Deaf School

1.     Benefit 300+ students? Really? Did you even watch the video or read the article?  Tara showed how the requirement for LSL specialists + auditory-only environment narrowed down the number of schools to two. Maybe there are three private and two public A/O schools in the state, but where are the certified LSL specialists? Hmm. I notice you haven’t offered SPECIFIC information about those schools and how or whether they meet the qualifications.

2.     FSDB serves more than 600 students on that $45 million. Not 399. It serves the full gamut of needs for a huge variety of kids. K-12, single disability (deaf or blind), multiple disabilities (deaf-blind, learning disabilities, psychiatric conditions, CP, mental retardation, physical disabilities, etc.), students from all over the state whose families don’t have access to good deaf and/or blind ed in their hometowns. Can private schools accommodate a student from a family from way out in the middle of nowhere who can’t afford to move to near the school? No. So a big chunk of that money for FSDB goes to dorms for those kids who have to live away from their families because their home schools can’t serve them. And then there’s all sorts of specialists to meet all sorts of needs – like Tara said. FSDB offers everything, including speech and auditory therapy. And they have to have counselors and therapists and etc. on staff. That’s gonna be way more expensive than offering only ONE mode and not employing any specialists in anything other than AVT and LSL.

3.     There’s a reason FSDB students often don’t enter the mainstream. They came FROM the mainstream! Some of them even came from A/O programs! State schools for the deaf are the last resort after kids can’t hack it at A/O schools or in public schools. How fair is it to judge a school that’s the dumping ground for kids that started out in A/O or public schools. When those schools can’t meet those kids’ needs, they get pushed out and into FSDB through no fault of their own or FSDB’s. And yet FSDB gets beat up for it and people yell about how expensive it is? Duh. Cleanup and damage control is expensive.

IMHO, people who spout off about choice but then tell parents the only responsible choice is AO and then back it up with questionable (or even unsourced) “research” showing ASL is oh so terrible and will gasp HURT your child!! have no place trying to stick their hands in taxpayer pockets to support something that offers absolutely no choices for parents and nothing nearly resembling a range of options as a safety net if their students don’t take 100% to the AO method. These kids just go without full language access for however long, and then they get kicked out … ahem .. “encouraged” to transfer to a program more “appropriate” to their needs.

And don’t tell me that never happens. There are posts all over the internet by those products of the system – whether still kids or now adults. As much as AG Bell and AO programs would love to pretend they don’t exist.

AO supporters go on and on and on about how ASL isn’t the only option. Um. FSDB and public schools offer ALL options, including AVT. And they have GOOD therapists and specialists too. AO private schools offer only one option and tell people that options can’t be combined. Did the dictionary change the definition of options when I wasn’t looking?

And you go on about the “ASL community” … FYI, the deaf community isn’t just ASL users, and not all ASL users use ONLY ASL. Far from it. The deaf community is way more complex than that and tons of deaf people use multiple modes … oh, wait, excuse me … OPTIONS. They sign. Many started out or grew up oral. They learned ASL later. Does that mean they're now disowned by AO even tho they still "listen" and talk with hearing people even as they use sign language to socialize with other deaf people? Good to know you lump all signers together regardless of speaking ability.  They wear CIs or hearing aids.  They talk. They lipread. They’re truly bilingual and multimodal. Get with the times and reality. It’s not two separate camps, as much as your own fantasy fairy tale might like to argue.

BTW, aren’t you hearing? You sure sound like it. Hearing people have no business telling others how to manage their deafness when they don’t even understand what it’s like to grow up or be deaf themselves. Try it first, honestly.  And just so you know, I come from an AO background and have been mainstreamed my whole life and am what you people like to call a “success story”.  I’m also fluent in ASL and have a CI. What you got to say now?  Don’t preach it until you’ve LIVED it.

medical industrial complex

"as a deaf person, I'd like to say that--while I understand why hearing people and even some deaf people would find this procedure miraculous and wonderful--I really don't share that sentiment. society's obsession with normalization is what causes cognitive and language delays in deaf children. by focusing on making a child able to hear and speak, often their language development is completely neglected until they attend school. the language window closes at 5 years of age, roughly the time when most children start kindergarten. I work at a school for the deaf and I see many kids come to us between 5-10 years of age with zero or very minimal language abilities. these children spend the rest of their school careers trying to catch up with those who were exposed to a natural language (ASL is the natural language of deaf people) at birth or at least at 2 or 3 years of age. it's really sad. this procedure is only a fix for the middle ear structures, basically an invisible, permanent hearing aid that you can never turn off. it won't make a profoundly, severely, or moderately deaf person hearing. even with a hearing aid I have to work hard at hearing. there will never be a 100% fix for deafness. I wish hearing people would stop trying to normalize us and start embracing our natural language and culture. believe me, deaf culture is a beautiful thing to be a part of. I have nothing against people who decide (on their own) that they want this surgery, but to force it onto innocent children, when the long term effects are not known and the success rate is likely very low is unethical.

if this is what it comes to.. I fucking hate science."-vivienne schroeder

I Want Honesty, Nothing More.

