A student lifting weights
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Transferring to a School for the Blind

A student in the Secondary Program at Perkins School for the Blind shares his experiences of moving from a mainstream setting to a school for the blind.

Perkins student, Jake, shares his first blog post today.  His English class is studying personal narratives and he submitted this post as part of his work for the class.

Before I came to Perkins, I went to a school for sighted people. The whole time I was there, I worked with an aid because of my blindness and need to use braille. I didn’t mind this part of it, but there were some other times in the school that I didn’t like. I wasn’t able to participate in some of the classes even if it was just an English or math class. I would have to go up into another small room and work on either writing braille or things that weren’t even close to what the other students were doing. Other than that, I enjoyed being there.

One time, when I had reached third grade or somewhere around there, I heard of a school called Perkins School for the Blind. This seemed good for me because it was meant for people just like me. Perkins was made for blind people who read braille, and it had the types of classes I needed. The first day I came here, it did not feel like the first day at my old school. From that day on, I was able to go to normal classes and learn a lot more. It felt very different at Perkins, but I soon got used to being here. I didn’t really get to start writing long essays and doing advanced math until Secondary, but Lower School was still better than where I was before. I got to do work all day with other blind students and didn’t have to deal with not being able to work or be in a class with just me and another person. I am now in 12th grade and still really like it here. I’ve gone through many things including job classes, which most sighted schools don’t even have.  So far, I am enjoying my life at Perkins and hopefully it will continue to be good.

Collage of student lifting weights

By Charlotte Cushman

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