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Adelia M. Hoyt memoir and photographs
Page 36
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36 Unfolding Years of an elementary education as good as any in the land, perhaps better that some. What our instructors lacked in equipment they made up in resourcefulness. I remember when we were studying astronomy our teacher took us out on the lawn one bright spring morning. There were just nine of us and setting one boy in the center as the sun the rest, representing the eight planets, revolved around him. I do not know what would have happened if the two additional planets discovered since then had been known at that time;but I have no doubt some way would have been found. Since those days at the Iowa School (no longer known as College) has been modernized. It now has electric lights, telephones, a well-equipped gymnasium and all the modern conveniences. In these modern days there are some among our educators of the blind who look with disfavor on the residential school. They would encourage parents to send their blind children to the public school, especially where there are Sight-Saving Classes. They claim that to segregate blind children is abnormal and unfits them for later life among the sighted. I cannot agree. My personal experience and observation all points to quite the opposite. I believe that a blind child needs special care and training which can only be given by experts trained for the purpose. They also need companionship and competition on equal grounds which they cannot find among sighted children. Everywhere in the sighted world we are faced with a lack of true appreciation. We are either underrated or overrated; either we are considered mentally inferior or prodigies; rarely indeed is one's true value recognized. A blind child cannot understand all this and if thrown among sighted children he may suffer from neglect or what may be even worse, from overpraise. When he reaches the high school age, and certainly if he enters college, he is ready to mingle with sighted companions. He has learned his disability and how to overcome it and its ready to compete as nearly as he ever will with those who can see.
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36 Unfolding Years of an elementary education as good as any in the land, perhaps better that some. What our instructors lacked in equipment they made up in resourcefulness. I remember when we were studying astronomy our teacher took us out on the lawn one bright spring morning. There were just nine of us and setting one boy in the center as the sun the rest, representing the eight planets, revolved around him. I do not know what would have happened if the two additional planets discovered since then had been known at that time;but I have no doubt some way would have been found. Since those days at the Iowa School (no longer known as College) has been modernized. It now has electric lights, telephones, a well-equipped gymnasium and all the modern conveniences. In these modern days there are some among our educators of the blind who look with disfavor on the residential school. They would encourage parents to send their blind children to the public school, especially where there are Sight-Saving Classes. They claim that to segregate blind children is abnormal and unfits them for later life among the sighted. I cannot agree. My personal experience and observation all points to quite the opposite. I believe that a blind child needs special care and training which can only be given by experts trained for the purpose. They also need companionship and competition on equal grounds which they cannot find among sighted children. Everywhere in the sighted world we are faced with a lack of true appreciation. We are either underrated or overrated; either we are considered mentally inferior or prodigies; rarely indeed is one's true value recognized. A blind child cannot understand all this and if thrown among sighted children he may suffer from neglect or what may be even worse, from overpraise. When he reaches the high school age, and certainly if he enters college, he is ready to mingle with sighted companions. He has learned his disability and how to overcome it and its ready to compete as nearly as he ever will with those who can see.
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