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Name: Juan Jesus
Surnames: Torres Masip
Date of Birth: 18-08-52
Place of Birth: Flix (Tarragona)
Marital Status: Married
Domicile: Independencia
388-392 1º 1ª dcha.
Postal Code: 08041 - BARCELONA
Telephone: 93-436.20.04
ACADEMIC RECORD
- School, B.U.P and C.O.U.
(school leaving and univ. entrance exams)
- Graduate in Psychology
from the Central University of Barcelona.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Cultural and Social Work
for the Caixa de Pensiones in Barcelona.
- Spanish National Radio.
- Professional Office.
- Spanish National Organization
for the Blind.
In its quaternary sector, modern sociology establishes the objective of studying and effecting research into questions relating to education, the social services and the rehabilitation of the disabled, and does so in the understanding that - as opposed to the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, which are eminently productive, economically speaking - it falls into the category that can be considered a social investment. This means that the state, the institution or the family, invests in its member citizen or child, with no other purpose than that of procuring results of a social nature from that investment, more long-standing than the material ones, thus providing that person with the means to gain access to a good, integral preparation that will, in turn, provide access to a meaningful role and status, both personal, occupational and social.
It can be observed that those same aspects are present in the education of, or for, the blind, a process in which collaboration and the support of the social services prove essential for their development, palliating the repercussions of their handicap, providing rehabilitation in its different facets and carrying out research in order to discover methods and technologies that can offer the individual greater facility for the execution of tasks and obtaining excellent global results.
Education is a process that is fully integrated in the social philosophy models that each country establishes, according to parameters closely linked to their own idiosyncratic criteria.
This process has gone from being one that covered a much more specific field of knowledge and proved highly time-related, to become a process that not only encompasses traditional aspects such as instruction and education questions involved in learning and the acquisition of academic knowledge, but also aims to provide a functional application of the above, including such fundamental aspects as development in the personal, social and productive fields, improving upon and encouraging the development of the capacity to adapt in the face of any situation or unforeseen circumstance.
The education of, or for, the blind can be linked to other social services, closely and symbiotically related in turn to education and visual impairment:
1.- Individualization of
the service.
2.- Training.
3.- Comprehensive nature
of the process.
4.- Productive nature.
1.- Individualization of the service.
When people speak of the education related to blind and/or visually impaired persons, it is as though they were referring to an educational service directed at a certain population composed of uniform, homogeneous elements, when really they are people who are only related by their grave disability, and its repercussions, that they hold in common. This also introduces new data and ingredients which, due to their heterogeneous nature, give rise to a considerable increase in the number of variables affecting the differential aspects of the individual and, therefore, the process.
2.- Training.
This is the aspect aimed at acquiring a sound base of technical and practical knowledge through learning, of a more general or specific nature, which is what will provide the pupils with the development and capacity necessary for all aspects of their lives.
Traditionally the question of giving classes has consisted in a mere transmission of knowledge and/or information, classified in subjects, following theoretical learning methods to assimilate facts in our memory, with concrete examples helping us to comprehend the knowledge and/or conclusions that have to be put across.
As regards the visually impaired and, above all, the blind, for reasons that are not relevant at this point, we are good at memorizing and, therefore, tend to use and develop this faculty a great deal. This is a great help to the individual, but always in a supplementary manner to comprehension and never in its detriment.
In this sense, I wish to outline some tests carried out recently which, I believe, will enlighten us, although I must clarify that they were effected with students without visual impairments. Nevertheless, they are of interest and perhaps not fully applicable to our students, yet they should be taken into consideration at least to foster reflection:
a) In a class lasting 50 minutes, which develops along the lines of a mere exposition of knowledge and/or transmission of information, the pupils will have forgotten, four hours later, 90 percent of the knowledge put across.
b) If the class, also 50 minutes long, has been developed complementing the exposition and transmission of any subject with a posterior participatory discussion, the pupils will retain 30 percent of the content four hours later.
c) If, in a class of the same duration, we add to the previous two points the possibility of introducing experiences lived out and shared by the pupils, the level of comprehension and retention after four hours reveals an approximate loss of only 10 percent.
3.- Comprehensive nature of the process.
The education of, or for,
the blind must be linked to other social services, with which it must function
in a joint, combined and coordinated manner.
In this sense, it is essential
that there is a concurrence of the exploitation and expansion of individual
resources and functionalities: orientation and mobility, personal independence,
making maximum use of residual vision, knowledge of mobility aids and social
skills, amongst others.
4.- Productive nature.
In some associations of, or for, blind persons, and also in some state organisations, it can be observed that the education and employment departments adopt the same organizational structure, in keeping with infrastructures that display close inter-departmental relations.
When we speak of education as a comprehensive process, we are referring to those aspects such as personal development, individual autonomy and social skills that should be intimately and forcibly linked to the academic process. These ingredients, together with personal resources and the encouragement of same, must be harmonically interrelated, taking care to ensure that some do not prove detrimental to others, structurally speaking.
In our modern and competitive society an increasingly productive nature is given to some aspects of education, anticipating the true results of a functional nature with respect to the future, taking into account that the use of individual resources and their practical application in a social or occupational area can be close to those same personal resources and their use in the educational process and, therefore, their possible projection can be detected.
When I studied psychology at the Spanish University of Barcelona, I observed the following in two of my closest colleagues, both sighted persons:
One obtained really high, brilliant marks in nearly every subject, every year of the course but he was never encouraged to develop his social skills, nor taught how to cultivate personal relationships.
The other one barely managed to scrape through with mediocre notes obtained in the June and September examinations, but his ability to handle social situations and contacts facilitated his personal and social development.
The first has a post-graduate degree in psychology and currently works as a translator. The second only managed a pass degree and yet he is now one of the most renowned and prestigious professionals in my city.
Naturally, these are two extreme examples which serve to facilitate an analysis and comprehension of a popular saying used in France and the northwest of Spain: "Is it better to have a head that is full, or one that is fully-fledged?"
An analysis or contrast of an educational model cannot be made simply by observing its good points or difficulties in some or other aspects, but also by discovering what the repercussions are on those disabled persons the service aims to serve, and observing whether it includes or excludes them through its application and development.
At the same time, the scientists and sociologists, encouraged by public or private bodies, make great efforts to investigate possible accessible places of work for the disabled, with a view to facilitating their integration, on the one hand, and reducing costs on the other. Surprisingly, they ignore other activities that require less study given that their possibilities have been contrasted previously.
Traditionally, there are three types of work associated with the blind and visually impaired, a classification which, paradoxically, is little known and/or barely recognized:
a) Those tasks that can be performed without the aid of sight, nor the auxiliary intervention of technical and/or human aid.
b) Those activities that may be executed with external aid, of a technical and/or human nature.
c) Those that, of necessity, require sight.
The teaching sector and its environment is largely confined to this second group, and is one of the most capable of absorbing the blind and visually impaired into the workplace, as long as they are offered the technical, material and/or human aid that permits them to be independent, as is the case in the adaptation of any place of work.
Can we implement or transfer educational models and their generalization in any cycle, stage, parameter, field, society, culture or civilization?
We believe that the educational models must be subjected to a serious and rigorous study, qualifying and detailing their projection, evaluating their results and respecting their exceptions.