Two more "Deaf Connections" to the R.O.M.

About a month ago, I wrote a Blog about my volunteer involvement at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. I included some information about a Deaf staff member there who had two signed podcasts on the museum's website.

Now, I want to add two more connections about the Deaf there.

Right now, and continuing until July 13th, there is a special exhibition called "Out From Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember."  The exhibit uses some objects and photos to tell stories about how disabled people, or people with differences, were treated in the past. Although there is not a section about the Deaf, many of us will see similarities between how differently-abled people  were treated and how Deaf children (and their families) were used. 

The Museum has also created a series of podcasts in ASL that describe the exhibit and which can be downloaded by people who might want to take them and use them at the museum. The entire podcast can be found here. Or, you can find the 15 individual sections of the podcast that describe each part of the display at this link.

If you go to the Royal Ontario Museum, make sure you also visit the "First People" Gallery. Last time I talked about the museum, I mentioned the signed podcast that described a Canadian artist who did many painting about the native people of Canada. His house was later purchased by a Deaf Church in Toronto. However, I forgot to mention a much more important artist in the same gallery.

One section of the First People Gallery has several paintings by native artists. If you look at them, you will see one near the centre of the display called "Loneliness and Desire". It was painted by a great Deaf artist named Sam Ash, who started painting when he was a student at the Ontario School for the Deaf, Belleville. I remember Sam, when he was at the school, and saw some of his paintings there. Today, some of Sam's art hangs in important galleries across Canada. You can read a little about Sam at this link and also here.

Keep Supporting ASL/Deaf Culture

I have been away from home for the past two weeks, working at scoring tests for the government. This means that I have been away from my home computer and from my web cam and it has been impossible for me to do any Vlogs.

Recently, on the pages of DeafRead, people have been complaining that too many postings have been showing up by people supporting cochlear implants. It seems that many of them (not all) oppose ASL. DeafRead permits all topics that are posted by Deaf people or topics that are related to deafness and some days it looks like anti-ASL bloggers are taking over DeafRead.  To me, it seems that there is only one way that can happen .... if the pro-ASL and pro-Deaf Culture bloggers and Vloggers stop posting their opinions and information.

A couple of months ago, when I first started looking at DeafRead, there were lots of  interesting and creative people adding ASL Vlogs that I don't see any more. I keep hoping that those people will return to the world of Blogging/Vlogging again soon.  There is no reason why they can't outnumber the people that try to put down ASL and Deaf Culture.

I don't think DeafRead should ban other opinions, or put them in a separate category. We should know what they think and they should know what we think.  All of us may find that we have some ideas or opinions that are the same. If people disagree, that's okay as long as we make sure we really know what we are disagreeing about.

Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

In my last 4 years living in Toronto, I was a volunteer at the Royal Ontario Museum (R.O.M.) downtown Toronto. It's an amazing place, with thousands of things on display. If you haven't been there, or if you haven't been there for a while, since the huge expansion, you really should go.

Check out the Website here.

A former student from the Ontario School for the Deaf in Belleville, Liliane Lortie, was in my class many years ago.  Liliane works at the R.O.M. and has hosted two Video Podcasts for the museum.

One of Liliane's Podcasts is about Native Indian beadwork at the R.O.M. Click on the link to see her.

The other Podcast by Liliane is about Paul Kane, a famous Canadian artist. Paul Kane is interesting for the Deaf in Ontario. Why? For many years after Paul Kane died, his house at 56 Wellesley Street East was owned by the Deaf men and women of the Evangelical Church of the Deaf.

Tribute to a Deaf Gentleman

Jim Clelland was the only Deaf Staff member at the Belleville school for many years. First he was the farmer. Later, after the farm was gone, he was the groundskeeper. I have good memories of him. Here is one of my comments about him.

Jim died in 2003. The Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf has an obituary about Jim. You can read it if you click here.

Here are some more of my memories.

Bermuda "Borrows" a Teacher

One afternoon in November 1965, I was teaching a Science class in the Senior School at the Ontario School for the Deaf, Belleville. I got a call on the school communication system. The secretary told me that I had to go and see the Superintendent in his office after class!

Oh, no! I wondered what was wrong. I didn't think I had done anything bad, but why would the Superintendent want to see me?

When I arrived at his office, he was not alone. The government inspector of schools was there with him. I thought I must really be in trouble! Then, the Superintendent told me that they wanted me to consider an offer.  He told me that the Ontario Minister of Education, William Davis, had recently been in Bermuda and met the Bermuda Director of Education. He found out that Bermuda was having a hard time getting teachers of the deaf for their special education school.

Mr. Davis had told the Bermuda Director, "No problem, we have lots of teachers of the deaf in Ontario. I will lend one to you."  When Mr. Davis returned to Ontario, he ordered the inspector or schools to find someone to send.  One reason why they thought of me was because I was young and single. They thought it would be easy for me to move without much warning.

The plan was for Bermuda to "borrow" me from January until July while they tried to find another teacher to come and stay in a permanent position.

So it happened that the first week of January 1966, I flew from Toronto to Bermuda and took over a class of young deaf children at the "Happy Valley School' near Hamilton, Bermuda.

Here's a picture of me with my class:

I had a wonderful six and a half months living and working in beautiful Bermuda. While I was there, some people in the Bermuda Department of Education tried to convince me to stay. I was very tempted, but I had a problem with some of the leaders in the Department of Education there who had racist attitudes and I was not comfortable working with them. Also, the kids were expected to be completely oral and I could not use any signs with them.

However, I discovered that one of the reasons they had a hard time keeping teachers was because the school system there was very British and they usually hired teachers from England. Teachers from there signed a contract to stay for three years, but after staying for that time, most of them felt isolated from their home and refused to stay longer.

I suggested to them that teachers from Canada or the U.S. would be better, because it was closer for them to fly home at vacation time and they would not feel so isolated. Also, I mentioned about the teacher training program for the deaf in Ontario. In the next couple of years, Bermuda did send some Bermudian teachers to Ontario to get the training and then return home to teach in their own country.

Teaching in Bermuda was a terrific opportunity for me and I was glad that Bermuda "borrowed" me for that time.

A Vlog Apology (and explanation)

After I looked at my first and second Vlogs again, I realized that I was signing very stiff and awkward. Sorry! I need to learn how to be more relaxed and comfortable when I use WebCam.  Also, I wanted to explain why my ASL is poor - even though I have many years of experience with the Deaf community.

Teacher Learns a Lesson

A student taught a hearing teacher (me!) NOT to say "can't" to Deaf people.