For blind students, a place where art and life skills meet

When Cory Kadlik, a talkative 10-year-old at the Perkins School for the Blind, visited a suburban Boston mall recently, it wasn't to go shopping. He and other students were participating in the school's first off-campus arts festival.

In addition to musical performances, the event surprised many mall patrons with an impressive display of student artwork - paintings, sculptures, and quilts.

As Cory strolled the corridors after singing, he always knew when someone was enjoying the truck sculpture he had crafted out of recycled materials: The sound of the horn he had attached to it was unmistakable and brought a wide smile to his face.

At Perkins, the joy of self-expression is just one part of art's value. The projects also boost self-confidence and problem-solving skills.

And contrary to what one might expect, some Perkins students also have an interest in two-dimensional drawings and paintings, even though these provide less-touchable results than do three-dimensional projects.

"A lot of our students have never had the opportunity to explore their creativity," says Terry Werner, a sculptor who teaches students in the Perkins Secondary Program. "They've been asked to sit quietly and don't walk around. They don't have the experiences that other children have because their worlds are so much more confined. They're not given time to explore things, not given time to try to create something out of their own thought."

At first, Ms. Werner says, students who have been taught the importance of following directions are often reluctant to try things. But in her classroom, she says, "We celebrate failure," and students are encouraged to get mucky. "Some of them hate that," she says, "but after a few years, they get better at mucky."

Two high-schoolers who are comfortable getting their hands dirty are Stephen Yearardi and Yegue Badigue. During a recent high school class, both applied the finishing touches to ceramic projects.

With their fingers covered in glaze, they checked for spots missed by a brush: Stephen on two bowls, and Yegue on a van crafted to resemble one the school uses to transport students.

Stephen says the public school he attended before Perkins "lacked knowledge of how to teach visually impaired persons. They didn't try that much."

Massachusetts towns unable to provide an appropriate education for blind youths - including those, like Stephen, who have very limited vision but are legally blind - pay for them to attend Perkins. Chartered in 1829, it is the oldest school for the blind in the United States and counts Helen Keller among its graduates. The 200 students range from kindergarten age to 22. Some are from overseas, including Yegue, a Chad native.

Art classes are small, because the pupils need individual assistance and are at various stages of ability.

Rocky Tomascoff, an art teacher in the Lower School, says she usually has two pupils per class, and sometimes works with just one. On this day, she has two boys, Cory and Anton Sviridenko, who are packaging greeting cards that students made for a fundraiser.

Page: 1 | 2