Too Familiar Story

Too Familiar Story

The Braille Monitor_______November

1997

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An All Too Familiar

Story

From the Editor: The two previous

articles provide a ray of hope for parents of blind children and the advocates

committed to improving the educational opportunities available to blind youngsters.

Aides like Denise Mackenstadt and teachers like the distinguished educators

honored by the NFB each year provide their students the chance to make everything

they can of their lives and gifts. And the children who spoke to the parents'

seminar at last summer's convention demonstrate what can be accomplished by

knowledgeable, determined parents even when ideal instructional conditions are

not available. Yet across the country today blind children languish in public

school classrooms because no one working or caring for them knows enough to

provide the services needed or can find a way to compel the school system to

do so.

Louisiana is doing more than many

states to solve this huge problem. The Louisiana Center for the Blind, the NFB's

adult training center in Ruston, has a grant to train paraprofessionals to teach

Braille. Pam Dubel directs this effort, and it is turning out aides who can

make a real difference in the educational future of blind children. But the

grant is for the northern half of the state, and the child profiled in the following

story lives in the southern part. This article appeared in the June 7, 1997,

edition of the Times Picayune. It is a stark reminder of how much work we have

yet to do. Here is the story:

Teaching Blind Boy

a Struggle Mainstream Classes Lack the Resources

by Cassandra Lane

St. Bernard/Plaquemines Bureau

While the other children learned to read

books this year, Gerald sat in the back of the class wearing headphones to listen

to books. Six-year-old Gerald Passero twirled wildly on an open area of the

playground at Carolyn Park Elementary School, then braked himself against a

brick wall with his hands. His cane had been discarded on the sidewalk.

"I can see," the kindergartner

mused. But Gerald can't see. And this past year the St. Bernard public school

system struggled to help him find his way into a regular classroom, despite

a lack of resources and no precedent for dealing with a completely blind child.

While there are twenty-two visually impaired

children in St. Bernard's public schools, Gerald is the only one to be totally

blind, said Gloria Plaiscia, one of two instructors who teach Braille and living

skills to the visually impaired students. Nationwide, school systems are trying

to find ways to integrate handicapped students into regular classrooms. As St.

Bernard schools learned with Gerald, that's not always easy.

In January, at his mother's request,

Gerald was removed from a preschool for children ages three to six with a wide

range of handicaps and placed in a regular classroom at Carolyn Park.

"He was in a class with children

who were in diapers," Penelope Passero said. "Children who couldn't

talk, couldn't walk.... He went on field trips with just them. He learned what

they learned." Gerald wasn't being challenged academically, she said. "He

would come home and say, `Mama, I want homework. Mama, I want to go to kindergarten,'"

Passero said. "I want Gerald to be able to learn everything. He's so normal."

Teachers agreed it was a good idea to

move Gerald into the regular kindergarten class. "There's nothing wrong

with his learning ability," said Trina Claycomb, his special class teacher

at Gauthier Elementary. And his regular kindergarten teacher at Carolyn Park,

Tabitha Osbourne, agreed: "He's a very bright student."

But that wasn't enough. Although he's

a smart kid, Gerald had trouble keeping up with his sighted classmates. As a

consequence of a late start in kindergarten and too many absences, Gerald won't

join his classmates in first grade next year; he has to repeat kindergarten.

Glaucoma and cataracts caused the youngster to lose his sight. He became totally

blind at age 3. He doesn't know how to read because he knows only half of his

alphabet in Braille. While the other children learned to read books, Gerald

sat in the back of the class wearing headphones to listen to his books.

Osbourne said she sometimes felt frustrated

trying to teach Gerald math because, while she had a few Braille materials,

she didn't have hands-on materials that would help her explain concepts. So

while the other children worked, Gerald sometimes stood alone in the corner,

running his fingers over toys. "I've got twenty-something other children

in my classroom," Osbourne said. "I've never taught a blind child."

Carolyn Park Principal Katherine Thornton

said she was apprehensive when she learned she'd be getting Gerald in a regular

classroom at her school. "He can't see," she said. "We were very,

very nervous. We were worried about his falling down or running into a pole."

As a resource teacher for visually impaired

children, Plaiscia tried to ease the transition. She helped Gerald find his

way around the school, ordered special materials for him, and gave him lessons

in Braille. But with only two teachers to work with all of the twenty-two visually

impaired public school students, Plaiscia had only about an hour to spend with

Gerald twice a week.

Pam Dubel, youth services director for

the National Federation of the Blind of Louisiana, said a youngster can't learn

much in that time. "No wonder he doesn't know his Braille," Dubel

said. "You wouldn't think of teaching a sighted kid who's in kindergarten

reading only twice a week and expect him to pass.

"It's not the resource teacher's

fault," she said, explaining that nationwide there are too few teachers

to provide the specialized help that blind students need. "School systems

say that they don't have the money, but parents need to fight for more certified

teachers so their children can have more time. That child should be with his

Braille teacher at least one hour every day," she said.

Passero said she'd been fighting to make

sure Gerald gets a fair and equal education since she learned she had a right

to take him out of the special preschool class.

Janice Campagna, head of the school system's

special education program, said the local public school system is doing the

best it can with the financing it gets. She said more federal money for the

special education program would mean more equipment and materials for students

with special needs.

"We don't have a special school

for the blind." Campagna said. "Philosophically, they should be integrated

in regular education. It would be wonderful if colleges prepared regular education

teachers for students who are blind."

Plaiscia said she spends much of her

time squelching teachers' fears about teaching visually impaired students.

"I'm like a counselor to these teachers,"

she said. Osbourne, who isn't teaching Gerald next year because her one-year

contract with the school system has expired, said having him in her class was

a learning experience for her and the other students.

When she found out she was getting Gerald,

she blindfolded her students and told them: "That's what Gerald sees."

They read books about children with physical impairments. And in time they saw

that Gerald could find his way around the classroom and the school as well as

they could.

"The important thing to remember

is that Gerald just learns in a different way," she said.