We're Going on a Bear Hunt

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

This is one of my favorite children’s books. Rich in vocabulary and family togetherness, the book provides the family with different kind of activities.  Typically, you can sign, read, and/or sing. You can act out the words. The book invites the family to go out and experience nature at its best – except for the bear! Something about the family cowering under the covers is so endearing! It always makes my family giggle at the end.

Artwork and Book Reading

This is my son with his artwork

This is my daughter with her artwork.

One year, Deaf children were invited to show their artwork at an art gallery in Rancho Santa Fe, California. It was a memorable evening for the families. 

In looking for the pictures of artwork to display for my class homework, I came across another picture I thought was relevant to our Early Childhood Studies. In photo below, my daughter signed the book, If You're Happy and You Know It at a Literacy Faire sponsored by Alliance for Language and Literacy for Deaf Children in San Diego.

"A child miseducated is a child lost."

“A child miseducated is a child lost.”

           - John F. Kennedy

That’s what frequently happens to our American Deaf students. The focus of their preschool experiences is too focused on hearing & speech or learning how to talk. Sadly, speech is not equal to language that would also be critically essential for their cognitive and executive function developments. Consequently, they have either delayed or deprived language development.

The classroom for Deaf preschoolers is ideologically driven. I learned from this video, The Passion for Early Childhood, that the child should be focus of our teaching. A good teacher works to accommodate the child's unique needs and strengths, and adapts accordingly if it is not effective.

So, we lose the Deaf child when the child is miseducated.

What a sad double whammy.

Reference:

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010) The passion for early childhood. Baltimore: Author

The Courage to Sign and Speak Up

Recently, I saw an exhibit called "The Courage to Remember." It is a traveling Holocaust exhibit, produced by the Museum of Tolerance, the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, that features 200 exclusive photographs along with commentaries and quotes.

It was frightening to see the similarities of their resolution to do away with the Jewish population with the determination of certain parents & professionals in the United States who are determined to do away with ASL-Deaf People and the language they speak, American Sign Language.

All you need to do is read the quotes from Hitler himself and from some recognizable names such as Joseph Goebbels and insert the word “ASL-Deaf people” in those quotables.

Read on. The quotes are nothing short of chilling.

“The Jew (ASL-Deaf) is our greatest enemy.”
-propaganda on blackboard

“So I believe that I act in the spirit of Almighty God; by defending myself against the Jew (ASL-Deaf), I’m fighting for the work of the Lord.
-Adolf Hitler, 1924, Mein Kampf

“As to annihilate German Jewry (ASL-Deaf) …let no one doubt our resolution.”
-Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, 1933

“…harshness is kindness toward the future…”
-Adolf Hitler, March 1941

“It is good that we are preceded by an aura of terrors for our plans to exterminate Jewry (ASL-Deaf).”
-Adolf Hitler, October 1941

“By reason of their birth and race, all Jews (ASL-Deaf) are part of an international conspiracy against National Socialist Germany (oral-deaf). The treatment we give them does them no wrong. They have more than deserved it.”
-Joseph Goebbels, November 1941

“The Jewish Quarter of Warsaw (ASL-Deaf) is no more.”
-S.S. General Jurgen Stroop, Warsaw Report 1943

Finally at Nuremberg Trials, 1945:

“They are living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism & violence, and of the arrogance & cruelty of power.”
-Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson
Nuremberg 1945

If you need evidence of the current propaganda against ASL-Deaf people, just start with the pseudo deaf-friendly website: thedeafcommunity.org. It was created by two parents in Florida who believe they are representing the Deaf Community.

Here are some examples from their website:

1. “…Here we represent the greater good of the entire deaf community…”
Questions: Who’s “we?” Who's the "entire community?" What's the "greater good?" (see quote #3 below where they contradict themselves)

2. “…The Deaf Community is organizing an army of individuals to join us in this mission...”
Questions: What are they organizing an army for? Who are the individuals they are asking to join them?

3. “…A small minority of deaf individuals do not believe in choice and are anti-oral. We do not represent them.
Question: Why would they exclude ASL-Deaf people if they claim to represent the Deaf Community? (see how this contradicts #1 quote)

4. “So we decided to take our name back! The truth is that no one speaks for the whole community.”

Those border on the outrageous like the quotes spewed by Hitler and Goebbels.

It is incredulous to me that those parents and professionals -- who are trying to make their deaf children “hearing” -- are taking the “Deaf community” from me who is ASL-Deaf and a member of 4 generations of ASL-Deaf people. I am fine with being a member of ASL-Deaf culture/community except that they told us there's no such thing.

