From the Editor

From the Editor

Future Reflections Fall 1991
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FROM THE EDITOR: It's a new school year; a time of new opportunities and

fresh challenges. But sometimes this isn't so exciting; sometimes it only

arouses doubts, fears, and more questions in the minds of parents and blind

students.

How can a blind student handle all the map work in social studies? Maybe we

should skip that. What possible interest could a blind kid have in team

sports-like basketball or volleyball she couldn't play anyway? Maybe her time

would be better spent in the library studying. What's the point in getting

information about the student foreign exchange program? Surely a blind student

could never travel and live overseas. How in the world can a blind student get

anything out of an art appreciation class? Surely he shouldn't be required to

take that!
Sometimes it never gets to the question stage. So many times we simply

assume that something cannot be done by a blind person and never think to stop

and investigate or question our assumptions. And we have all been guilty of

making this error at one time or another.
This "Back to School" issue of Future Reflections challenges many

preconceived notions about blind students in school. The articles cover a wide

range of topics; from sports, to art, to Braille and mobility, to socializing,

to field trips, to home chores, to vocations, to a pre-school curriculum, to the

educable mentally retarded blind child, to...well, you get the picture. These

articles challenge us to look critically at our school year expectations for the

special blind student in our life. Are our academic standards too low? Are our

other expectations too narrow? Have we needlessly discouraged (or simply

neglected to encourage) an interest in sports, art, drama, music, home

economics, technical education, school politics, debate, speech, language, the

foreign exchange program, the dance decorating committee, the yearbook

committee, the bird-watchers' club, the parade float committee, the marching

band, first-aid training, etc.?

I hope this issue will open your mind to a whole world of possibilities for

your blind student or child. After all, if one blind student can do it, why not

others? And if blind people can do this, then why not that?
However, possibilities do not become realities without a lot of hard work

on everyone's part parents, teachers, students, and often many others.

Alternative techniques of blindness need to be learned before they can be

applied in school or at home. Furthermore, independence is never possible for

any of us (sighted or blind) without the right kind of help and support from

others.
But above anything else is the importance of attitudes-which is a good

lead-in to the first article in this issue, "On Parenting the Visually Impaired

Child."
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