Deaf School Experience

I was crouching, playing with a wooden bead maze entranced with the different colours that it entailed. I was in this large regal office, the desk was made out of dark wood; certificates with glossy frames were hanging around the office. There stood a doctor behind the desk as he broke the news to my father that I was indeed hearing impaired. As they quietly discussed the best action of plan for me, I suddenly heard my father yell, “She is not going to deaf school!” and as the shouting got louder, the words started to sound muddled to me. Red with rage, my father grabbed me by the hand and slammed the door; I took a glance back and did not fully comprehend the life changing appointment that just took place in front of me. At the tender age of 5, I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss occurs with a combination of inner ear

The rich history of American Deaf culture in conjunction withlanguage displays the determination along with the brilliance of these people. Though the hearing world had called them sin, denounced them as dumb, these people rose up against their oppressors, making a new world for themselves.

The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in with everyone and eventually

In Alice-Ann Darrow’s article “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses” she states that it can be difficult to involve students with hearing losses in the music classroom and in the regular classroom as well. There are a numerous amount of students with hearing losses ranging from the ages of six to twenty-one. About 71,000 of special education students struggle with a hearing loss. A majority of students go without knowing that they have a hearing problem. Although most people believe that a person must be good at hearing in order to be musical, it is stated to be not true. The music classroom is actually a great place for students to practice good listening skills. Since listening is a mental process and hearing is a physical. Objectives for hard at hearing students should include listening to music, singing, playing instruments, moving to music, creating music and reading music. Music should be presented to the student’s strength and preferences. It is also helpful to have students feel stereo speakers or instruments as well as the use of kinesthetic movements. Alice-Ann Darrow believes that involving students with hearing losses into the music class room can be difficult but in the long run beneficial to the student.

The video titled “The D: Detroit Deaf Education” is about the deaf students and their parents explaining their experiences with Detroit Public Schools, specifically the deaf education that the students are receiving. I chose this video because it is directly related to my major, ASL Education and hopefully Deaf Education in the future as well. I wanted to see what it’s like for the students in Detroit Public Schools and if the education they receive is appropriate for them as well.

There are various ways to educate deaf students and one method is called mainstreaming. Mainstreaming is when a student with a disability, in this case being hearing impaired, is taught in a class with hearing students. Mainstreaming is supposed to be beneficial for the deaf student in both a social level, as well as on an educational level. Focusing on the social aspect of mainstreaming, it is important to look at deaf interactions with peers in the mainstream setting as well as the acceptance of deaf peers from the hearing students. Deaf students are more likely to succeed academically in the mainstream environment, but when it comes to peer relations and development of a healthy self concept, mainstreaming is not as successful.

This book was mainly focused on looking at Deaf culture of today and comparing it to the culture of the past, and what kinds of struggles deaf people had to endure to get where they are today. The two authors of this book are deaf; one was deaf her whole life and the other became deaf as a child. In my opinion, that was a major contributing factor to why it was so interesting. The reader gets a chance to travel through the history of the Deaf through words from those who have experienced it. It also had a positive impact because the authors let the readers know in the introduction that they are deaf and a brief history of themselves, which I

After reading Deaf Again I learned a lot of new things about Deaf culture and was drawn in by the story of Mark Drolsbaugh. "The hardest fight a man has to fight is to live in a world where every single day someone is trying to make you someone you do not want to be" e.e cummings. I was brought into the book immediately from this quote and realized how difficult it must have been for Mark to find his identity. He was trying to hang on to his hearing in fear of going deaf as if there was something wrong or not proper with being deaf. It took him a long time, twenty-three years to realize that the Deaf culture is receiving and it was there for him to embrace the entire time. It would be difficult to be able to hear and then slowly

In Mark Drolsbaugh’s educational and witty autobiography “Deaf Again”, he describes his journey as a child born to deaf parents, losing his own hearing in his childhood, and navigating both hearing and deaf worlds while trying to discover his identity.

“Deaf in America” book mainly focused on Deaf culture of today and comparing it to the culture of the past. The stories in the book describes what kind of struggles deaf people had to go through in order to get to where they are today. The book, “Deaf in America”, were written by two authors, Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, both in which are deaf. Padden and Humphries were able to collect factors, stories, and experiences of other deaf people within America and compiled them into one book describing their perspective of the world of the hearing. Padden and Humphries wanted to show how deaf culture was different from hearing culture. The reader of the book gets a chance to travel through the history to those who have experienced the deaf world first handed. The book also presented a positive impact to the readers by letting the readers know in the introduction that the authors writing the book were deaf and would indicate that the experience were real and true. Padden and Humphries

The disappearance/declining of deaf clubs will probably signal for a different future. In the article, it talked about the new ways the deaf community communicates. Although it may be a drastic change from what it used to be, I believe that it will be positive. Part of the reason people aren't attending deaf clubs is because there is better technology that allows texting and instant messaging. With the some of the jobs that deaf people, there is no need for them to deaf clubs to socialize because they can do that at there work place. Because of the ever changing society, the need for Deaf clubs decreases. This is not a negative, because ways to communicate and interact are increasing so they don't need to go to socialize.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, an American minister and education reformer, played a very important role in the education of the deaf in the United States. When Thomas Gallaudet was only fifteen years old, he attended Yale College where he graduated at the top of his class before his eighteenth birthday. In the year 1814, he visited his family in Hartford, Connecticut. While there, he noticed young Alice Cogswell not playing with any of the children around her. He decided to find out why she was alone. When he met Alice, he discovered she was deaf. Gallaudet, taking an interest in the little girl, decided to try to communicate with her because he did not know any sign language. He pointed at his hat, and then he spelled

When asked a majority of the education majors indicated that they would consider an ASL class to be highly beneficial to their degree.

Learning music as a student with hearing loss can be difficult just as teaching a student with hearing losses can be also. There are many children who are being diagnosed with hearing losses almost every day. In the article, “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses,” by Alice-Ann Darrow, an Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy at Florida State University, Tallahassee conveyed a message that students with hearing losses are capable of learning music. When hearing the words “hearing losses” you automatically jumped to conclusion that they can’t hear anything at all however that is wrong. Darrow stated in her article that, “Very few individuals have no hearing at all however most students who are described deaf do have some

How does the author prepare the reader in the introduction, to get an idea or expectation on what the book will be about?