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Please Support Jeannette Johnson’s Cause – MSU Deaf Ed
By egbertpress | December 10, 2009
Jeannette Johnson’s blog, http://deafpundit.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/msus-rationale-for-closing-deaf-ed-program/ , asking us to write letters and spread the word about MSU’s closure of the Deaf Education program.
Deaf Bilingual Coalition fully supports this and urge you all to write or copy this letter with some changes and email to those at MSU. The email addresses are in Jeannette’s blog and please click the blog url above.
Thank you,
John Egbert
Deaf Bilingual Coalition
December 10, 2009
To the Michigan State University Board of Trustees,
The Deaf Bilingual Coalition (http://www.dbcusa.org/) would like to take this opportunity to strongly encourage Michigan State University to reconsider and maintain its Deaf Education Program and American Sign Language classes. Deaf Education programs around the nation that include bilingual, i.e., ASL and English, teacher training programs are a critical component of ensuring high quality education for Deaf children and their families. Without these training programs, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is significantly breached in the area of continuum of educational programming which a state offers its citizens.
Deaf children are significantly at risk of developmental delays when they do not have access to curricula in their visual language of American Sign Language from a teacher who is fluent in ASL. Currently, there are thousands of children placed in schools across Michigan and the U.S. who are not being educated through their primary language. The long-term consequences of the lack of quality training programs for teachers can create unnecessary academic delays for Deaf children and even cause educational failure. The potential consequences of a lack of ASL/English bilingual offerings for Deaf children are significant, ranging from developmental delays, unemployment, and social and emotional problems.
For these reasons, colleges and universities which have Deaf Education Programs and offer ASL classes that acknowledge the importance of bilingual education, such as MSU, are extremely important to Deaf children and their families.
The Deaf Bilingual Coalition has seen the positive outcomes of quality Deaf Education Teacher Training programs. This letter is, therefore, written today to strongly encourage you to reconsider the previously announced intention of closing the program and to direct that it remain open and operating for the sake of Deaf children and their families in the state of Michigan and across the nation.
Sincerely,
John Egbert
Founder of DBC
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
December 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I support 1000 percent. We need to save Deaf Education. It is very important for Michigan State University even plus future deaf children’s sake.
My father was class of 1958 from MSU!
Cheers Charles
December 11th, 2009 at 11:51 am
[...] Legal Issues, Media, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized) I would like to thank John Egbert for his blog post expressing support for my efforts to keep the Deaf Education program open at MSU. However, I wanted [...]