ASL Rose Newsletter
Vol. 3 No. 2
March 2009
"How to Break the Vicious Cycle of Deaf Education
for Young Deaf Children"
- MCE = Manually Coded English
- Sim-Com = Simultaneous Communication
- TC = Total Communication
- AVT = Auditory Verbal Therapy
- SSS = Sign-Supported Speech
Education of the Deaf in the United States and many other nations won't be improved for a simple reason: the Deaf educational system is laden with hearing-centric ideas of how to educate Deaf youngsters, and sadly, remains unchanged for many years. By looking around to the Deaf educational settings all over the world, ASL Rose hopes that you are not blinded to the fact of endlessly dismal results, even with the promise of cochlear implants to make a positive difference in Deaf children's academic, linguistic, communicative, and social development.
Hearing-centric educational/communication practices for Deaf children must be ceased if we want to see a major improvement in the education of the Deaf. That will require a big-time paradigm shift in order to break up the vicious cycle of big-time failure in the education of the Deaf.
Otherwise, nothing will be improved in the education of the Deaf for many years. That the existing educational and communication practices in many educational programs don't properly match the cognitive and communicative needs of Deaf children is likened to the notion of promoting slavery.
Tamara Davidson must be thanked for her illustrious drawing of the picture in which she shows that Deaf children are, figuratively speaking, forced into slavery. They face a heavy burden of carrying on required tasks and strictly adhering to a hearing-centric educational method and approach. Even though such a method is unnatural and unworkable for many young Deaf children, they are still "whipped" to continue on with a certain method and have no say about other ways leading to their future destinations. Building a pyramid is likened to Deaf children who are enslaved to hearing-centric educators of the Deaf. Deaf children don't want the pyramid for themselves, yet are forced to build it. While building it, they find it meaningless and having no part in their lives. Deaf children face a vicious cycle if they continue to build another pyramid.
The vicious cycle of hearing-centric educational and communication practices must be broken by the implementation of the following ten steps that must be taken first and foremost before we can see real improvements in the education of the Deaf:
- Stop valuing audiogram to determine educational plans for young Deaf children.
- Stop using deafened children (after five years old) to serve as examples for the success of Deaf education.
- Stop espousing the oralism as first choice for education of young Deaf children.
- Stop imposing Manually Coded English and artificial sign/cue systems on young Deaf children
- Stop idealizing young Deaf children to function like Hearing children.
- Stop becoming obsessive on the importance of sound for young Deaf children to hear.
- Stop emphasizing the drilling of spoken/written languages on young Deaf children.
- Stop assuming that spoken language can be fully accessible to young Deaf children.
- Stop depending on the promise of auditory technology as young Deaf children's first language acquisition.
- Stop devaluing signed languages for young Deaf children.
The co-owners of ASL Rose experienced many of the oppressive situations as mentioned above during their school days and wish not to see the continuance of such deep-rooted educational and communication practices on today's Deaf children. Deaf adults who were victims of poor education surely have much to say about their negative educational experiences. If the "Hearing" world is open-minded and willing to listen to what the Deaf say about their educational upbringings in Deaf education, it would then be the first significant step to improve the educational system for young Deaf children. On the other hand, education of the Deaf cannot be improved and will continue to face dismal results if hearing-centric educators remain in control.
The second drawing by Tamara Davidson in this newsletter is a perfect portrayal of what many Deaf people want to see in the education of the Deaf. They cannot think of anything better and more appropriate than a bilingual-bicultural education where signed language and spoken languages are accepted along with the respect of both the Deaf and Hearing culture. It is an emancipative process for all Deaf children because it is Deaf-centric educational and communication programs that are unquestionably workable and natural. The positive benefits of the bilingual-bicultural education for Deaf children are too numerous to be listed. Most important of all, young Deaf children are to acquire a signed language as the build-up of first language before moving on to learn a second language. With the possession of both languages, they become better communicators and more educated beings. They will participate in both the Deaf world and Hearing world with greater effectiveness. Ultimately, they become contributing members of their societies. By the way, there is no mystery in planning for the educational success of Deaf children; it can come only from the Deaf-centric, not Hearing-centric educational and communication practices.
