Actually, I was thinking the program would have an equall number of sighted and blind children. Museums have created wonderful access programs for blind education. The concept would be to introduce sighted children to learning about art through more tactile and discriptive methods.
I think that if the teacher knows how to work with both groups of kids, it would work. At the Met, there are family tours on ancient Egypt that are almost identical to the ancient Egypt tours designed for blind children.
I think that children could learn from the experience and from each other. However, I think it would depend on the main goal of the program was as to whether I would enroll my child. If it was to learn about Art, its history, about some of the great artists and how they expressed themselves, I would wonder if the pace of the class would be slower due to a blind child not being able to see the visual aides and needing additional or special instruction. Would an aide trying to interpret this to the unsighted child be distracting to the other students that are trying to focus on the main teacher in the classroom.
This is not an easy question to ask since it really depends on the purpose and goal of the class is and what the parents would expect the children to come away with.
We have a visually impaired student who has been with us since last year. She is a first grader who has her quirks but generally gets along with everyone. She has an aide from our ISD who brailles everything for her, amongst other helps.
I truly believe that a fine arts class would be a waste of time, at this point in time, for this young lady. I'm not basing that opinion 100% on her sight impairment but also on her general attitude where learning anything new is concerned.
As for my own son, I would enroll him in any program, regardless of whether there are visually impaired or any other impairment enrolled also. As long as it's something of value to him, I'm onboard.
I'm a graduate student doing a thesis about merging sighted and blind (or visually impaired) children into a fine art museum ed program.
How would you respond if your child came home with a letter announcing that a program like this existed?
Would you enroll your child in a fine art program like this?
Do you think blind and sighted children can learn about art from each other?
Maybe your child is a visually impaired student or a blind student in a public school system. Maybe you have a child that has a blind or visually impaired child in their class.
