ERIC ED331507: Reflections of a Lifetime Reader.

18 Pages·0.76 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 331 507
IR 053 550
AUTHOR
Jernigan, Kenneth
TITLE
Reflections of a Lifetime Reader.
INSTITUTION
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped.
PUB DATE
Jan 91
NOTE
1Bp.; AdCress delivered to the Conference of
Librarians Serving Blind and Physically Handicapped
Individuals (Louisville, KY, May 7, 1990).
PUB TYPE
Speeches/Conference Papers (150)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
*Blindness; *Braille; Childhood Interests; E:ementary
Education; Library Services; Personal Narratives;
Reading Attitudes; Reading Difficulties; *Reading
Materials; *Talking Books
IDENTIFIERS
National Library Services for the Blind; Tennessee
Schoo) for the Blind
ABSTRACT
This publication recounts the childhood experiences
of one boy at the Tennessee School for the Blind and his
use of
braille and talking book library services. It also describes his
frustrat.Lon at the rationing of braille reading materials at the
school, and how his enormous appetite for reading material led him
to
"beat" the school's system. It examines how the scarcity of braille
and talking books only increased his love of reading. In conclusion,
it observes that the blind of the United States have grown strong
through the power of collective action while libraries have also
grown strong through a network of service and the meeting of a
need,and urges the two groups to work together in a growing
partnership to strengthen library services for the blind. (MAB)
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OE RI ocaohon o Wary
I I
eflections
a
of
r7diifetime
c4,,eader
An Address Delivered by
Kenneth Jernigan
to the Conference of Librarians
Serving Blind and Physically Handicapped Individuals
Louisville, Kentucky
May 7, 1990
7-*
9
Midi:E
2
?EST COPY
lind and physically handicapped individuals are
entitled to a high quality, free public library service with
information, books, and materials perceived
access to all
This is the charge under which the National
as useful.
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
and the network of cooperating agencies function. za
To
review and focus our mission, we invited a
distinguished user of braille and audio materials to meet
with librarians and others assembled in conference to
present views from a lifetime of reading. Kenneth
Jernigan was that person. This pamphlet is the first in a
projected series of individual views that will be offered in
the years ahead. m.
Frank Kurt Cy lke 4-
Director
National Library Service
for the Blind and
Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
January 1991
the day. and we were not per-
ibraries and reading
have played an important
mitted to take books to our rooms
part in my life, so I am
at night or on weekends. Looking
I was asked to
pleased that
back, I suppose the school didn't
have many books, and they
participate in this conference,
looking back through the years at
probably thought (perhaps cor-
your decades of service and
rectly) that those they did have
forward in time to plan for the
would be used more as missiles
than instruments of learning if
I established a library for
future.
the blind and directed it for
they let us take them out. I*,
I have visited
eighteen years;
and studied libraries for the blind
thioughout the country profes-
hen we advanced to the
sionally; and I have been a user
of braille and talking book library
second grade, we were allowed
service since childhood. tit'
(yes, allowed) to come down for
thirty minutes each night to study
hall. This was what the "big
boys" did.
In the first grade we
hen I was a boy growing up
had been ignominiously sent to
in Tennessee, braille was hard to
bed at seven o'clock while our
At the Tennessee
come by.
elders (the second and third
School for the Blind (where I
graders and those beyond) were
spent nine months of each year)
permitted to go to that mysterious
In the first
braille was rationed.
place called study hall. The first
grade we were allowed to read a
graders (the "little boys") had no
book only during certain hours of
such status or privilege.
privilege) could take one braille
hen we got to the third grade,
volume to his room for the
we were still not permitted to
weekend. 3-
take books to our rooms, but we
were allowed to increase our
study hall time. We could
actually spend a whole hour at it
each night Monday through
efore I go further, perhaps I
It was the pinnacle of
lfad better explain that comment
Friday.
about the girls. The girls sat on
status for the primary grades. uk.
one side of the room, and the
boys sai on the other; and woe to
the member of one sex who tried
to speak or write notes to a
hen we got to the "inter-
member of the other.
