[This was sent to the Washington Post today as a "letter to the editor" in response to today's article on Gallaudet's Integrity (11/9). Remains to be seen if it'll be published.]
Editor…
I can’t comment on the questions about grade adjustments raised in today’s article (Gallaudet’s Integrity Questioned, 11/9/06), because I don’t really have any first-hand knowledge or experience with this.
However, the assertion that many incoming Gallaudet students are ill-prepared for college-level work is nothing new to many of us within the Gallaudet community. While this may be an indictment of Gallaudet’s recruitment, admission, and retention practices, it is also an indictment of Deaf Education in general in America. Language and math acquisition do not start in one’s freshman year at college—it starts at birth and continues throughout pre-school, and elementary, middle, and high schools. Is it any coincidence that the declining preparedness of Gallaudet’s incoming students over the past several years has occurred at the same time that more and more deaf grade-school students are pulled out of American Sign Language-centric environments and mainstreamed into public schools where their first, or natural, language is not used to teach English, math, and other subjects? Think about it—one does not use English to teach English to Spanish-speaking people, rather, English is taught using the students’ native language, Spanish. ASL is a language in its own right, with its own grammar and syntax rules.
Is it also any coincidence that this declining preparedness has come at the same time that the first large wave of students with cochlear implants are now college-aged? Are parents focusing so much on “fixing” their baby’s deafness that they are neglecting language acquisition and development? Cochlear implants are not the culprits if parents recognize that these implants do not make their baby “hearing” and that language-based early intervention is of utmost importance.
Gallaudet can do something about this. Has Gallaudet been aggressive enough in publicizing nationwide the successes of its own Kendall Demonstration Elementary School and Model Secondary School for the Deaf (note emphases)? Has Gallaudet focused attention on setting up a national model for educational success for deaf babies, toddlers, and students? Gallaudet is a research center for Deaf and deafness-related issues, including education. Can Gallaudet do more to publish and promote its findings in this area? After all, a higher level of incoming students not only benefits Gallaudet, but also all of Deaf America.
Roger Kraft
Maryland School for the Deaf (Frederick) graduate, 1985
Gallaudet University graduate, 1990 and 1994
Sioux Falls, SD
Thursday, November 09, 2006
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8 comments:
Beautiful! A well-written letter to the editor! I hope it gets published!
By the way, hi Roger! I'm glad to know you're still alive, well, and have four children!
Be well,
Juan
Good point, that is full of common sense. Deaf education is not Gallaudet's failure, it is the Deaf-impaired people's failure.
I attended RIT and during my time there someone mentioned that Deaf children who are taught by Deaf-impaired teachers usually do not achieve reading and/or math levels above level 4 while Deaf children taught by Deaf professors achieve an average of level 7.
Do those numbers show that Deaf-impaired professors do not really put in 100% effort to teach Deaf children? Proof that Deaf-impaired teachers have lower expectations toward Deaf students' academic performance?
Note: I use Deaf-impaired as the politically correct term for hearing people like Deaf-impaired people think the politically correct term for Deaf people is "hearing-impaired".
How true it is!!
We need to keep this informations about reality in Deaf education open in public.
My novel book, MindField will be out around Christmas and hope that this kind of information will spread across the country.
look at this site;
http://www.egbertpress.com/
John Egbert
Oh, if your letter does get published, please post it for all of us to witness it!
Hey Roger! Well said! How about doing it in ASL? If you emphasized on the importance of ASL, sign it! :)
Joey
Smiling at #5 Joey...if the Washington Post came in ASL, I'd surely do it! Certainly, when I've got the time one of these days, I definitely want to experiment with video postings!
#1 Juan...good to "see" you! May our paths cross again some day.
An excellent missive!
I was the perfect example . . . I did not acquire any English language development until I was transferred from a public school to MD School for the Deaf at the age of 6.
My mom took the preference for mainstreaming or oral program to heart, and ignored my deaf grandparents who graduated from VSDB. They urged her to send me to a residential school for a long time. My mom did not want me end up being like my grandfather having no speaking skills. My mom seemed resentful being their interpreter all her life. So, she dig her heels about having me attend a public school.
When I was first enrolled at Greenbelt Elementary School Pre-School program at the age of four, I had speech and audiology therapy. All I learned was speech, speech, and speech, nothing else.
After spending the whole two years at Greenbelt Elementary School, I learned nothing, but a few words. In fact, my grandparents taught me those words using ASL at home before I actually grasped the meanings at school. My mom decided to experiment sending me to MSD. It broke her heart sending me there, because she did not have a chance to spend time with me at home everyday during the week and of course she had the fear that I would not achieve.
After spending the first three months at MSD, my English language development exploded! My mom was amazed and decided to let me stay there. I ended up spending nine years there, and almost two years at MSSD before transferring back to a public school the last two years of my K-12 education.
Thank God for my deaf grandparents voicing out. I often wonder what I would be of if my mom did not listen them.
I always tell people I am blessed for being deaf and having all the wonderful experience at both deaf schools. However, I did not regret that I returned to a hearing school during my junior and senior years, because I already learned the foundation of English and ASL. I also learned and accepted the deaf identity.
That pretty much says it all.
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