To my mind, the coeducation of the blind and seeing is a step in the
right direction--a very forward step, since it will ultimately bridge
the gulf of misconception and skepticism now separating these two
classes--a gulf which must be bridged if we hope to arrive at a sane and
satisfactory solution of the problem of finding employment, not only for
the returned blind soldiers, but for the thousands of intelligent blind
men and women who are waiting eagerly, hungrily, for a chance to prove
their ability, a chance to earn their daily bread. When blind and seeing
children are trained side by side, from the kindergarten, through the
grades into high school, and on to college, perhaps, the barriers
dissolve, the blind boy and the seeing boy are comrades--they have
played together, worked together, and together they have planned their
future. The seeing boy knows the blind boy will succeed because he has
seen him victorious in many a mental skirmish. Just this May, right here
in the University at Berkeley, a blind student graduated fourth in a
class of more than one thousand seeing students. It may be interesting
to note, in passing, that there are seven blind students now attending
the university, and that the state provides three hundred dollars a year
to defray the expense of a reader for each student. New York was the
first state to provide readers for blind college students, and this was
brought about through the efforts of Dr. Newel Perry, a blind graduate
of the University of California, now a teacher of mathematics in the
California School for the Blind. Dr. Newel Perry was largely
instrumental in the passage of a similar bill in this state, and so once
again, the blind are indebted to a blind teacher for advancement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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