Girls, like
mediate" department (the fourth,
braille books, were difficult to get
fifth, and sixth grades) we were
and all the more desirable for
really "growing up," and our
at
the imagining. But back to the
status and prestige increased
main thread. 3,
accordingly. We were allowed
(I use the word advisedly
"allowed," not "forced") to go for
an hour each night Monday
cAs
I say, each boy in the "in-
through Friday to study hall, and
termediate" department could
during that time we could read
books and magazines to our
check out one braille volume on
hearts' content. True, the choice
Friday night. Now, as every good
braille reader knows, braille is
but such as there
was not great
bulkier than print; and at least
was, we could read it. Of course,
four or five braille volumes
we could not take books to our
rooms during the week, but on
(sometimes more) are required to
Friday night each boy (1 pre-
make a book. It is also a matter of
sume the girls had the same
common knowledge that people
in general and boys in particular
ut as I have said, people like
to beat the system; and to us
(yes, and maybe girls, too) are
constantly on the lookout for a
boys, starved for reading during
the week, the hours between
way to "beat the system." What
Friday night and Monday morn-
system? Any system. za,
ing were not to be wasted.
(Incidentally. I should say here
that there were usually no radios
So on Friday nights we boys
formed what would today be
around and that we were strictly
called a consortium. One of us
on pain of expulsion,
forbidden
and God knows what else
to
would check out volume one of a
leave the campus except for a
book; the next, volume two; the
brief period on Saturday after-
next, volume three;
et cetera.
after we got big enough,
noon
With our treasures hugged to our
that is, and assuming we had no
bosoms we would head to our
violations on our record which
rooms and begin reading.
If you
required erasure by penalty.)
got volume three (the middle of
In
other words, the campus of the
the book), that's where you start-
Tennessee School for the Blind
ed. You would get to the begin-
ning by and by. Now, girls and
was what one might call a closed
braille books were not the only
ecology. We found our entertain-
ment where we could. to.
items that were strictly regulated
in the environment I am describ-
ing. The hours of the day and
night fell into the same category.
Study hall ended at 8:00, and you
ell, back to Friday night and
were exNcted to be in your room
the problem of books. Rules are
and in bed by 9:40, the time
rules, but braille can be read
under the covers as well as
when the "silence bell" rang. You
anywhere else; and when the
were also expected to be trying to
lights are out and the sounds of
go to sleep, not reading. Ili,
joint clandestine activity.
approaching footsteps are easy to
Some-
detect, it is virtually impossible
times as the night advanced, one
of us would go to sleep and fail
to prohibit reading and make the
prohibition stick. The night
to keep the hourly rendezvous,
watchman was regular in his
but these were minor aberrations
and the weekend was only
rounds and methodical in his
movements. He came through
beginning. Za
the halls every sixty minutes on
the hour, and we could tell the
krfter breakfast on Saturday
time by his measured tread. (I sup-
morning some of us (not all)
pose I need not add that we had
no clocks or watches.)
would continue reading
usually
aloud in a group. We kept at it as
long as we could, nodding off
when we couldn't take it any
cAfter
more. Then, we went at it again.
the watchman had left our
Let me be clear. I am talking
vicinity, we would meet in the
about a general pattern, not a
bathroom (there was one for all
twenty-six of us) and discuss
It did not happen
rigid routine.
what we had been reading. We
every weekend, and even when it
also used the occasion to keep
did, the pace was not uniform or
the schedule precise. We took
ourselves awake and exchange
time for such pleasantries as
braille volumes as we finished
It made for an interesting running, playing, and occasional
them.
way to read a book, but we got
rock fights. We also engaged in
and instead of feeling
certain organized games, and as
there
deprived or abused, we felt
we grew older, we occasionally
elated. We were beating the
slipped off campus at night and
system; we had books to read,
prowled the town. Nevertheless,
the reading pattern was a
something the little boys didn't
have; and we were engaged in
dominant theme.
