| When I was asked to make a contribution to this issue
about personnel preparation, I wasn't sure I had anything to say. As a
parent, what do I know about current developments in the training of teachers
and how teachers should be trained? But the more I thought about it, the
more I realised that parents had something to add and something to say
- and that our voice should be heard in professional development, for
the benefit of our VI children.
As parents, we all want our children to have the best possible chances
of maximising their educational attainment. We know that children's best
chances of success come when they have access to teachers who understand
the particular needs of children with a visual impairment and who have
particular skills in meeting these needs. Appropriate training for teachers
is obviously a crucial element in the success of our children. So let
me just introduce a few ideas.
* Brief discussions with the class teacher after school
provide opportunities for informal teacher “training” - by
which I mean, “providing more information which is relevant to being
able to teach the child better”.
The best education involves the parent in partnership with the child's
teachers. As parents we have much to offer when it comes to training teachers,
not least because we are the ones who know our children best. I still
remember my daughter's first teacher calling me in, one day, to talk to
me about my VI daughter and how she was settling down in the class. "I
can't relate to her" the teacher commented, "I can't get her
to participate in class," she added. When I explained how my daughter
used her very limited vision and how the direct light affected her sight,
everything began to make sense to the teacher. We continued having little
chats after school about various issues, which both the teacher and I
found very useful and of direct benefit to my daughter - and the rest
of the class!
* Home visits from the specialist teacher provide us
with another informal “training” opportunity to get across
information about our children.
Our peripatetic teacher used to visit us at home once a month. I used
to value those visits, as I used to learn more about my daughter's condition
and how to help her. One day the visiting teacher asked to see my daughter's
bedroom - to admire a special lampshade. After "admiring" the
lampshade she commented on the colour scheme. "You like strong colours
in bedrooms, don't you" she said. "I most certainly do not -
this colour scheme is just for my VI daughter" I replied. I explained
about how much easier it was for her to open her eyes without the glare
from pastel shades on walls and curtains. Photophobia is helped greatly
by appropriate lighting and suitable colours that do not reflect light
too much. The visiting teacher was eager to find out what else I did to
help my daughter so that she could pass it on to other parents.
These are just two examples from my own experience. I
have many more from others. We would be delighted to share them with the
professionals. But how often are we invited to help in the formal training
of teachers? Where is the parent’s voice in the training college
or in the University?
In my role as Chairman of a parent organisation in the UK and as a parent
of a VI daughter, I was asked, some years ago, to contribute to two teacher
training courses. My first contribution was more of a "pilot"
attempt on my part and very informal. The following year I was fully prepared,
with appropriate material and also a number of handouts that I had prepared
especially for the course. My contribution was much appreciated and students
kept in touch afterwards, to discuss various issues with me and frequently
requested additional information and material on various issues from the
parents? perspective. In the third year, only one university included
parental contribution in the course and after that it all stopped. Some
teacher trainers believe that parents can help in the formal training
of teachers, whilst others do not - it is a personal choice rather than
an accepted or mandatory requirement.
As chairman of a parent support group, LOOK London and
of a European network of Parent support groups, T.E.A.M., I am in the
privileged position of being able to make my voice and the voice of other
parents heard in relation to the development of professionals, not just
within the UK but also at the European Parliament and even,briefly, in
far-away Russia. For this to happen as a matter of course, however, parents
must be formally included and given opportunities to share their knowledge
and experience with the professionals. It must not be done just because
it is politically correct to do so but because it is the right thing to
do.
Recently two T.E.A.M. parent support organisations - one from the UK,
the other from Russia, agreed to participate in a project to get parents
and professionals to work together as a team because "together everyone
achieves more", with a grant from the UK Government. I went to discuss
the project with two government appointed consultants - I was really trying
to find out if a grant would be given to two parent support organisations
from two different countries, run just by parents for parents, which had
never worked together before. I was not very hopeful, so asked what they
felt about it. "You are not "just parents" was their response"
you are all professionals in your chosen fields and have the added advantage
of knowing your children and how best they can be helped?. We were delighted
to receive the entire grant that we applied for - but we had to work very
hard for it.
Last month, the European Parliament in Brussels opened
its doors to disabled people to participate as delegates and to raise
issues that concerned them. I was invited to participate as a UK delegate,
representing parents and children that cannot represent themselves. The
invitation came from someone who believes that parents should be equal
partners in the education of their VI children - but who else in that
position would necessarily include a parent representative? I was absolutely
delighted, therefore, to see in Brussels some other countries having parent
representation at such a historic event - but there were many who did
not. One must ask “why?”.
Parents can and should seek to influence teacher trainers and policy makers
about the needs of children. All we need is to be given the opportunities
to do so. It might be as well to remember that parents can often say things
that professionals might find difficult to say to "their employers".
We all stand to benefit from such a change in attitude and approach -
but particularly our VI children.
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