EDUCATION: A ROUTE TO CITIZENSHIP

Focus: School Years

Topic: Inclusion

Joyce Nesker Simmons, Ph.D.^*

The Hospital for Sick Children

555 University Avenue

Toronto, ON M5G 1X8

Canada

and

The Canadian Council of the Blind

Ottawa, ON, Canada

Mrs. Marie Renee Hector

Institute National Jeunesse Aveugle (INJA)

56 Boulevarde de Invalides

75007 Paris, France

^*To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Fax (416) 782-0090

Email: dr.jns@rogers.com

EDUCATION: A ROUTE TO CITIZENSHIP

INTRODUCTION

For the parent of a child with blindness, full academic integration represents, as is said in English, "the pot of gold", at the end of the pre-school rainbow. To be able to attend the local school, to learn within a regular learning environment, to be friends with the gambit of neighbourhood children, indeed, to be regulated by the standards of mainstream education, are goals which translate for parents and educators into the coveted reward of normalcy. After the tumultuous early years of a child with blindness, years marked by repeated assessment and strenuous intervention, and framed by pain and disappointments, the ordinary classroom in an ordinary school offers the enticement of being finally, "one of the gang". In most succinct terms, objectives for choosing to integrate into regular schools are social normalcy and better education.

Education is expected to be better in the mainstream for the visually impaired student, for reasons of the extent of the resources, the availability of equipment, the greater number of teachers and subject options, the variety of extra-curricular activities, the range of support services, the objective standards not qualified by need and ability, and the achievement motivation provoked by competition with sighted peers. In the same way, social normalcy is possible for children who are integrated simply by being able to live at home, by accepting and by being accepted by more people with a range of characteristics and prejudices, and by being part of the home community.

These two principal factors of better education and social normalcy are expected to bear equal benefits for the sighted school population with whom the child is integrated. As a teacher is forced to recognize and, indeed, to accommodate the individual learning and behavioural differences of the child with visual impairment, the entire class is expected to benefit academically as well as socially and emotionally.

Over the last few decades, we have become conditioned to assume that in education, as in society, segregation is bad; integration is good. As a result our funding and our programming has been funnelled to support locally our students with visual disabilities. Yet it should be admitted, we know too little about the educational results of these good intentions and of the impact mainstreaming has on the overall development of students with visual impairment.

It must be stressed that the intention of this study is, in no way, to raise a voice against mainstream education and its highly principled motivations; rather, we aim to provide insights which would allow all education for students with visual impairment to reach the noble goal of inclusion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY

This presentation will describe a study of academic students with visual impairment and blindness who have left integrated education and opted for a specialised school. All students in the sample had attended local schools, in varying forms of integration, previous to enrolment at the specialised facility. In fact, these are students whose families had intended them to be educated completely in the mainstream; none had anticipated a segregated setting. A wide range of schools is represented in the background of these students, including schools in the Caribbean, the United States, various parts of Canada, the United Kingdom and France.

The study is ethnographic consisting of in-depth interviews with students. The interviews, undertaken over a period of two school years, were taped and then transcribed for analysis. Analysis of the interview data involved identifying common school experiences and problems in learning, mobility and social interaction.

Although we are aware that mainstreaming has many success stories, for this presentation we will outline the findings of the interviews and attempt to describe the five reoccurring, and too often insurmountable, problems for the student with visual impairment and blindness in the mainstream.

OBSERVATIONS

This section will report the most commonly mentioned themes and include some of the statements made by the students on the various topics. It is important to note that, so far, whatever the country, the perception of difference and hence of exclusion, is linked to the same factors and can only be translated to words by the students after spending some time at a special school. Our findings were consistent: pupils with visual impairment will adapt to expectations with flexibility, the flexibility of all children. Frustration and disappointments, which lead to self-devaluation, can only be remedied when they come to light.

1. Teachers

The first common factor that emerged from the interviews was the issue of teachers and teachers' aides. All of the students mentioned teachers' inexperience, lack of understanding of visual disability and of teachers’ aides as a major factor in their troubles in the mainstream. Some of the statements they made were:

- "My form tutor never got my work enlarged and he always made me look stupid if I could not read something."

