I grew up with deaf world too! I was in Shirley’s shoes when I was in the mainstreaming school part of my school days. My daughter, Suzy is also deaf and is the 4th generation of my father’s side. I see the difference in our generation. Suzy graduated masters with honors from Gallaudet University when my grandmother, father, and I didn’t. WHY????? We were educated differently. The school administration was always in control of our learning education with forced to learn speech whereas I, as Suzy’s mother, was in control of her education. She started ASL first. I made sure she got the best teachers. I made sure that the school did not register her into the speech class because it would be waste for her to put up with learning to speak. She was ranked 50th in the public high school graduates. She took all academic classes with the hearing students with highly qualified interpreters. So what has AGBell proved that speech is the best tool for all deaf and hard of hearing kids? They are so wrong! ASL is the most beautiful language of all…that is!
I grew up with deaf world too! I was in Shirley’s shoes when I was in the mainstreaming school part of my school days. My daughter, Suzy is also deaf and is the 4th generation of my father’s side. I see the difference in our generation. Suzy graduated masters with honors from Gallaudet University when my grandmother, father, and I didn’t. WHY????? We were educated differently. The school administration was always in control of our learning education with forced to learn speech whereas I, as Suzy’s mother, was in control of her education. She started ASL first. I made sure she got the best teachers. I made sure that the school did not register her into the speech class because it would be waste for her to put up with learning to speak. She was ranked 50th in the public high school graduates. She took all academic classes with the hearing students with highly qualified interpreters. So what has AGBell proved that speech is the best tool for all deaf and hard of hearing kids? They are so wrong! ASL is the most beautiful language of all…that is!
Comment by Debra — March 13, 2008 @ 4:22 pm |Edit This