Well, in my two years of 'normal' school, I was failing badly...then transferred to a specialised school.

10 years later I'm about to submit my masters degree dissertation.

Not all blind schools are so great and not all mainstream schools are as shit as I experienced though.

I went to public school but then later in life met some people who were in the blind schools and let me tell you, sometimes it just breaks people. They don't learn how to socialize and it shows. From stalker type blind girls to "Can we make out", as the first thing they say when a girl enters the chat blind guys, and all things in between, it's just not good.

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Now, it would be wrong of me to say that's how they all are, but with enough of the pieces of the puzzle that happened to fall into place, I wouldn't trust them. At the very least, parents who want to send their children to a blind school should definitely be overseeing the process, and either bringing up concerns with the school or filling in the gaps as they see them.

I get pretty political about this stuff. I'm in the UK where the situation may be somewhat different to the USA and it has changed over time, so that special schools are now very different to what they were. A lot of the time now they prefer to support people in normal schools as opposed to sending them somewhere special.

In general though I think it's always dangerous to put people in specially prepared environments because it's not the real world. The real world isn't entirely made up of people who completely understand the position you're in, not everything is totally prepared for you. Put someone in a place where everything is carefully set up to make life easy and they don't develop coping mechanisms for when life gets hard. And life will get hard, unless you simply avoid ever taking any risks, which is not really a very practical approach. As a result I have found that the people who were most sealed in a protected bubble as kids are the least capable, most poorly socialised, most inexperienced and unworldly blind people I've come across. They're also the most likely to whine and bitch about how the world is terribly unfair to them as if it's some sort of personal slight, whereas really it's more to do with the fact that they lived a very protected life and then got dumped into reality and it seemed really harsh. It's not harsh, it's just life. Or at least maybe life is harsh. Either way, reality is what it is.

You may have gathered from my ranting that I'm not very into it. I didn't go to special school because I was 19, but I went to college, normal college. I was completely inexperienced at the time and I somehow didn't die (and did graduate).

Whether we like it or not, we live in a sighted "normal" world. Therefore we have to learn how to be integrated. I had nothing against hanging around with other blind friends and forming a peer group, there was summer camps run by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and the Canadian Council of the Blind club to be a part of when I was a teenager.

However I went to an integrated elementary school and high school. I needed a lot of assistance and I owe a debt of gratitude specifically to this one woman who was my Educational Assistant from grade one to the end of high school, we had developed a bond and I still call her up frequently, she helped me with everything from making sure I had all my textbooks, to helping me find and learn new technology, to talking to teachers about any accomodations I might need, I highly encourage anyone interested in work with disabilities to become an Educational Assistant.

Additionally in elementary school I felt like I made a lot of friends with my classmates it was a really supportive environment.

In high school I had less friends, but acted in a few drama productions, and went on a trip with 40 other students to France.

UK. I have been to "normal" schools for the entirety of my schooling, and in all honesty don't think I could ever transfer to a specialised school. it can be trickier to get the accommodations you need but you just have to be persistent and keep telling people. it's sometimes hard as you can feel like the only different person there, but eventually you get used to it and your peers may even start to consider your needs, e.g. a conversation in my psych class yesterday where they were on about the virus and how it moves around, related to windows being open, and one person said the teacher should cover their mouth as all our particles were going to them, and someone else said, "what about (my name), she needs to see the teacher" and then they mentioned the clear masks.
it can be hard to make friends as people don't always understand or get it, but I'm a introvert and fairly used to my solitude.

overall I'm glad I spent all my education in "normal" schools as I don't think I could have made the progress I have and be where I am if I had gone to a specialised school

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I really struggled in public school. I didn’t get the accessible content that I needed to pass my classes which led me to failing some of them. However, I wouldn’t have changed it.
I have met people who have been to specialized schools and their social skills are not very developed.
There is a lot of sexual misconduct that I have personally witnessed from some of these people. Not all of them or even a majority of them, but a lot of them.
Also, it’s important as a blind person to be seen by sighted people. It’s important that we don’t let our disability completely take over our lives so that we are seen as nothing except blind.
I always wanted to be in class with everybody else even though it was harder because I wanted to prove to them and to myself that there was not much difference between me and them. I wanted my career in my life and my school and education to be equally good.
Also, some of the specialized schools are not accredited. So there’s that.
At the end of the day, it just depends on who you are and what you want from your education and from your life.
There are people who do absolutely wonderful things in specialized schools. I’m not taking that away from them by any means.
It just really depends on who you are.