Extra Credit Qu.3 SDSBVI

              The South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, SDSBVI, has been around for over 100 years. It was first opened on March 1, 1900 in Gary, South Dakota. The campus consisted of the administration office, girls’ dormitory, boys’ dormitory, auditorium, several barns, and a large chicken house. The school also kept a large dairy herd, raised hogs, chickens, and planted large gardens. They used the resources they got from the animals and from the gardens on campus along with selling things like milk, meat, eggs, and vegetables to the community.

                In 1957 there was talk about relocating the school because the town of Gray had a lack of opportunity for city travel experiences and the proximity to a college. So after about a year of searching for a new and better place to put the school, the State Legislature passed a bill authorizing that the school would be relocated to Aberdeen. The State Legislature gave $800,000 to the purpose of building the new school of the blind on the land that was donated to them by the citizens of Aberdeen. The first class in the new Aberdeen building was on September 18, 1961. After seven years of the school being open, they built an activities building. Inside this building was a gymnasium auditorium which gave them space for their students to have physical education, recreation, music, drama, and other fun activities.

                Throughout the years the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired have been continuing to grow and change. They have been advancing in their teaching methods and have been able to expand the limits on who the can teach. For example in 1979 the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired was able to start serving the deaf blind. They were also able to start doing this because of the funding from the state.

                The students that go here do not go to public school and many of them live on campus there at the school in Aberdeen. There are many things that the kids are able to do while attending the school for the blind. There are different school councils and groups that they can be a part of. There are also many different activities they are able to do including music, forensics, goalball, bowling, SPURS (Special People Using Riding Skills), swimming, track and field, Special Olympics, and other residential outings and activities. I think they’re doing a good job teaching the students there how to live as close to a normal life as they can there by letting them do things that everyone else gets to. I feel like their motto really fits to what they are trying to do there to help those kids, Visions of a Brighter Tomorrow through Education.


http://sdsbvi.northern.edu/alumni-history.htm