Noah's Blog

Noah,

Thanks for offering opposing viewpoints. I have to say that I agree with much of what you have said.

I grew up at St. John's School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, WI. That school was shut down by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1983.

That meant I had to go to a hearing high school for my final two years. I was 14 years old and St. John's skipped me two grades thinking I was so smart, because everything was so easy and unchallenging. But in reality, it hit me hard when I went to the hearing school. I actually had to THINK and analyze and write papers and do all this stuff that never happened at St. John's.

But I seriously cherished my time at St. John's. THEY were my family that I grew up with for 8 years and lived with 24/7. This isn't like any other childhood environment because people go to school then go home afterwards and interact with different people.

It was a horribly emotional time for me those two years of high school and I couldn't wait to graduate and get my ass over to Gallaudet. I needed to be back with my family so bad.

Living at home full time for the first time since I was 6 years old, I didn't really know my parents, and they didn't really know me. We failed to bond and it was a hard time in my life. It wasn't until years later when my father said, "Now I understand and should have understood back then, it was as if your whole family died in an automobile accident." And that really was true.

It took many years, and alot of wandering around the country after high school before I finally developed the close relationship I have with my parents now.

We don't blame St. John's. Really, back then, there really were very few options. But, whatever we hoped to achieve for me as I was growing up, it came at a price of that valuable familial bond that most children should experience with their parents.

I still cherish my years at St. John's with fond memories, but there are far more memories of my childhood there than at home with my own family.

The main reason why my parents won't send me and my Deaf brother to the residential school for the Deaf is because of the precious time with family. Until my deaf brother didn't do well in a hearing school, he was to be sent to the residential school for the deaf in Colorado Springs (when he was in high school).

While I went to Maryland School for the Deaf, I also went to Western Maryland College (now McDaniel) because some of my classmates and I were college-bound. WMC was an eye-opening experience for me because professors involved us in the community, and we learned a lot about how the community depended on WMC for various developments. I thought Gallaudet College (then) was the same. No!
Family education is very important! I only wish more fathers of the Deaf take or brush up American Sign Language (ASL). Throughout my 23 years of college teaching, I could remember only a handful of fathers learning to communicate with their Deaf child. When I said "handful" I was not talking about more than 5 fathers. I believe I taught only four of them, which is very sad, indeed. But, it's very common in the Deaf community that hearing mothers sign far more than do hearing fathers. What a family value!

I agreed with you about a family education involved an relationship develop with parents/siblings. I am a deaf person only in a hearing family, I was away far from them while I was in a residential school for the deaf, my deaf friends were become "my family" role to be close each other while my parents did not know me that well cuz I hadn't been seen them that often. Till I transferred to a mainstream program, it hit me so hard cuz I learned a lot! I had been behind, I did make it to catch up a whole thing to be complete, I graduated one year earlier, that surprised me.

Family education is an important.

Look at my blog on March 14 for your response

That was a good blog. I have to disagree about Maryland and Model Secondary School for the Deaf. While they might be one of the better deaf schools in the U.S. their benchmarks remains inferior to that of the global mainstream. They can do much better. The very bottom line is highest, low, median and average ACT/SAT scores of all pupils enrolled in at least 12 years within a bilingual (ASL/English) academic environment. That's the fairest approach to the credibility of an U.S. deaf school that uses the Bilingual approaches. No excuses.

I'm Deaf and a native user of ASL who attended above-mentioned U.S. deaf schools and advanced towards a public school where I graduated from after three years.
I'm all for whatever is challenging.

Being among five or so of the best deaf schools in the U.S. is far from enough. Complacency will destroy.

Many needs to learn ethics and the true teachings of society's ideals and norms and especially ethics.

And, I admit some manners too!