- "I always felt different because I had a helper sitting beside me."

- "The geography teacher would not give my helper the maps until the lesson. She had no time to adapt the map so I got things after I needed them."

- " I had this teacher that would just leave me sitting in the back of the class and wouldn't even pay one bit of attention to me."

- "Other students and teachers would talk to my support assistant rather than to me."

- "There was a support assistant there all the time; they have to realize that it is not our mentality that is holding us back. It's our vision."

- "A lot of the teachers I had had never worked with a visually impaired person before. They think we are all like Stevie Wonder on T.V. They don't know how to teach that person. But yet that visually impaired person has to go to school and has to be taught, right?"

- "They passed me anyway because my mom was complaining that I wasn't getting very good marks at first. So they lowered my requirements and raised my grades."

- "In geography, the class was doing a project and I sat there doing nothing."

- "Some things they wouldn't let me do. One time they took us to the fire station and they let the kids climb the pole. They didn't let me do it."

- "I used to be embarrassed to be in the non-academic stream, the lowest level, because there were some kind of real gooney people in there. I always wanted to do general or advanced like all my friends."

"When I was back home in High School, I did my welding and stuff and I was afraid. I was ashamed to admit I was scared."

The title of this paper is Education: A Route to Citizenship. Think of these words and their implications. Are the concepts possible if teacher training lags behind need? Is it possible in a diverse setting to focus truly on 1 out of 30?

2. Specialised Materials

In the interviews, parents and students complained about the delays caused by late arrival of special materials. These delays contributed significantly to the feelings of not belonging to the class that were described and did nothing to help academic progress. A sample of statements made by the students include:

- "I had quite a few things that weren't ready on time. The teacher couldn't give me the assignment because it wasn't in braille."

- "I never did get the equipment that I was supposed to have. I went to a special low vision clinic and everything was put down on paper that I required from the doctors there. Nil. No equipment."

- "By that time, my eyes were too sore. I was too worn out. I'd completely had it because I had been stressing my eyes in school because I didn't have the visual aids."

- "The big thing is, if you're integrated, it's worst to be partially sighted than blind. If you're blind they know what equipment you need. You need a brailler etc., you can get it. No low vision people are alike. You can get 10 people with my eyesight in a room. We're all going to see different things. There are going to be things that we can and cannot see. That means we all require different equipment. We have different needs on an individual basis and they don't know whether to believe us or not."

- "Often they'd say, 'We'll large print this for you and you'll have it in 3 days. Two weeks later, not 3 days, it would come."

- "They didn't let me use a tape recorder."

- "I didn't have the kind that are on a frame, like a glasses frame. I had to hold it, to sit there and hold it and to keep looking down. Your arms get tired. Your head hurts. And by the end of one note that could have been taped or put in larger print, it feels like you have run around the hall."

- "I wanted braille. I asked them when I had a little bit of sight and I knew it was going. I told them I wanted braille. And they said, 'No! You have your sight. We want you to use it!' They refused. And then when I did lose it and I had to learn braille I had such a hard time."

· "I wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom.”

· No, you can’t leave until you’re finished.”

· “It takes a visually impaired person until she’s 20 to say, 'I'm going right now'.”

- "The materials didn't get there in time. In grade one they got there half way through the year. Then they moved me to a special class with other kids who had trouble learning."

The availability of materials again reflects on the basic rights of the student, citizenship. Can a student learn without a book when all the others have books? Can he or she belong to a class if such disadvantages exist?

1. The Blackboard

For students with low vision, the problems with inclusive education grow to include the blackboard, and other visually available devices for teaching. Here are some of their comments:

- "I missed out on things that were written on the blackboard."

- "In grade 3 I had something to help me read off the blackboard. No one

made fun of me. Actually a lot of kids found it interesting. After grade 3 I stopped using it - I lost interest, I guess. Then I felt self-conscious using it and when I needed it in grade 7, there was no way I would use it."

