Response to March 22
Special Education Article
May 17, 2005
Dear Mr. Lonsberry:
Your March 22, 2005 article on Special Education has generated a
lot of reactions from concerned people. I read the thumb up and thumb
down responses from people who reacted to your article. It occurred
to me that all of the people, thus far, who responded to your article,
either were in favor of eliminating or changing special education,
or of advocating on behalf of disabled children, employees and students.
I am blind. I was primarily
educated by nuns, priests and Christian Brothers, but I spent a
short time as a student in the public school setting. After I graduated
from a Catholic high school, I went on to college and I eventually
received my Master’s degree. I
think I’m reasonably intelligent. After I completed my graduate
work, I was hired to teach College level and high school level students.
I worked in this capacity for almost twenty years.
My teachers did a pretty good job with me, yet I was not a happy
student in elementary, high school and college. It took me a while
to figure out that my frustration was due to how I was perceived
as a blind person. I could never read the blackboard regardless how
close I was put to face it. I had to struggle with reading texts
two inches from my face. However, studies became easier after computers
were made adaptable to blind people.
I prepared a statement
for you about your Special Education article, but I changed everything
after I read your article about the damage that was done following
the recent Newsweek article about the Holy Book of Islam being
flushed down the toilet. I don’t think
Christians would respond favorably if, in retaliation to the desecration
of the Qur’an (Koran), Muslims reciprocated such an action
with the Bible. I agree with you that it is physically impossible
to flush a book, let alone a magazine, down the narrow pipes of a
toilet. I also agree with you that the loss of life from the Newsweek
article was a tragic result of inaccurate information. But the damage
has been done, and Americans will have to work harder for years to
come to undo the damage done by this article.
You also need to be aware that words can be as harmful as actions;
and the message in your March 2, 2005 Special Education article presents
only one narrow side of a very complicated issue.
The teachers in the
public school didn’t know what to do with
me as a blind student, so they put me in a special education math
class for a short period of time. I was moved back into a regular
class as my teachers discovered I did not have a learning disability
and I was very good at math.
I was, however, harassed by other students on and off of school
property. Once as I was on my way to my public school class, a gang
of about twenty fellow students caught up with me and they surrounded
me. The leaders of this gang pushed me around; and other members
of the gang pushed me from one side of the circle to the next. I
realized that to fight these guys was insane and I would get beaten
up pretty badly if I fought back. They got bored with me and they
left me alone in the street as they wandered off.
On the playground of
a Catholic elementary school, another bully and his band took it
upon themselves to push me around. When I got the leader of this
group alone, he found out I was not an easy guy to push around,
and he left me alone from that point on. However, he was never
my friend as he didn’t want to associate with
me because I was the blind guy who fought back and beat him at his
own game.
I wrote a short statement
to you in the comment section following your education article,
and I stated that change was okay. All of us benefit from change.
But it is not accurate for you to impress upon other people that
disabled people don’t work, pay taxes,
and that we’re looking for handouts. That is simply not true.
Seventy nine percent
of the blind population is unemployed. That doesn’t mean they are unemployable, but they are not hired
and discrimination is a prime reason why some employers won’t
hire these highly talented people.
In my article on transit cuts, I recommended to the Governor of
Minnesota and the entire House of Representatives should go about
their daily activities under blindfold for five years. By the end
of this time, they might start to understand how difficult it is
for the blind to navigate on and off of buses.
This is a sight dominated
world, but it is not a world exclusively made up of sighted people.
It takes a lot of planning to navigate around crowded places as
a blind person, and we’ve learned
useful skills that make it possible for us to do just that.
As a high school student, I wrestled for three years. I did not
have an attendant on the mat with me telling me every movement of
my opponent. The referees would not allow anybody but the two of
us wrestlers on the mat at the same time. I won many matches under
my own strength and intellect.
About two years ago
I was cut from my job along with over two thousand other school
employees because of budget cuts. I’m in training
to be an assistive technology instructor and I intend to return to
the public school classroom once I’ve completed my computer
training. I am afraid, however, that there is a growing trend to
exclude the blind from education and employment. Such actions will
have dire consequences to the livelihood of many people.
For example, I was told
to go home within ten minutes by a school principal of one school
because he didn’t want me around. He
made it difficult for me when my district put me at his school to
work. Nevertheless, I worked with this same district for over eight
years. I eventually received my license to teach around the time
of massive budget cuts and teacher layoffs.
Hopefully, you are beginning
to understand that the employment/education prospects in front
of blind people are not rosy. We work hard and that is all that
can be expected from us. You have a right to share your opinions
with your readers as I have the same right to share my viewpoints
because of the constitution. Evidently, we don’t
agree on many points, but that is the beauty of living in this great
country. So, keep on writing, and I will continue to respond and
speak out against such writings that encourage discrimination against
the blind.
Sincerely,
Clarence Schadegg, M.Ed.
