my life. As a child I

had some

residual vision. I grew up in a small town in

Iowa, where my

family had very little contact with any programs

serving the

blind, and certainly no direct contact with blind

people--not, at

least, when I was a child.

Although I had very little sight, my parents

decided to send

me to the public school in our community. In

kindergarten I

noticed that the other children did not have to

get so close to

their work. They did not have to bend way over to

see the paper

on their desks. When I cut things out of paper I

very often could

not see the line which was there for me to

follow. I think I knew

then that school work was different for me from

what it was for

my classmates.

As I progressed through that small town public

school, my

teachers, my friends, and my parents read the

material aloud to

me. I would tell them the answers to the

questions on the tests

and they would write them down for me. If I wrote

the answers

myself, very often neither the teacher nor I

could read what I

had written.

As the material to be read grew in volume, I was

spending

more and more time in the evenings reading with

my parents. There

were hours and hours of homework. Many blind

people will find

this story familiar.

When we would take trips to the library, I would

check out a

few books and bring them home. I would sit by a

strong light or

use a lighted magnifier to try to make out the

words on the page.

I finished very few library books that way.

When I was in the sixth grade my family learned

about the

library for the blind in Iowa. We contacted it

and I began

receiving books on long playing records. For the

first time in my

life I could read books whenever I wanted to do

so. It was

wonderful then, and it still is.

I still had the problem of getting my school work

done.

Someone had to be there to read for me and to

write down answers

to questions. There was a teacher who decided

that it would be

advantageous for me to learn to touch type. This

was a great

help.

Now I could write things down for others to read,

but I

still could not read them myself. Looking back, I

think math was

the most difficult thing for me to do. I would be

given the

problem and I would try to figure it out in my

head. I would try

to recite the steps for solving the problem, and

the person with

me would write them down. I still could not read

and write for

myself. By this time I was in high school.

One evening on the television I heard a public

service

announcement regarding services for blind people.

My father and I

spoke to Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, and he told us

that I should learn

to read and write Braille. He gave me a Braille

textbook to take

home. It contained the alphabet.

I was to enroll in the training program in two

weeks for my

first lesson. I met my Braille teacher. Oh, I was

thrilled. I

took that book home and learned the alphabet.

When I went for my

first lesson I knew it all. At the end of that

summer I could

read and write Braille. For the first time in my

life I could

read and write.

I went on to college and got a teaching degree. I

used a

combination of methods for getting the work done

in the

classroom. I used Braille. I used books on record

and on cassette

tape. I used a person to read materials and I

often Brailled

portions of textbooks. I worked hard. I

discovered how much

easier it could be with a variety of

options--lots easier when I

could read and write for myself.

Yes, I got my degree. It was a degree in teaching

elementary

school. My first job was teaching remedial

reading to third and

fourth graders. The children could see. They

needed help learning

to read.

As I sat in that classroom working with those

children, I

thought about what a joy it is to be able to

read. I hope that I

was able to pass on to those children a little of

that joy. It is

a joy which is with me now and I know that will

stay with me for

the rest of my life.