EHE News
Prizes offered to attract teachers for blind
Reprinted from The Columbus Dispatch with permission.
Metro & State section, Tuesday, May 27, 2008
By Barbara Carmen of The Columbus Dispatch
Ashley Morgan
A Dispatch story about children riding long hours on school buses because of a statewide shortage of teachers for the blind has led to the creation of scholarships. The American Council of the Blind of Ohio has set up a $50,000 endowment at Ohio State University and is offering a $25,000 matching grant to the University of Toledo to encourage teachers to take certification courses by offering $2,000 annual scholarships.
"We just think we need to attract more people into the field, and one way is to offer incentives and to raise the profile of the need," said Marc D. Guthrie, the council's director of development and advocacy.
He said his council was inspired after reading "A long dark ride to school," published on Jan. 28, 2007. The article told of Jocee Janicki, then 7, who spent five hours a day traveling to the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus. Her Muskingum County school district could not find a replacement when its teacher for the visually impaired retired.
The shortage, estimated at 5,000 teachers nationally, is worse in Ohio's rural areas. Many experienced teachers, trained with federal grants decades ago, are retiring. And there is no additional pay for new teachers who take special training in teaching Braille and other adaptive techniques.
Ashley Morgan's advisor is Professor Peter Paul, School of Teaching and Learning.
Guthrie said his council hopes its endowment will attract other donors at both universities so they can offer additional scholarships.
Ashley Morgan, the first scholarship winner at Ohio State, is to graduate in late 2009 with a master's degree in education and certification in teaching the visually impaired.
Morgan, 25, said she knows the need firsthand. She was born three months prematurely and has little vision.
She didn't get her first certified teacher for the visually impaired until after fourth grade, when her parents moved and she attended Canton schools.
"Connie Matlow taught me for two years, when I was 11 and 12," Morgan said. "She went above and beyond teaching me Braille. That's when I decided I was going to do this."
Morgan, who holds a bachelor's degree in education from Kent State University, plans to teach grade-school children.
"I wasn't getting the proper education," she said, recalling her early school years. "We were kind of stuck, and my parents didn't want to send me all the way to Columbus. It was very heartbreaking for them. I've seen the whole spectrum of good and bad."
Note from the College of Education and Human Ecology:The scholarship from the American Council of the Blind of Ohio was established at this college at Ohio State to support students pursuing our MEd in Education program and certification in teaching the visually impaired. The college expresses gratitude to the American Council of the Blind of Ohio for its generosity.
© 2009 The Ohio State University - College of Education and Human Ecology. All Rights Reserved.
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