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| THE INTERPRETER | |
| Volume III, Issue 1 | January/February/March 2000 |
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| THE INTERPRETER | |
| Volume III, Issue 1 | January/February/March 2000 |
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In a speech made in June by Dr David Burton, Secretary of North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services, he claimed that teaching deaf children sign language instead of speech is a "kind of child abuse" and that these children have been "sentenced by us to silence." These statements caused a great stir within the Deaf and friend/family of deaf communities. Later, Dr. Burton retracted some of his comments and expounded (even more ignorantly) on what he really was trying to say. His new intention was to say that the Deaf need to be able to talk English in order to function in a predominately English speaking country. What this doctor fails to realize is that even if a deaf person can speak English, he cannot hear it spoken back! The Deaf must lip read in order to understand what a person says in response. Here is a cute little test that Tera and I used to play when we were dating that Dr. Burton can try that will prove how ridiculous his comments are: Take a Q-tip and jab them hard into your ear until the ear drum bursts. Then, have a person, for this game, a female is preferred, sit across from you at a table. Give the girl two phrases to say, have her say them randomly, and try to figure out what she is saying by lip reading. The two phrases are: "elephant chew" and "I love you." These phrases are almost identical in the way they are said and are very hard to distinguish between. Many misinformed educators attempt to liken teaching English to the Deaf as the same as teaching Spanish speaking students English. However, this is like comparing apples to oranges, totally different and you cannot compare the two, they are not the same. People like Dr Burton, who are in control of our education systems, need to step back and then walk forward in the shoes of a deaf child, to truly understand the need that they have. The true crime, real child abuse, lies in the ignorance of what it means to be deaf and how that reflects on both their lives and the hearing world's lives.> The purpose of this section is for your voice to be heard, please respond with your comments to: isign4deaf@theinterpreter.net. From the Deaf's Perspective My son is 3 years old and was implanted at 2 and a half. I have always resented people telling me that I am ashamed of my son's deafness, hence the implant. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I want my son to take as much pride in his rich Deaf heritage as in his Asian heritage. Just as immigrating to the U.S. has not made me less aware or proud of my Asian roots, |
having a cochlear implant doesn't make my son less deaf, it's just a fancy, expensive hearing aid which will make it easier for him to acquire speech and learn English. My son is not withdrawn and lonely. He has playmates with both Deaf and hearing children. He also takes Creative Dance and Gymnastics. He does not remove his hearing aid for either activity. Nor is my son quiet. In fact, he is most vocal at the most inopportune moments. (I'm studying for an exam---he's reciting Humpty Dumpy at the top of his lungs). My son's first language is sign language; however, the only sign Charlie ever got in school (a school for the Deaf in which all the teachers were hearing) was signed English, and being immigrants, my husband and I have always been uncomfortable with our son being taught pidgin, instead of a pure language. So we are trying hard to learn ASL, a challenging feat since it is not English---its roots are in French. But it is a beautiful and expressive language, and truly rewarding to learn. Charlie now attends a mainstream preschool. His interpreter uses a mixture of ASL and signed English. His babysitter, however, uses ASL exclusively. And having access to sign language before being implanted has greatly facilitated his ability to acquire spoken language because the world and all its objects and inhabitants already had symbols and meaning attached to them. This is an emotionally charged topic and you will hear a variety of opinions. As parents, it is our privilege and responsibility to give our children roots and wings. My husband and I are learning ASL to help Charlie take pride in his (Deaf) roots, and we made the decision to have our son implanted to make it easier to communicate with the vast majority of people who do not sign. Talk to people, read the latest research, then do what's in your heart. Charlie's Mom
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© 1999, 2000, The Interpreter - A Deaf Newsletter®; All Rights Reserved. 04/06/2000 04:17 PM |
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