JOBS, EQUALITY, AND THE BLIND

JOBS, EQUALITY, AND THE BLIND

The Braille Monitor

June, 1989

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JOBS, EQUALITY, AND THE BLIND

by

Patricia Munson

Superintendent

Andrew Viscovich honors Pat Munson on her twenty-five years of teaching

in the Berkeley United School District

From the Editor.-

Patricia (Pat) Munson is one of the leaders of the National Federation of the

Blind of California.

This year I am celebrating

my twenty-fifth year as a regular public school teacher. It was on March 13,

1964, that I stepped off the bus and walked to the personnel office of the

Berkeley Unified School District. As I was waiting to be called in for the

interview, the secretary's telephone rang. I heard her repeat, as she wrote,

that a music teacher at one of the junior high schools would be leaving at

the end of that school year. Right then and there I made up my mind that I

was going to get that job!

I had had a number

of job interviews prior to this one, so I knew what to expect. I possessed

the credentials, and I knew all I had to do was convince the personnel director

that Berkeley simply could not survive without my services. The minute I affixed

my signature to that contract was the happiest day of my life, not just because

I got a job but also because I was one more blind person moving into the mainstream

of society. My family was thrilled, my college professors elated, and the blind

I knew gained hope for their economic future.

In late August my

reader and I went into my classroom and sorted through and attached Braille

labels to all the material I was to use. This very large classroom was used

for five classes of introduction to music plus the girts'glee club. The glee

club had about 100 girls. I was a very nervous, happy new teacher that first

day of school.

Being about two miles

from the University of California, we had many demonstrations against the Vietnam

War and all the rest. I survived it all, but when a transfer was offered to

me to teach English to foreign students, I jumped at the chance.

For almost eighteen

years now I have been teaching these students. The work is interesting and

rewarding and would now qualify me to work as an ambassador, foreign service

employee, or who knows what. I have taught English to almost all cultural groups

on earth.

Of course, most students

are shocked to find a blind teacher when they enter my room, for it is no secret

that the blind of most of the rest of the world do not have as good a life

as the blind in the United States. The blind of this country have jobs and

more rights than before because of the collective work of the members of the

National Federation of the Blind. My foreign students learn the very first

day that I operate exactly the same way as all the other teachers. The only

difference is my use of Braille. I keep my records in Braille and later copy

the information on the appropriate records or student papers. I use exactly

the same texts as they, but mine are in Braille. Around the room I have many

pictures which I use for demonstration purposes. I hang them all myself and

know what is in each, for Braille is on all of them. I discuss blindness, and

they see me walking independently in the community. We openly talk about blindness

so that when they return to their countries they can encourage blind adults

and children.

Before the 1950's

the blind in the United States were excluded from all public school jobs. The

law pertaining to teachers mandated that a teacher have "normal"

vision. Members of the National Federation of the Blind worked long and hard

to delete the discriminatory language and, of course, were successful. I, along

with many other blind teachers, have eradicated the myth that the blind cannot

teach the sighted. Like me, the blind who have been teaching in the public

schools of this country have opened the doors for the generations of the blind

to come.

I proudly share this

momentous occasion with all the blind, for it is in concert that we all make

large strides toward total equality in this land, which promises liberty and

freedom for all.

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