Kind of reminds me of the quote:

“Rumors are carried by Haters spreaded by Fools and accepted by Idiots.”
-Unknown

My Favorite Library Experience

Note: in 2002, my local public library had a “My Favorite Library Experience” writing contest. I encouraged my two deaf children to write something because they offered cash prizes. They scoffed at my suggestion and told me to write it myself. I took their challenge, and won a second-prize of $75. Guess who then wanted me to take them to dinner!


I grew up in a small town in Indiana. It was an idyllic childhood where all we ever did all summer was to swim in the local swimming pool. Can’t say anything exciting ever happened in the years that I lived there. My deaf father was a factory worker, and my deaf mother a housewife who raised four children. I don’t remember much about the town that I was born in because I was sent away to a boarding school in Indianapolis. BUT I have a favorite library experience.

Every week during the summer months, my two deaf sisters and I would ride our bicycles to the library that’s on the edge of the town about two miles away. Once there, we would stay for hours. I would then become comfortable sitting on the library floor with books piled up around me. Eventually, my second oldest sister would come and let me know it was time to go home. I would pick books that I wanted to borrow. Each one of us would have a huge stack of books, but they would have to fit in the wire basket of our bikes. Now, during those days, backpacks were unheard of, and that was a very old-fashioned way of lugging books.

Anyhow, one summer day after putting books carefully in the wire basket, we raced to get home. I was riding behind my two sisters when I bumped into the sidewalk that was buckled. I remember vividly how my books went up in the air and scattered all over the ground. My sisters had to come back and helped me put the books back in the wire basket. The moment seems so insignificant, but somehow I thought of that moment rather quickly and fondly when I saw the announcement of the “My Favorite Library Experience.”

Indeed, my sisters and I continued going to the library when my second oldest sister got her driver’s license and started to drive us everywhere. Driving in the family car rather on our respective bikes with wire baskets only meant we could borrow bigger stacks of books.

Today, my children and I recall the really small branch library in Solana Beach Plaza on the other side of the freeway. I didn’t know how my mother allowed us to ride so far to the library because I wouldn’t allow my really young children ride their bikes on Lomas Santa Fe. A few years later, the library moved to new quarters a few blocks away from our home. Happily, we now walk down to the library. Hopefully, my children have their own favorite library story of walking down to the library and having their backpack spill their books.

As a postscript, I returned to my hometown for my grandmother’s funeral a few years ago. My sisters and I decided to drive around our small but idyllic town. I made sure to drive by the town’s library. It was still a beautiful building. The sidewalks were still buckled.

Raising our Consciousness about Audism

by Sheri Farinha and Marla Hatrak

John Locke (1632-1704) said, “…new opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they aren’t already common…A solution would be a devotion to freedom of ideas and expressions.”

We would like to assert that, in our community, audism is real.

Recent blogs and vlogs by deaf people claim that the term audism is being overused, or cry false when another author uses the term audist. The perceptions of what audism is and what audism is not vary widely. Although the term, audism, is relatively new, the concept is a practice that has been around for hundreds of years. Granted, labeling every negative feeling about a situation can be problematic, but disregarding complaints about audism can be hurtful. Every situation is worth examining. The term audism helps us to identify situations for what they are, and move toward knowledge and even improving our world.

But first, we need to develop a shared understanding of the term. At this time, when the idea of audism is relatively new, there seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding about what audism is or is not. Realize that the issue is an age-old problem, even if the newness of the term audism is being resisted.

Audism, as coined by Tom Humphries in 1975, is defined as:

“The notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears.”

According to Dr. Humphries, audism is “an attitude and belief that people who hear and speak, or have good English are superior. This applies whether the person who hears and speaks is Deaf or Hearing.” (http://deafness.about.com/cs/deafculture/a/audism.htm)

Interestingly, another definition of audism can be found on About.com:Deafness website:

“What is audism? A simple definition would be that it is a negative or oppressive attitude towards Deaf people by either deaf or hearing people and organizations, and a failure to accommodate them. People who have audist attitudes are considered to be audist. For example, the refusal or failure to use sign language in the presence of a sign language-dependent person is considered audism.” (http://deafness.about.com/cs/deafculture/a/audism.htm)

Another definition to share comes from AFA (Audism Free America): “Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.” (http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/ )

Using these three definitions of audism, we can see how audism aptly describe the experience in our daily lives interacting with hearing people and deaf people. This is only experienced by people who are deaf – not anyone else - never mind how much they can hear or how well they can speak, or how they choose to communicate.

