Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (08/17/90)
Index Number: 9861
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Hi:
Just a point about wrestling. I was a pretty good wrestler in
high-school. I learned everything over--the staff coach at the
blind school had taught me techniques that would have gotten me
killed in normal Iowa public school wrestling meets. Iowa is one
of the most difficult states to be "good" in wrestling, because the
sport is a major activity there, rather than football/basketball.
I wrestled on a team rated 1-3 at all times and we won 3
championships--had one dual meet tie which lost the record for dual
meet wins in a row--something like 95 or close.
Essentially this not a "wasn't I good," thing or anything, I was
not good enough to wrestle in college, as I know ithem--I attended
the Univserity of Iowa, and used to go down and work in with the
summer camps teaching wrestling--with dan Gable and staff. It was
great, I thought the kids would beat the hell out of me, but I
seemed able to handldel them even though they were in good shape!
Amazing I thought.
Anyway--the idea that you can't do sports in public settings is not
ture in all cases--just most. I could have probablly been on a
swim team, even if we didn't have one--small school, the sighted
students didn't have a pool either. No, we didn't have track ei
team, except for cross country, and that may have been a
possibility if I liked that sort of thing.
The public school I moved away from to attend the Catholic school,
was a fine place, just they were backwards about wrestling--just
starting, and they were truely a poor wrestling team--I'd have been
a star over there, where as at my school with the records and all,
I was just another team member--work work work. I liked it there
much more than the blind school.
You are right about the "dumping," but its not the money thats the
problem, its the quality of the teachers in many cases. I had one
extremely good support teacher who came around several times per
week, to "check," on me and she did great, dealing with teachers
concerning braille materials, making me do things I might have
avoided, such as practicing typing or whatever. Then I had another
teacher, who was blind herself, and she was not very good at being
blind herself. Her mobility was not what mine is, and she had a
whimpy personality--she was OK, but you can't be whimmp in a job
like that. You have to actively get the teachers involved with the
student to provide the materials they want to use ahead of time,
actively get them to "talk," when writing on blackboards, etc. I
am like that, so her non-performance was not much of a los on me, I
jsut did the job myself, whereas some blind people just fall
between the cracks unintentionally opened in this way. We can't
all be stubborn pushy people who get what we want as I often am.
Would we even want that? Anyway--to make a ong message worse--I am
in the middle, of having a bad experience at the blind school,
while realizing the value it is in my basic frame of reference, and
having a good experience in public school, while also realizing
things I missed there.
Question--if you have older student, ages 14-17/18, how are their
social lives, in the full sense of the word. I am not a womanizer
or anything, but I remember this huge isolation of the sexes at the
school, and the total fear of the school of natural childish
"getting it on," or whatever. For these students there were no
drive-ins and backseats to make new little students in, but they
sort of found ways anyway--strange ways in some cases, but the
stories are sort of sad, even if usually they were funny as hell!
As I lived at the school, the amount of freedom given the blind
students dropped, as the diversity of the clients increased. For
example, since the lower-functioning students took much more staff
time to supervise, the staff could not supervice the
high-functioning students nearly as well, so, they were limited to
smaller areas, making supervision easier.. Recreational acitvities
were done in groups, no private recreational activities were
allowed, much, I won't say all the time.
I remember finally saying some really nasty things to one
recreational staff worker once, knowing they'd send me back to the
dorm, where I had wanted to go to finish a book I was reading.
Everybody sort of disliked this guy anyway and the house-parent
thought the guy was strange too--so no real punishment, but I got
bounced to the dorm. But should a student need to be that creative
and alert to the inter-staff crapola in order to just spend an
evening reading a book? I don't think so. This was not even major
incident there, the run of the mill you might say.
The smart students could have their freedom at the price of
learning the ways of the staff members, how to tell them pieces of
a story and let them all believe the other guy was supervising you,
and "bing," you got out. Still, what foolishness, and even for
them, this is not good because in most of these times I was
unsupervised when it probablly would have been in the best
interests of all to have me at least minimally under supervision.
Okay, I'll stop this blast of the past for now--but we can
continue, this later.
Too all, if you think these blasts of mine are getting too big and
not making a point, please send mail and I'll stop them. Don't
want to upset anyone too much with this much hot-air of mine.
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman
Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.orgAl.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (08/23/90)
Index Number: 9950
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
steve:
its odd, but some of the people who attended blind schools, don't
really know what they missed. <let all calm down now>. i knew
many who stayed at the blind school i left, and some of them just
didn't think they had missed much, but how could they tell
objectively since they hadn't left?
i was at the misouri school several times, and it seemed a bit
depressing to me. simple crap like raising hell was more limited
at the school setting, you just couldn't cause as much trouble, in
the same way you can in less supervised settings such as out with
the boys on friday night cruising the strip.
ok, so i promote deliquent behaviors, "only the good die young,".
iin some cases the blind school was better. for some, the smaller
groups in blind schools of late allowed the average person to
appear above average, high on the pecking order of the school. i
noticed that change when i left. i was sort of a high order person
at the school because i was basically bold, curious, physically
adept enough to keep out of trouble and stay away from limiting
situations. those with poor mobility skills for example couldn't
very well leave the school grounds and avoidd detection by the
supervising staff very easily.
so, i left and went into the great public school setting. off i
went, but in the country my travels were limited to a car ride,
which was a pain, and i won't put up with that situation again
unless forced.
i still had more fun in the public setting, but i was not the "in,"
group at school, however in retrospect i don't know if i'd want to
have been anyway!
i'm still happy with my own self, as are many who didn't attend
public educational settings. so the story goes on and on ...
--
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Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org