Braille Enrichment through Literacy and Learning

It is not often that I have ever felt like I was standing on the outside of time, but this week it happened.  Perhaps we all could benefit from such an experience at least once, but then again, maybe most people don’t need to as I realize how much I did.

I remember those little school desks and periods in the afternoon of first grade where we had tests of learning and writing Braille signs.  Of course this was after I had already conquered writing with the Braille slate and stylus. 

Braille is made up of six little dots in a cell, which seems impossible without knowing the mechanics of the Braille forms.  After learning the initial dots that make up the letters, there are combinations of letters for contracted signs that stand for certain words when used together.  Every letter of the alphabet has a word it stands for when left sitting by itself between spaces in a sentence.  For instance:

b is but

c is can,

d is do,

e is every,

f is from,

g is go

h is have,

j is just,

k is knowledge,

l is like,

and so on. 

There is a combination of dots…

2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 for the word “with”,

2, 3, 4, and 6 for the word “the”,

1, 4, 5, and 6 for the word “this”,

1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 for the word “and”, 

all six dots for “for”,

and countless others.     

The literacy of reading and writing Braille is not actually meant to be the total subject of this blog, rather the children who participate in the use of it as they are taught.  For several days the past two weeks, I have participated as a volunteer in a summer camp program called Braille Enrichment through Literacy and Learning.  This is done every year and is for blind children who are being further acquainted with the use of Braille, as well as other activities of daily living needed to make their lives simpler.  Some of these children were not only blind; one had cerebral palsy, a few some form of autism, and others in situations I do not really know.  For years I have known that the Governor Morehead School existed where blind people can be taught skills they need for life.  Before it became the Governor Morehead School in 1964, it was known as the North Carolina State School for the Blind, where I received an education that surpassed anything I ever imagined it would.

Through the years blind children are often now streamlined in the public schools.  There is an on-going debate between some blind people and some lawmakers as to whether or not this is the best way of teaching blind children.  Personally, I think this can be a good thing. So long as they have competent teachers to help them with demands of blind living, as well as parents to encourage their learning in all aspects, mostly including social interactions and learning Braille.  Some of the children I met this week go to public schools, yet attend this camp to brush up on the Braille skills they will often need in their futures.

In no way am I an (all Braille) or (all technical devices) person.  They can work together.  I personally have an iPhone, iPod, and iPad and am absolutely enamored with all the places my mind can travel with their apps and uses in reading, listening to music from around the world, abilities to provide for communication with teachers, and countless other educational, life, and health provisions.  You can even use Braille with the iPhone and iPad, and I am sure you can with other devices as well.  Still, Braille in itself makes a blind person literate, able to read and write a language on their own.  When I go to a Bible study I like having the words at my fingertips.  CD’s are labeled in Braille.  Recipes work better for me in Braille, unless I have something sticky all over my fingers and then I would not want to touch even a printed book and definitely not my iPad.  Braille can now be found in most buildings as room numbers, elevators, and bathrooms, as well as some health products, some drinks at McDonald’s, and some ATM machines, even with Braille instructions and Braille voting machines.  I will never forget the first time I used a machine and was able to cast my ballot without help.  I was in my fifties and was elated.

The thing is, as I watched those little ones working, working, working, I saw myself at six and seven years old.  I remember just following directions, never realizing why.  I’d be willing to bet I even thought the teachers were mean as they seemed to tirelessly demand just a little more every day than the day before.  We used to have bus loads of visitors from schools all over North Carolina come to the school to watch us do things.  Yesterday, for the first time I saw what they saw, a blind child doing something that seemed difficult.  To the blind child it seemed as simple as a pencil and paper, only the dots made the words and in our own way we could suddenly “see” them with our fingers.

It would never work for me to try to teach these little ones as I believe I would lose my objectivity and want to somehow make it easier, just as I would for a child with a pencil and paper.  Perhaps learning to read and write Braille is one of those things that made me believe goals could be reached through working, learning and actually “seeing” the outcome. 

I remember reading “Gone with the Wind” in Braille in high school.  It was at least ten volumes of Braille.  Even though I am glad that today children can listen to books on electronic devices, I am also glad that there is a language for the blind person’s fingers, which is like a sanctuary of quiet going everywhere those little dots can take us.