I finished reading closeminded twit. It’s ignorant bigots like this one that are the reason I believe that at least half the educators working with the deaf should themselves be deaf; preferably also mainstreamed so that they actually understand the real issues involved. Instead of getting all fluttery over academic scores. Notice how they do that? “Oh they’re getting good grades, so obviously everything is wonderful.” Bah. This idiot woman should take note that I think she’s full of it — and I’m a complete success by her standards! The sad thing is there are no doubt plenty of people like her.

I think what particularly enrages me about this is that there is no excuse for their ignorance. They have plenty of opportunities to actually see what is going on. I suspect that for many of these people, they simply get their rocks off on being the sympathetic and nice (but ultimately powerful) person taking care of all these helpless people. I see the same thing in all kinds of volunteer/social work (check out the attitude of social workers toward the poor some time as a perfect parallel example) or work with the “disadvantaged” and it drives me nuts.

OK, didn’t mean to go off into rantsville. I do encourage people to read this book: it’s an important additional perspective on what is all too common a deaf experience. If you were yourself a solitaire, you simply must read it…you will see yourself on every page. If you tend to think “oral deaf” are traitors, unable to be Deaf, or even the model of “successful deaf,” etc…you should read this book, too.