Hi Dark, Yes, precisely my point. When I first lost my sight I was sent off to a school for the blind that handled mainstream students as well as a handful of students with various disabilities, and I absolutely hated it. Not because they were trying to mix mainstream and disabled students, but because of exactly the reasons you pointed out. Do to the fact they had disabilities for the blind, wheel chairs, mentally disabled, etc they ended up creating the rules and regs for the lowest common denominator, and they were not necessarily benificial to me personally. Although, I'm sure they made sense to some official who dresses up in a three piece suit every morning. I ended up talking my parents into pulling me out of that school, and placing me in the local high school were I was pretty much the only disabled student. I remember the day before I left my former teachers etc told me I'd never make it on my own in a public school, I'd be back in a few months a total failior, and that I couldn't be independant with out their help. They were completely wrong. Not only did I make it on my own as the only blind student in an otherwise mainstream high school, I made better grades, was more active in school activities, and was a much happier person for it. One reason as the only blind person at the school they pretty much had to form their opions, impressions, and general attitudes about me from me. They didn't have what I would call poor exampls to judge me by. If someone asked me how a blind person does this or that I'd give them a fair overview of my life, and by all means kept a low profile. I never drew attention to myself in a negative way that would make myself or or any other blind person look bad. No eye poking, picking my nose in class, picking wax out of my ears and then licking my fingers, or any of the dozens of other wierd and disgusting behaviors I had been exposed to when sheltered under the special education program. I set out each and everyday to just be me, and let people see I was a person just like them. Second, by pulling me out of the special education program I was forced to sink or float on my own initiative. I am, and have always been, an independent sort of person. I really don't like being compared to or judged by others standards. I want to set my own standards, and be judged by my own standards and let my actions speak for themselves.
Cheers! On 3/8/10, Darren Harris <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Thomas, > > > Yes but you see that's where I think social integration falls down and it > fails so many people. It fails us because of the reason you've just > outlined, it also fails the person in question because they aren't gaining > anything by being in a mainstream environment. > > I think that mainstream is good when it works but for the retarded lot it > doesn't work far from it. I came from the specialist education system in > England which is fading out now. But the amount of people with mental > disabilities we had at these blind schools really did create a problem > because whether you like to admit it or not, if you are exposed to them 24 > hours a day 7 days a week, you start to be affected by them. The rules and > regs of the school become set up in favour of the people with mental > disabilities and inhibit the natural ability for social and emotional > development in the rest of the population. Yes social integration fails big > time if you ask me. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