We want to clear up one important thing: a person’s decision to have a cochlear implant does not make the person audist and by itself, it is not audism. There are people who have CIs, interact mainly within the hearing community but who also are respectful towards deaf people in the deaf community. Cool. We also know folks who have CIs but mainly interact with Deaf people. Cool. Where the line gets crossed is when an individual thinks that, by getting a CI, he or she is now better than deaf people who do not have a CI or who do not “hear and use voice.” In other words - -If you use your ability to hear to put down others who can’t, that’s audism. Not cool.

Every Deaf person is affected by audism, resulting in what’s called “dysconscious audism” and some are more seriously affected than others. Many haven’t had an opportunity to honestly explore the various levels of audism around us and within us. This article is one way to begin this self-reflection and analysis.

There are many layers of audism. It’s important to check within ourselves for the attitude displayed, which may indicate audism as defined above, be it conscious or dysconscious.

Whether it has to do with your experiences on the job, or experiences in your social or family life, there remains a great need to raise our consciousness and show respect for all individuals who are Deaf

We don't think many people realize that those of us who were born to hearing parents and who grew up with a lot of interaction with the hearing community--especially if we were mainstreamed--dealt with audism but didn’t know it at the time.

Many of us have lived through thousands of put-downs and insults by members of the hearing community, whether intentional or unconscious; those types of interactions have left their scars on many of us.

Sheri and I dialogued about our life experiences. Here Sheri lists a few:

Humiliation:
In 8th grade, we lived in Ohio for a short time. A hearing boy passed his class ring to others to pass to me during class to ask me to go steady. By the time the ring got to me, I was shocked at the mocking laughter by all students in the class, as if they thought I would take it seriously. "Give it to the Deaf girl.”
Discrimination:
When I was in high school I applied for a job at one of the Williams Sonoma stores. They interviewed me and then told me they could not hire me because I was Deaf. I was so upset. Went home and told my Mom. To this day, my family and I refuse to shop there.

Put-down:
Shopping at Macys, another customer approached me upon learning I was Deaf, (because I did not hear the cashier call out "next,") and said to me, "you really should get a CI, then you would not need to use sign language, my daughter’s niece has it and loves it." I felt insulted by her approach toward me as her attitude was one of disdain and impatience; it took a great deal of restraint not to offer my middle finger.

Marla adds:
Dysconscious audism:
When I was a high schooler and a college student, I would look down with disdain those who had poor English skills. It made me feel good I was “not one of those Deaf people with poor English skills.” After I decided it was a very wrong attitude, I have since then always offered to edit deaf people’s English when they wanted their papers in English.

Put-down:
There was a woman at my church who taught my Deaf daughter 4th grade-6th grade Sunday school when my daughter was a 4th grader (my daughter had an interpreter). She was her teacher for a few years. Then she had a baby who they discovered was deaf. My church interpreter informed me, and I invited the family to our house to talk. She did not accept my invitation. I understood at that time why she would not want to meet with me and my family. A few years later, I joined a Community Bible Study that met every week. During my second year, I was surprised to see that woman again in my group. I tried to be pleasant, but she would never make eye contact with me. Never talked with me. Once, she was absent a few weeks, and when she returned, she said hi to every one except me (there was probably ten women in our group). I wanted to run out of the bible study, but I didn’t. To this day, it still hurts, no matter how I try to understand the situation.

In each situation it is very hard to forget it. Triggers, every now and then, bring such stories to the surface. For some people, the experiences take a lifetime to heal. With each situation we could ask ourselves, was it really audism or was it prejudice?

Prejudice is the pre-judging of a situation or person without having all of the facts. Prejudice refers to any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence. All audism is prejudice, but not all prejudice is audism.

We feel we ALL have the moral responsibility to ensure our deaf community is respectful and to be more conscious of things said or done and to ensure that our actions do not cross the line into audism. We'd like to invite you to join us in this discussion to communally list examples of comments or experiences that are clearly acts of audism and some examples that sound like audism but are not. From this, we hope to see a new checklist developed, to refer to when new situations surface.

People should make sure -- every time they use that word, audism -- it isn’t an accusation. People should, for a while, include a short description of why they think a comment, situation, etc., is audism. This would prevent a rush of judgment when we describe the incident and why we think it is a case of audism.

