Teacher Learns a Lesson

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

The BIG School; Part Three

In Part One of this topic, I mentioned that the students in the Toronto school came from various elementary school programs and had different communication abilities. Of course, this meant that teaching these students was a big challenge for the staff.

In their first year in the secondary school, the students would have most of their classes in the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Department. This meant that they were in small classes with trained teachers of the deaf. Most of the teachers used a total communication style - speaking English with signs added. However, the communication issue was complicated. 

• The students from an oral background could be confused and distracted by the signs. 
  
• The ones from the hard-of-hearing (auditory) program - who considered themselves "hearing" - would be upset that they were being treated as deaf (and often if the teacher was deaf, they would complain that the teacher's voice was too soft for them to hear with their hearing aids). 
  
• The students from the ASL elementary school would be confused by the signing too - using signs in English order often destroys the sense and meaning of the signs.
  

In the first year,  the new students usually had one (sometimes two) classes in the mainstream hearing school. Often it would be physical education (gym) class and/or an art class. A sign language interpreter or an educational assistant would go with the students to those classes. In the following years, more and more of the courses they took would be mainstream.

The students who did not come from the ASL background had a big problem with the use of interpreters (of course). The frustrating part was that our school did not require them to learn ASL before they were sent into those situations! In fact, although the school did have an ASL course provided, it was mostly offered to hearing students in the school who wanted to learn. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students could take the course, but usually they didn't until their second or third year in the school.

By contrast, when I came to Belleville, the entire school environment was ASL. Any student who arrived at the school with no ASL background would immediately be provided with the help and training to acquire it - receiving instruction, but also being immersed in an atmosphere that was ASL positive and supportive.

As I look back over my years in The BIG School and recall the many students that I taught there, I really regret that most of them never had the opportunity to live and learn in the kind of school environment that they could have had in my first and last "home" school!

The BIG School; Part Two

The idea of putting a Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing department inside a huge secondary school was probably intended to make it possible for the students to have access to a wide variety of mainstream courses. It is true that the school in Toronto (with 2,000 students) had a huge selection of possible areas of study. Not only regular "academic" courses were available, but many choices in the arts, in technology, in business, and trades.

However, there is another part of the school experience which is just as important for the healthy development of a young person. This other part is the opportunity to explore and learn about themselves as people. Students in high school participate in various extra-curricular activities such as varsity sports, clubs and interest groups, student government and debating. Students develop a sense of identity and self-esteem when they have access to ways of trying out their abilities and passions. 

For the deaf students in this environment, it is next to impossible to have these experiences. First of all, they are so few in the midst of the hundreds of hearing students that they feel invisible in the crowd.  Because all of the leaders and stars in the school are hearing, how can the deaf develop any sense of self-esteem?

When it comes to involvement in lunch-time or after-school clubs, a student generally would need the assistance of an interpreter. The educational interpreters are hired for classroom service, but would have to volunteer to assist at other times - this has been known to happen, but the few staff can't be present for every club or activity.

A student who wanted to compete for a place on a school team would have to impress the coaches over dozens of other hearing athletes (and then try to make sure that an interpreter would be willing to show up for all the practices to facilitate communication with the coach and teammates).

It's a tough place to find your identity and your confidence in yourself.

By contrast, when I found myself back in my "home" school in Belleville, the total environment was Deaf Positive and full of opportunities. Of course, all of the student leaders were Deaf and every event, club or sport was fully accessible - with staff advisors/coaches who were either Deaf or who communicated in ASL.

The high school students that I encountered there were self-confident, aware and positive about their identities as Deaf and capable. This was their attitude, not only within the school environment, but also to the wider world around the school and in their home neighbourhoods and cities.

The BIG School; Part One

The last sixteen years before my retirement (1991-2007), I taught in Toronto. The secondary school where I worked has close to 2,000 students! It was a school that had a wonderful reputation in the city. The staff were known to be highly qualified and caring. The students were active in a variety of ways; sports, dozens of extra-curricular clubs and charitable work. (Example: every year, the students raised between $15,000 and $20,000 for the United Way.) It was a busy and challenging place to work.

Part of this school's attraction is the fact that it caters to a number of exceptional needs. It has a large program for "gifted" students and an even larger department for learning disabled and special needs students. These two areas serve hundreds of young people in the building. And, in addition, there was the deaf and hard-of-hearing department where I was located.

In the time that I taught at the school, our department averaged between 35 to 45 students - just a few in the midst of a huge school population that hardly even knew they were there! 

Our department's students came from various elementary programs across the city. 

• A few came from a city school for the deaf - where the kids had been taught using ASL.
• Others came from programs that would be designated "oral" - possibly with some signing available. 
• Hard-of-hearing youth came from classrooms where the emphasis was on listening and, with hearing aids, acting as much like the hearing kids around them as possible.
  

As teachers in that department, we were faced with the challenge of teaching classes that generally contained a few students from each of those backgrounds at the same time.

I want to say that it was a good school and our department had hard-working and committed teachers and students with great abilities and talents. It was, in some ways a great place to be, but it was not adequately meeting the needs of the deaf students in my opinion.

I'll Blog more on this in the future.

My Old Belleville "Home"

My First Blog (with trepidation)

In September of 1962, I began my full-time working life at The Ontario School for the Deaf (as it was then known) in Belleville Ontario. I was 20 years old, a graduate of Teachers' College and ready to begin my introduction and training to become a specialist in the business of educating deaf children (I thought).

Forty-five years later in 2007, I had formally retired from teaching and moved from Toronto back to Belleville. I accepted a one-year contract teaching in that same institution where I began my career - now re-named The Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf.

Unfortunately, health issues made it necessary for me to resign this contract after only two months.

However, the act of coming full circle - back to the place where I began my life of work and involvement with Deaf people and the Deaf community - made me do a lot of thinking about all the changes that have happened over those 45 years!

• In 1962, the educational approach of the school was nominally "oral" in the classrooms. There were 550 students, ages 5 to 20. I can't recall how many staff the institution had in total - certainly more than 100 - but of all the employees at that time, only one, a groundskeeper, was Deaf!
• In 2007, I returned to a school with less than one hundred students, but a school where the educational policy was officially "Bi-Bi" with American Sign Language taught and used as the language of instruction throughout. Deaf staff are prominent in every area of the school and Deaf Culture and Community are regarded with respect.

I wish now that I had come back "home" sooner!

This is just the beginning of my thoughts and memoirs. Hope you enjoy reading. [I also intend to include Vlogs later in my sometimes awkward ASL.]