| Description | Track 1: tape test 0.11 mins
Interview with Jim Pickles, a teacher at a college for blind children in Worcester. He continues to talk about his decision to change jobs and work in a school for blind children, the theoretical and practical difficulties involved in teaching handicraft to blind children, his first impressions of addressing a class, the children's exaggerated verbal images of staff and verbal mimicry, their application to unsupervised work and greater concentration, and the difficulties involved in using braille textbooks for reference purposes. He talks about the difficulties involved in teaching maths using braille, his reflections on the differences between blind and sighted children in terms of educational achievements, different teaching methods used and his view that it is a fallacy that all blind children are good at manual work. He discusses the emotional background of many blind children because of their parents' reactions to their condition and his view that this is a factor in their educational development and helps to set them apart. He explains the college's selection of pupils from high IQ scores and written and oral examinations, and discusses the highly developed conversational and verbal skills of many blind children. He discusses the establishment of the College at Worcester and its association with the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the relative lack of educational choice for blind children, particularly for older students (tracks 2-12).
Total: 32.16 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D0738580 |