News Article: "Miss Greene in London"

This artifact is about Mary Caroline Greene, an inspiring teacher of the blind in London at the Royal Normal College. Mary was born in Fitchburg, MA, on July 3, 1829. Miss Greene was very passionate about reading and studying throughout her school days. She wanted to pursue her compassion for teaching, so she left school and taught from home.

Mary was influenced by her brother's family friend, Dr. Edward Jarvis. Dr. Jarvis was who really inspired her to start teaching the blind. She then started to assist the blind and then eventually got a teaching job in the Perkins School for the Blind. Perkins School for the Blind is located in Watertown, MA. This school helps educate the visually impaired and blind with reading braille, learning about school topics as well as everyday necessities. Helen Keller is a famous blind and deaf author who graduated from Perkins School for the Blind and was the first blind-deaf person who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Miss Greene was very happy teaching her students at Perkins, but after about eight years Sir Francis Campbell asked for assistance from Mary. Campbell was known for his work with the blind in England. Mary agreed to help Campbell even though she struggled leaving her pupils. This is when they traveled to London, and Campbell was asked to recommend someone to become “superintendent of the department of education of blind children over at Royal Normal College for the blind. This college was known as 'the place where blind children were taught to do wonderful things when they grow up." (Campbelle). Miss Greene was who he chose as to recommend, and she agreed to take the job.

Four ladies were selected from the Royal Normal College to teach under Mary’s supervision. She believed in these ladies to teach the blind, and “the children themselves felt the sympathy and the greater interest of their teachers,” who were also blind (Campbelle). Mary Greene, who was not visually impaired, was teaching the students at Normal Royal College for the blind how to teach blind children. She was devoted to helping the pupils; they would always come first. Miss Greene knew these students personally and did whatever was necessary for them to attend school even if it seemed to be impossible. Mary would look up blind children at their homes, either to insure their attendance in school or to check its irregularity. She went far out of her way to help the kids who felt hopeless.

After about twenty years, twelve graduates from the Royal Normal College were being employed as teachers of the blind by the London School Board. Some of these graduates were taught by Miss Greene, although not all of her students could afford to graduate. Royal College took a great deal of money to attend, which was not very fair. A disabled person shouldn't have to pay any extra amount of money because of the way they were born or any disability that they have encountered. It’s not fair that students with visual disabilities cannot grow up and get an education because it is too expensive to attend a school for their specific needs.The college did offer scholarships: That meant that they could go in for much less money, and perhaps their parents could pay the rest.

They should either make schools for the blind more affordable or start offering classes at other schools. It is a common disability that we should be adapting to and making it something that we can offer to a larger amount of people that may need it. More schools should be involved with making accommodations for disabled students because it isn’t their fault that they are disabled, so there is no need to make their lives more difficult. The spectrum is so broad that we should be looking at all the different types of people and their needs. Some schools have braille already, but it should be in every school. There should be sign language classes in every school for the children who have a hearing disability.

The inclusion in general education classrooms should be bigger. Just because some students may have a disability does not mean that they should not have the same or close enough schooling experience as every other child. Some schools may have disabled children integrated into classes like gym or art but other schools do not include the kids in any other room besides the one that essentially just groups everyone with a learning disability.

Students in general should not have to lower their experiences or goals due to the way others may think of them. More places should be more adaptable to the people who need that extra help. Anything can happen at any day and time leaving more people getting all sorts of impairments or disabilities that may be affecting their lives due to any accident or medical condition. This means that as time goes on we should be making more resources open and available to the people that may need it. They may have a physical difference, but they are still people who deserve to live their lives just like everyone else.

Mary retired at the age of 70, happily as she wanted to say goodbye before she was eventually too old and would be asked to resign. Working with people who are visually impaired or blind , teaching braille and teaching them how to use their other senses to navigate through everyday life, can be a very difficult task. Not being able to see can be frustrating for someone trying accomodate for their disability. Trying to learn braille by only hearing and feeling may be complicated, and on the other hand it may be hard to teach someone who is visually impaired, but Mary had a drive for it and enjoyed helping those with visual impairments. As the news article states, “she has brought a lofty singleness of purpose and an energy of will, rarely equalled.”

Campbelle, Charles F. ​Outlook for the Blind:a Quarterly Record of the Progress and Welfare of the Blind​. Vol. 3, Massachusetts Association for Promoting the Interest for the Blind, 1909.