7
Time,
of course, is inexorable;
My father had very little formal
and the day inevitably came
education, and my mother had
when we outgrew the inter-
left school just prior to grad-
mediate department and ad-
uating from the eighth grade.
vanced to "high school"
seventh
Books were not an important part
of our family routine. Most of
through twelfth grades. Again, it
the time we did not have a
meant a change in status
a
newspaper. There were two
change in everything, of course,
but especially reading. Not only
reasons: Our orientation was not
could we come to study hall for
toward reading, and money was
an hour each night Monday
It was the early thirties.
scarce.
through Friday and take a braille
Hogs (when we had any) brought
volume to our rooms during
two cents a pound; and anything
weekends, but we could also
else we had to sell was priced
check out braille books whenever
proportionately. k's
we liked, and (within reason) we
could take as many as we wanted.
did a lot of thinking in those
preschool days, and every time I
could, I got somebody to read to
me. Read what? Anything
et me now go back once more
T-1
to the early childhood years.
anything I could get.
I would nag
Before I was six.
I had an
and pester anybody I could find
isolated existence. My mother
to read me anything that was
available
the Bible, an agri-
and father, my older brother, and
culture yearbook, a part of a
I lived on a farm about fifty miles
out of Nashville. We had no
newspaper, or the Sears Roebuck
radio, no telephone, and no
catalog. It didn't matter. Reading
was magic.
substantial contact with anybody
It opened up new
except our immediate neighbors.
worlds. ts,
8
cAs
remember the joy
a joy
I have already said, I started
cli
and when I say
school at six
which amounted to reverence and
six, I mean six. As you might
which I felt during those
awe
imagine, I wanted to go as soon
times I was allowed to visit an
as I could, and I made no secret
aunt who had books in her home.
It was from her daughter (my
about it. I was six in Novemtvr
of 1932. However, school started
cousin) that I first heard the fairy
stories from The Book of
in September, and six meant six.
a treasure which
I was not allowed to begin until
Knowledge
January of
the next quarter
many of today's children have
unfortunately missed. My cousin
1933. ta'
loved to read and was long
suffering and kind, but I know
ou can understand that after I
that I tried her patience with my
had been in school for a few
It was not
insatiable appetite.
I contemplated with
weeks,
possible for me to get enough,
mixed feelings the summer
and I always dreaded going
home, finding every excuse I
vacation which would be coming.
could to stay as long as my
I loved my family, but I had been
away from home and found
parents would let me. I loved my
I was fascinated by the
stimulation and new experiences.
aunt;
I did not look forward to three
reio she had; and I delighted in
months of renewed confinement
but the key
her superb cooking
attraction was the reading. My
in the four-room farmhouse with
aunt is long since dead, and of
nothing to do. 4-
For that
course I never told her.
matter, maybe I never really
Then,
sorted it out in my own mind, but
I learned that I was going
to be sent a braille magazine
no doubt about it.
there it was
I*
during the summer months. Each
month's issue was sixty braiile
9
I would get one in June,
and hundreds of others.
I read
pages.
one in July. and one in August.
whatever the libraries sent me,
I was six, but I had
What joy!
every word of it; and I often took
learned what boredom meant
notes. By then it was clear to me
and I had also learned to plan. So
that books would be my release
from the prison of the farm and
I rationed the braille and read two
pages each day. This gave me
It was also clear to me
inactivity.
that college was part of that
something new for tomorrow. Of
course, I went back and read and
program and that somehow I was
re-read it again, but the two new
going to get there. But it was not
pages were always there for
just escape from confinement or
hope for a broader horizon or
tomorrow.
something to be gained.
It was
also a deep, ingrained love of
reading.
cAs
the school years came and
went. I got other magazines,
learned about the Library of
Ehe
background I have de-
Congress braille and talking book
collection, and got a talking book
scribed conditioned me. I did not
machine. By the time I was in
feel about reading the way I
see a
lot of people viewing it today.
the seventh grade I was receiving
a number of braille magazines
Many of today's children
seem to
and ordering books from three
have the attitude that they
are
separate regional libraries during
"forced," not "permitted," to
go to
the summer. Often I would read
that they are "required,"
school
not "given the privilege and
twenty hours a day
not every
day. of course, but often.
I read
honor," to study. They
are inun-
Gone wth the Wind. War and
dated with reading matter.
It is
Zane Grey,
Rafael
Peace,
not scarce but a veritable clutter,
Sabatini, James Oliver Curwood,
not something to strive for but to
o