I think people in oral education who advocate for AVT/CI should be more honest about the high possibilities of Deaf children not being able to develop speaking and listening skills. This will enable parents to accept that their child will always be Deaf, and to celebrate this fact. ASL, Deaf culture, and Deaf community are made of intelligent, successful, and beautiful people who take pride in their existence and contribution to the world. I don't understand why AGBell and AVT advocates would want to deny the deep connection Deaf people have with each other by perpetuating the belief that ASL is inferior, ASL is for militants who hate hearing people, and ASL is for people who refuse to learn how to hear and speak. The opposite is true. Parents don't have to choose ASL OR English... parents can give their Deaf child ASL AND English. I wish I could debunk this false myth, but I don't know how. 

Give The Deaf Child WHOLE

My strong support for ASL-English bilingualism is based on my experiences as a former student who grew up attending a Deaf school, as a life-long member of the Deaf community, and as a current teacher in the Deaf education system.

As a student, I grew up seeing many oral/CI/AVT "failures" being sent to my school severely delayed in their language and cognitive development because they had failed to develop speaking and listening skills. They sent those students to CSD to learn ASL as a last resort. Those Deaf students were traumatized by their upbringing as they were taught that they were not whole because of their inability to speak or hear. They were indoctrinated to believe that the only way to "better" themselves is to become as "hearing" as possible.

As a community member, I have met many Deaf adults who communicate in limited ASL and have no knowledge of English grammar (in other words, write in broken English). Those Deaf adults are products of oral education. Since those Deaf people had "failed" to develop speaking and listening skills, they never had access to any language while growing up. Those people usually discover ASL and Deaf community later in life, and say "ASL saved my life."

Unfortunately, there are many "oral-failures" who end up in the Deaf community (we see them all the time, and they are usually labeled "angry Deaf people" by the oral advocates). Of course, they are angry for being cheated out of good education and good life by the misconceptions imposed by the cochlear industry and oral educators. Of course, they want to fight stop oral education so future Deaf children would never have to suffer like they did. I fully support their right to be angry, because they shouldn't have to go through what they went through.

Now, as a teacher, I get to hear about parents' experiences with the process of receiving information about their Deaf children from ENT doctors. Their experiences were negative and traumatizing for them. The majority, if not all, of the parents I've talked to felt forced into choosing the oral method through scare tactics. "Every deaf child deserves a chance to fail at oralism" "If he learned sign language, he would be lost to the deaf world" "He can always learn to sign later if oralism doesn't work" "If you don't give your child cochlear implants, she will always struggle in life." If parents decided to give their child cochlear implants, the doctor and AVT therapists would refuse service unless the parents promise not to use sign language with their child. To me, that is oppressive and wrong.

I'm not okay with the false assumption that cochlear implants will make every Deaf child hearing. I'm not okay with not ensuring that Deaf children receive 100% access to language, information, and education. I'm not okay with waiting until Deaf children fail at developing speaking and listening skills BEFORE giving them access to sign language. Deaf children SHOULD be allowed to get cochlear implants, learn ASL & learn how to read, write, and speak English. Give Deaf children WHOLE, don't take anything away from them.

CSD is a dumping ground for oral failures. I've grown up seeing those students, and now I'm teaching those students. It is heartbreaking.

The "ASL Route" - What Is It?

The ASL-English bilingual route means acquiring ASL naturally from birth, and then learning how to read, write, and speak English when the Deaf child is physically and cognitively ready to develop those skills (usually by 3 years old). Having a strong language foundation in L1 during 0-3 years old will enable the child to learn second language effortlessly. I've never seen any bilingual Deaf person devalue the importance of learning how to read and write English. In our bilingual schools, we teach children in BOTH languages and expect all Deaf students to have an excellent command of grammar in both languages. I am not comfortable with "hoping" the Deaf child will acquire speaking and listening skills in order to gain access to language. We want every child to succeed, regardless of their speaking and listening abilities. The ASL-English bilingual education guarantees that.

Why Gamble?

My question is... how do we ensure that EVERY Deaf child will acquire language at the same pace as hearing children? Why hold back ASL when spoken language is not 100% accessible for all Deaf children? Choosing the English-only route is a gamble... maybe the child will develop speaking and listening skills... maybe not. If not, the child will be delayed in his or her language and cognitive development. If ASL guarantees 100% access to language from birth, and guarantees fluency in both languages, why take the risk with the English-only route?