From: nmueller@stepnet.de (Mueller, Norbert)
Subject: Re: Parents Fight Closing of Janesville School (fwdDear listers,
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Hello listers,
On 1997-08-31 NFB-Talk@NFBnet.org said:
   >What concerns me is
   >that some children may come from over-protective families.  Suposse
   >such children do not get the opportunity to get out in their home
   >community for cane travel and other events.
   This point is well taken! I have worked as supervisor of dormitory
   operations at the State school for the blind in the Saarland, a
   southwestern State of Germany. The Saarland is a very small State
   with about 1 million people. For almost all of our students it was
   possible to come to the school in the morning by bus or taxi and
   return home in the evening.
   When we had a special school activity like Summer Fest, carneval
   celebrations and the like, some of the itinerant students would stay
   over night in our dormitory. That meant they had to butter their
   slices of bread at breakfast, put marmelade on it and the like.
   Observers could clearly tell who among them were our "dormitory"
   students, because they just were more skillful in these areas. We
   even had students who could eat their lunch independently at our
   schools but got their meat cut when they were at home on the weekends
   and during vacations.
   Are German parents more over protective than their counterparts in
   the USA? I don't think so.
   I don't want to say that all parents are like that; but in some cases
   we could at least pplant the seeds of independence in some children,
   and those seeds may come to fruition later in their lives.
   I am aware that blindness skills can be taught at every school,
   provided their are the right instructors and (this is very
   important:) role models.
   I can only advice you (and especially the people of the Wisconsin
   School) to read the articles in the Braille Monitor dealing with
   residential school, in particular the articles by Dr. Phil Hatlen. He
   made it very clear that the discussion should not be "What is better:
   segregated or integrated school education", but rather "Which system
   works best for the child in which situation?".
   When I was goint to school in Germany (1959 to 1973) there was not
   the option of going to public school; so I cannot speak about that
   from my own experience. However, I have been told that it sometimes -
   some say many times - can be a very frustrating experience. When
   times get too tough, it is good to have a residential school to lean
   back upon. When a child needs to learn a blindness skill and no
   teacher is available, it is good to have a residential school to fall
   back upon.
   What Phil Hatlen wrote about the Texas School has impressed me a lot.
   Unfortunately, in the newspaper article about the Wisconsin school,
   that spirit could not be found.
   I cannot judge whether this is a problem of the article or of the
   school in general.
   Best regards,
   Norbert Mueller
Norbert Mueller, nmueller@stepnet.de or n.mueller@hit.handshake.de
Work: dbbw@stepnet.de
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