Word: blinds
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Public elementary schools recently have begun adapting themselves so as to be able to accept handicapped students. Formerly the blind child had no recourse but to go to a residential school for the handicapped, such as Perkins Institute for the Blind, or to be tutored at home. Most of the Harvard students went to public schools for at least part of their pre-college education...
David Richman, a freshman at Harvard who has been blind all his life, started out in a residential school, but switched at an early age to a public school with special facilities for the blind, such as Braille lessons. After seventh grade David went through the regular public school system. He feels that this was the best thing he could have done. A residential school is a "very unreal environment," he said. "It is a closed stale society, ignorant of the outside world. The transition from a school for the blind to a sighted university is almost impossible...
Charlie Hodge, a first-year law student and a graduate of Amherst College, spent ten years at Perkins. Unlike David, Charlie feels that for many blind children a residential school is best, at least through the eighth grade. "The rough and tumble of a public school is unsuited to the handicapped child," he said. He explained that rebuffs or teasing by normal children could make a blind child withdraw into a shell of hostility. Perkins not only teaches blind children tricks to make life more amenable and to help them get along by themselves and take care of themselves...
Perhaps the most famous blind student in the world is Harold E. Krents, Harvard graduate and second-year Harvard Law student. Hal won international reknown when he was classified 1-A by Local Draft Board 10 in Mount Vernon, N.Y. last spring. Hal said he would be glad to serve his country in any way possible, but hoped he'd be able to request the post of bombardier. His "Open Letter to General Hershey," to the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey" was printed in Esquire this fall. Legally blind since birth, Hal had limited vision until...
DIFFERENT sorts of problems present themselves when the blind student reaches college. David, only a freshman, is still in the process of adjusting to University life. Living in Wigglesworth, right in the Yard, he finds no difficulty in getting around with a cane, which he claims is both simpler and easier than a seeing eye dog. A prospective English major, David so far has been able to obtain most of the books he needs in Braille, and uses only one reader (a person who reads to a blind student) a week. He also makes use of Talking Books--a program...