We hope you can also share your experiences here with us to dialogue and learn about audism vs. prejudice. Our goal is to help our community develop a behavior checklist one can utilize as a self-assessment at some point. This is done in other communities for racism.

Please feel free to participate in this open forum. We ask that you follow the 10 ground rules listed in guidelines provided by NAACP posted on Handeyes site: http://handeyes.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/possible-model-for-guidelines-re-social-networking/

Thank you for joining us to do your part to raise consciousness about audism!

Our best, Marla and Sheri

Deaf Education Scores or Deaf Students' Language Scores?

This is in response to Valhallian’s comment left in my blog posting of “A Response to California Academy of Audiologists’ Opposition to AB2072. His comments were:

“You bring up quite legitimate points. What I am wondering though, is there any way that one could compare test scores between the various communication modes? For example, I would imagine one may be able to acquire various state test scores from various deaf schools? Altho I also understand that some states do not even post the test scores of there state schools for the deaf. If it is proven that ASL-based programs show higher test scores, in reading, math, etc., than other communication modes, then it would be very easy to stand by those results and flaunt them in the legislators faces. Until that happens, unfortunately, odds are that the power of lobbying will go a long ways in determining the direction that legislation goes. I look forward to reading more of your blog postings.”

I did not want to offer my opinions as much as I am tempted to. I promised Valhallian I would make some inquiries and get back to him. Here’s what I learned:


There are too many variables to determine “test scores between the communication options.”

To clarify, the term, “communication options,” is really a misnomer. There are only two languages, American Sign Language (ASL) and oral English. Then there are communication methods like Total Communication and Cued Speech. They are actually tools of oral English.

So, we need to ask how many students have enough “language skills” that when they become Kindergarteners, they are “ready” to learn academically.

In the State of California, deaf students’ scores are a part of special education students’ scores. That means that deaf students’ scores are mixed with autistic, or blind, or developmentally-delayed students’ scores. This is one of the reasons why we are unable to answer your question.

Only through a legislative mandate were we able to cull the 2007 scores that were dismal and heartbreaking. To get the 2010 scores of deaf students would require another legislative mandate.

FACT: only 8% of deaf and 15% hard of hearing children are reading at proficient (grade level) or advanced levels (above grade level).
(Source: http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/se/agdeaf.asp)

There are 4000 deaf students and 8000 hard-of-hearing students in the State of California. According to the statistics above, only 320 (out of 4000) deaf students and 1200 hard of hearing (out of 8000) students are reading at grade level or above.

Between California Schools for the Deaf, Fremont and Riverside, there is approximately 1000 students. They receive many “transfer” students from mainstreamed or public schools for a variety of reasons. It is “common” to suggest that state schools for the deaf have become “dumping grounds” for failing students.

Many of those transfer students at ages 12 and older have delayed language development. That would unfairly influence their yearly academic scores.

Private oral schools are small schools, and they are not required to post statistics. If their students were so successful, you would think they would volunteer to post scores. In reality, their successful oral deaf students go to mainstreamed public schools, while their oral-language-delayed students stay in oral private schools or eventually transfer to a deaf school. Their “successful students” could also decide to transfer to schools for the deaf. And their failures do not show in their scores.

Many times have I heard oral deaf students would have sign language interpreters in their classes. I’ve always been baffled how a deaf student could be “oral” and have sign language interpreters in their classes. If they didn’t have their sign language interpreters, would they make it academically?

Again, now, you can see why the scores would not reflect this appropriately. An oral student could be successful because of the sign language interpreter, not the oral language choice.

You get the idea why all of the school scores for deaf students do not show their “true colors” of the schools.

That leaves us with 11,000 DHH students whose language choices we do not know. They are not likely to speak American Sign Language. Nevertheless, the statistics above tell us that most definitely those deaf students have impoverished or delayed language that clearly have effects on their reading scores.

Now, there are only a handful of ASL schools in America.

Again, those schools along with most state schools for the deaf probably get most of their students when they are transferred for a variety of reasons such as failing academically or inadequate social opportunities.

It would require experienced statisticians/researchers to take all of California’s 12,000 deaf students’ scores and analyze them accurately and appropriately.

What we will need to do is to ask for another legislative mandate to confirm that many of our personal opinions that could actually be baseless. Each and every one of us has an “opinion,” (I am equally guilty.) and over the process of doing so, some of those “opinions” have become mis-facts.


RANDOM MUSING:

Louis D. Brandeis said:

“Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.”