Hi, Richard!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

RW>  Sometimes the teachers can be the best advocates for
RW>  the students, but sometimes not, which is why we have
RW>  such programs here in the states as the individualized
RW>  education plan,


          We have IEP's here too.  As a teacher, I wrote some of them....  ;-)



RW>  which is supposed to be developed with professionals *and*
RW>  parents, but first the parents often have to be educated,
RW>  both to understand options and possible outcomes.


          Yes.  The professionals often need to be educated too, however. 
I'm reminded here of Nora's kindergarten teacher... a woman with whom all
three of us got along famously.  When she told Dallas & me "I
don't know anything about [various medical issues pertaining to Nora]"
I chuckled & replied "I know that stuff.  You're the expert in
teaching kindergarten.  So... we'll put our heads together!"  As a
former teacher & as a parent, I expect to work on a collegial basis
with professionals.  AFAIC the real gems actually appreciate that.  :-))



RW>  Usually CNIB and other such agencies have to go by a legal
RW>  definition of blindness, often here in the states defined
RW>  as 20/200 in the better eye with correction,


          That's what I was taught at university many years ago.  Although
the textbook is quite outdated now, I think these numbers are still
valid....  :-)



RW>  or a certain field of vision, can't recall what those
RW>  criteria are.


          Tunnel vision, yeah.  I don't recall the details either....  :-)



AH>  A person who can see well enough to read large print
AH>  and/or who is satisfied with being read to by synthesized
AH>  voices may not feel motivated to learn Braille, however
AH>  ... from that standpoint you were fortunate in some ways.
AH>  At the blind school you probably didn't have a choice &
AH>  your classmates were learning it too.  ;-)

RW>  YEs, but back then there were the dreaded "talking books"
RW>  on record, or reels of tape.


          I remember those.  I used them on occasion when I wanted my
students to hear how English was pronounced a millenium ago.  But in my
experience kids generally prefer to have some opportunity to interact with
the reader....  :-)



RW>  Also, and maybe you don't want to get me started on
RW>  this one, but the "professionals in the field" had
RW>  this grand experiment called "sightsaving" going on,
RW>  which they started after WW II when the system was
RW>  receiving a large influx of blind children thanks to
RW>  the babies blinded by incubators,


          Hmm.  I was dimly aware of the theory as one of those 1950's
"use it or lose it" ideas which probably did more harm than good
to me & others I know but I hadn't yet connected the dots.  The timing
is interesting... [wry grin].



RW>  or Retrolentral fibroplasia (spelling) 


          No problem... you added one letter to a suffix, that's all.  My
best girl friend in high school had twin brothers with this condition. 
Retrolental fibroplasia is the abnormal proliferation of fibrous tissue
behind the lens of the eye... most common when incubators were first used
& the ideal quantity of oxygen was yet to be determined.  I didn't
realize the "sightsaving" stuff had been going on for such a long
time, however.  One of my friend's brothers, who AFAIK was totally blind,
went to the school for the blind when there was still such a thing here.  I
do remember the panic my older colleagues expressed when they were required
to teach kids with special needs.  They'd been trained in a lockstep era
where the only alternatives were to shape up or ship out... where
left-handedness, introversion etc. were regarded as perversities which must
be eliminated... and thus the learning curve in many cases was fairly
steep.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+