How Was School Today: Part 3 of the History of Education for Canadians who are Blind, Deafblind and Partially Sighted

"Today, the Triple Vision team continues its series on education by speaking with two graduates of the Jericho Hill School for the Blind in Vancouver. Diana Brent travelled from her home in William's Lake, 350 kilometres north of Vancouver, to attend the school between 1956 and 1959. Our second guest, Nora Sarsons, attended between 1949 and 1955. Both graduates had similar experiences to other graduates we previously talked to from schools in Quebec as well as Halifax. These past students recount that even attending schools for a short time helped prepare them for further education and the working world, and how they formed life-long friendships. “When I first left school, and even up until a few years ago, I really felt that the best thing for kids to have happen to them was to be integrated from the get-go. But the problem with that is there are not enough resources to be put into their education. I know this because I was a teacher for 10 years teaching kids with visual impairments. You don’t have enough time to be consistent, constantly keeping up the teaching of the blind-related skills when you’re trying to teach everything else as well....I think there has to be a combination. I never would have said that a few years ago."""