- "The blackboard was a green, dark shade of green and the chalk was almost the same shade of green so I had to go up. And I was slow. I didn't say anything but I couldn't see that colour chalk so I had to keep going up in front of everyone. I felt really shy. Kids would call out things like, Move, you fat head!"

- My speed is not fast enough to look at the blackboard, figure it out, take the glasses off, lean down and copy it. By the time I'd got one sentence down, they'd be done."

- "I had to keep running up and down to the blackboard to see it real close. It was embarrassing."

- "My desk was right in front of the blackboard. I couldn't get any closer. And yet I had to get up and walk to the blackboard. The kids said, 'You're practically stuck on the board already, you know'. It was humiliating, really humiliating."

- "I'd get the first few words and they would erase the board and write another board over top."

- "I was put in a special class for slower functioning kids because I couldn't copy off the blackboard. I couldn't keep up with the other kids. I stayed in that class of slow learner for six years."

When the blackboard is the basis of the teacher's techniques, the student with visual impairment is separated by disability. What child would not feel inadequate before such a challenge?

4. Physical Education

Physical Education was a problem in the mainstream that every student interviewed encountered. Here is how they described that issue:

- "I'm 21 now, like I said, I just turned 21 and this school has changed my whole life because I'm involved in sports here. Never have been before."

- "The only Phys. Ed. I would do was outside because I can't see inside very well. My perception is very bad inside."

- "There is no equivalent to a visual problem. Even in a wheelchair you can spot the ball coming from across the room. But you can't, you know, there's no equivalent to what your eyes do."

- "It was mostly ball and floor hockey so I wasn't really involved in that, no. And I wasn't in any of the after school sports."

- "I did gym in high school, I didn't like it there because I had trouble in sports, like basketball. I couldn't see the markings on the floor and that."

- "I did no physical education at school in grades 7 and 8. Those 2 years it was mostly stuff like baseball and soccer and stuff like that and I never played that for obvious reasons."

- "The worst teacher was Mr. A, the gym teacher. He wanted me to do everything or nothing. If I couldn't do it, why was I in physical education? Why could I do some things and not the rest?"

Words such as "I could notŠ" "I cannot" dominated the students' words when they spoke of physical education; their sense of inadequacy was apparent. Can citizenship in the class be a realistic goal when physical factors outweigh emotional well being?

5. Socialisation

The development of social skills and social normalcy is always mentioned as a major reason to choose integrated settings over specialized schools. Yet every student who was interviewed encountered problems in socialisation in the mainstream as those comments show."

- "I have been bullied verbally or physically through most of my mainstream education life."

- "They made fun of me but I eventually got used to it."

- "I was kind of rejected by the kids. I don't think they really knew how to take me or were really interested because I was rejected by them and sort of ignored."

- "I was not allowed into the playground until they had finished their lunch and then I was restricted to staying next to the windows so they could see where I was and what I was doing."

- "The teacher thought it was my fault for not making an effort to try and socialise with these people."

- "I don’t know what’s worse – being picked on or being completely ignored."

- "You get bullied and teased because you are different, because you have eyesight problems."

- "I got more friends here because of the fact that we all have the same problem - nobody teases nobody here about their eyesight."

The dictionary defines the word, "route" - r-o-u-t-e as a method or process leading to a specific result. Socialisation, especially within education, would be the best route to citizenship, to inclusion, for the students who were interviewed. But can there be meaningful socialisation for students in our schools if their routes are marked by isolation, difference, and an absence of friendship.

DISCUSSION

As soon as we come to life, we become a member of social groups called families in which we are included. In other words, family love and social well being are the first seeds to a socially harmonious growth. The very first social group is the family and its first actors are parents. Their ability to open their hearts and thoughts to a maximum understanding of their child's needs is the real key to education and integration.

Human beings cannot live without a social group, whatever it may be; the same is to be said for a disabled child. The concept of integration, that is inclusion, refers to regular schools in most people's thought. However this is far too restrictive a way of envisioning the child's course of educational process. All of us should first ask ourselves if regular schools give a good response to all non-disabled children before making irretrievable decisions about putting aside special schools for visually disabled children, even when they may be academically able to learn and study and reach a high level of instruction, knowledge and know-how. Too many factors are at stake in a child's life, which forbid restrictive thoughts and rules.

