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From: Linda.Iverson@f10.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Linda Iverson)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: More thoughts!
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Date: 27 Nov 90 21:33:04 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Hi, James!
 
I know you have said, but aren't you a principal or teacher?  What 
school do you work at?  How many students are in the school?  I always 
attended public school, so don't know much about residential schools, 
but I've heard some people say that when a state combines the schools 
for the deaf and blind sometimes one group gets the short end of the 
stick.  What do you think?  You know, I have learned so much from this 
board, and as I said becauze both blindness and deafness are sensory 
disabilities, I believe there are similarities as how people see us. 
 I met a girl in college whose husband had worked at a school for the 
deaf, and she was telling me that often deaf people are afraid of blind 
people--perhaps because, like the sighted in general, that sight is 
so important and the main link to the world.  I don't believe that 
because I went to junior high with a couple of deaf girls, and I got 
to be fairly good friends with one of them.  I don't believe blindness 
gives you better hearing, but I think you know how to listen.  Anyway, 
one day this girl came to the teacher's desk and asked her a question 
and she couldn't understand her.  My desk was next to the teacher's 
and I just told her what the girl had asked.  Our teacher was really 
surprised.  Well, since this girl had speech-reading skills we started 
to talk to each other.  Our English class was broken into a gifted 
group and we were part of that.  Every day we went to another room 
with a student teacher, and this girl used to walk with me to the other 
class and help carry all my paraphernalia--braille books, typewriter, 
braille writer, etc.  That's why I brought up some of the parental 
attitudes that I mentioned to Karen because we'd talked about it.  
Occasionally we couldn't understand each other, but we both wanted 
to cultivaate the friendship, so I'd either write her a note and she'd 
repeat something until we got it together.  Anyway, the nice thing 
about this board is that we can get to know each other, and should 
the occasion arise where we might meet we'd already have something 
to base a friendship on.
Take care!
Linda
 

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