No More Tears

View of Manhattan from Brooklyn Promenade

I hope you have your reading glasses on and are sitting in your comfy chair, cause I got a LOT to share with you today!

First of all, Hello! I hope your Labor Day weekend was fun and relaxing, mine sure was. Don't tell anyone, but I took a quick getaway trip to NYC. For my New York friends, please don't take it personal that I didn't contact you. I spent time with my sweetiepie and the BFF, the rest of my time?... READING!!! Grad school is all about reading and discussion. At first I was hesitant about going.

Does this mean that I'm scared? 

    Am I escaping responsibility?

       Am I running away?

After debating these thoughts with my roommates the consensus was a simple, "No. Go take advantage of your 6 day weekend!" (My classes were all Mon & Tues last week!) And I am so glad that I went. It gave me a chance to see that NYC isn't going anywhere, it's still there. It will always be there. My friends and support system are still there and are just a text, phone call, email, facetime, or even four hour bus ride away. Going to New York and returning back to DC give me my confidence back. I was able to realize,

"Hey, I'm okay! I'm doing fine. After a little adjustment, I will succeed!" I feel more comfortable in class and with participating & offering my opinions in ASL. Luckily, two-weeks later my reception is a little more comfortable. I've noticed I have a little more difficulty understanding Lefty signers. No offense, lefties!! It's just visually different, obviously, and takes a little getting used to. I digress... All in all I am happy to be here and am now comfortable and confident; no more tears. Like Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo.

So. Cool stuff that happened today:

I had breakfast with a woman I had met last night in the dining plaza. She is an undergraduate student, as are most of the people I meet in the dining plaza, and wants to become a history teacher. She's from Georgia and is African-American, self described. We discussed how children are not taught the whole history of America, but a biased one. We talked about the black experience and the white experience growing up in America. We shared our experiences in public school and when we started to realize that maybe we weren't learning the whole truth nothing but the truth and real truths. I recommended a book entitled Black Like Me (I also recommend it to you). She spoke about how she grew up in Atlanta and the only white people she saw in her grandparents' house was the mailman or the electrician. I shared about my experiences studying Afro-Caribbean dance, which includes the languages, food, cultures, clothes, etc. of the people. What an interesting conversation to have during breakfast!

Thereafter, I began my pre-class to do list, which was entirely accomplished! What a great feeling. Scholarship paperwork, submitted. Orange dorm ID sticker, got it. Mail, picked up. Umbrella, purchased. (Damn you rain!) Visual Gesture & Movement class, registered. Done.

My two classes for the day were Reading/Writing for K-12 Teachers and Curriculum Planning/Technologies. I had to present a project in ASL for the first class. Of course I hadn't rehearsed at home, but I reviewed the material in my head. Well, seemed okay! Three students shared that they found it interesting and enjoyed my story about my Pathway to Literacy. That was a nice little esteem booster. It also let me know that I was clear in communication. Something I'm always worried about... in both languages. Then in the Curriculum class, I participated a lot! Probably too much. Sometimes I just can't stop sharing. I'm glad that today, I could understand most of what folks were saying. The few times I didn't, I had enough comfort to ask people to clarify. And that was okay. Just like when people ask me to clarify a classifier, it's okay.

One concept I have been steadily familiar with and am just now strongly experiencing, is that the Deaf community is so familiar, comfortable, and knowledgeable with technology. If you think about it, it makes sense. So much of communication is involved with technology. Your cellphone, iPad, wireless keyboard, Microsoft PowerPoint, email, texting, video chat, alarm system, etc. are all ways in which we communicate ideas, needs, thoughts, desires, expressions, disappointments and joys. Deaf people value equal access to information. Hearing people assume if you can't keep up with what's being given, you must be lacking in intellect. Typical hearing folks, judging people by the quality of their auditory reception skills. Accommodation doesn't equal disabled. Different comprehension technique doesn't mean less qualified. Different just means different.

This leads me to another concept within Deaf culture. The Deaf community firmly believes in the values of sending d/Deaf children to Deaf schools. Deaf schools are a place where the language is the same and supported, information is administered in the child's natural language, it is a central pillar to the Deaf community and culture. It is a place where Deaf people meet and exchange ideas with other Deaf people. It is not a place of judgment or misinformation; which is how many Deaf folks view mainstreaming.

Brown vs. Board of Education

Now Closed Mental Institution

Now comparatively, hearing people view Deaf Institutes as a bad idea. Why? The term institute reminds many of mental institutions and how unproductive and abusive those centers were/are/can be. Another negative relationship mainstream America has with "different" schools is the Seperate But Equal philosophy ever so prevalent in the early 1900's South. Hearing folks think that by mainstreaming Deaf children with interpreters they will benefit more by being considered more equal, more similar, more socialized with hearing children. But education with interpretation invites such a margin of error and misinformation. During my brief time of studying to become an interpreter, one of the several ethics topics we discussed was the instance of interpreting for a Deaf high school student who asks us to help him with homework or wants to discuss his family life to vent. What about the dating life of Deaf mainstreamed students? I doubt any 16-year-old wants a third wheel coming along to interpret during dinner, a movie, and an already awkward goodbye.

The point I'm trying to drive home, is that segregated schools are immoral and discredit an entire community. However, different schools just mean a different language. Deaf education does not mean separate/unequal/disabled education. It is simply education in a different language. Did you know that it is somewhat popular for Americans of French descent to send their children to private schools which only speak and teach in French here, in the states. What's so different about those schools and Deaf schools? 

Elementary School for Deaf Children in Utah

High School for French Speakers in NY