No matter the place or group where you are "included", the best place or group is the one where one feels like being appreciated and inserted, the one where life is made pleasant and accessible to one's present aspirations. Isolation, or exclusion, from any group or context, creates deep internal pain, especially if the one who suffers from isolation or exclusion cannot find words to say it in time for adults to know and react. For all of us, feelings are often stronger than words and their power may be disruptive or destructive for the building of the child's personality. For any people with disabilities, it is critical to make sure they be given whatever form of school or entertainment responds their desires and true needs. Young parents and decision-makers should lend their ears to the people with visual impairment who have gone through years of schooling.

In our study on inclusion or mainstreaming, perhaps one question that was asked of the participants best should be heard by both parents and decision-makers. When asked, "If you were grown up and now a parent of a child with blindness, where would you send that child to a 'sighted school' or a special school for the blind? , here is what they answered:

-"If I had a child with vision like me, or worse, I would direct him to come here, to a special school for the blind. If the kid is visually handicapped, cannot see at all, he can get everything right off the bat - especially learn their braille."

- "I would send my child here because they have the skills to teach him and get him up to the grade 9,10,11,12 level and then send him to sighted school. They can get him prepared for college."

- "I'd send them here because I think here you get a good education. In sighted schools, the teachers are running around all over the place, with 30-40 kids in one place. Here you can do more of a one-on-one type of thing so the blind child learns more."

- "I'll probably send my child to a blind school so he can learn braille and other things like mobility. Then after it's finished I'll send him to sighted school. A child has to learn things before he can go to sighted school."

It is time systematic criteria should stop being regarded as the only right way of dealing with school integration. Some teenagers say they feel excluded from their class at a regular school, even though they attend most lessons with their schoolmates and receive a lot of support. Some others declare they feel too far away from their friends at a special school and are eager to feel ready to join a regular classroom. Children with visual impairment may feel better integrated at a special school than at a regular school. Parents have to choose the best, or what they hope will be the best, education for their child, often a difficult choice. The route is long from birth to adulthood and it has to be paved with understanding and open-mindedness rather than with brilliant but, often falsely generous, theories. Education must prepare children with visual impairment to live among others whoever they may be, and acquire the greatest number of competencies in facing or confronting their disability with themselves and those who share the same difficulties, to measure their possibilities as much as their own limits, before reaching a good degree of awareness.

In many countries, unfortunately, integration in regular schools was deliberately conceived for financial reasons, as the cheap choice. We know this cannot or should not, be tokenism since children with visual impairment need a lot of support to be in good condition for learning and for blossoming. We notice that many children or teenagers reach an overworking state when, after school, they must work again to repeat or complete lessons and/or attend a rehabilitation session.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Our study is now being extended and will be supplemented with information from teachers and parents. As well, further studies in other countries are under planning. Our intentions, as the study extends, remain interview-based. Too often students with visual impairment are forced to hide their differences, which may be interpreted as weaknesses, when they attempt to navigate a sighted world. The interviews are intended to empower the participants and to value their experiences and opinions as responsible citizens.

CONCLUSIONS

In French, the expression, "pot of gold", translates to "pot aux roses", pot of roses. Unlike a pot of gold, roses must be watered, fertilised and trimmed. There are a great variety of those beautiful flowers; the buyer has a choice. As in the fields of nature, so should it be in the field of education. Our practices can only be enriched if we include the voices and experiences of those that lived, and will live, our ideals and our theories.

To pose another analogy, think of the words mainstream education and specialised settings as a water system. Children with visual impairments require certain prerequisites, certain streams of knowledge, in order to float or swim and not to sink, under the burden of differences when they are integrated. As streams flow to rivers, smaller rivers to larger ones, and rivers to oceans, so shall students with special need reach the successful conclusion of their personal journeys, if integration is to provide a route to inclusion, and thus, to valid citizenship.