Quote:
Originally Posted by shel90
Why do many deaf people who grew up oral express that they wish they had ASL and exposure to other deaf children or Deaf culture growing up?
So, the kids who have attended Deaf schools from the beginning who are not falling behind at all dont count?
|
I'm a little behind but I wanted to address this.
I am not denying that oral deaf people wish they had ASL, but my point is that parents generally ARE AWARE OF THIS NOW. The problem is that some of you think that if the parents are aware of this, this would magically make them want ASL-based schools. It seems like everyone is talking about this magic school that has ASL+spoken language+English that IS NOT Total Communication. (Because they tried total communication and uhh seems like a failure.) I am willing to bet that most parents have visited ASL-based schools, giving it a chance and still went with oral schools. They simply do not have faith in the ASL-based schools to bring out the best in their child. I'm saying that parents can easily mitigate this common social problem by thinking "well I can introduce them to other deaf kids or something." And most likely, they won't because, let's be honest, the social issues don't occur until the teenage years, because they don't know better, and by that time, the "children" already know how to reach out for other people by themselves, especially via online.
And I wanted to add... why would they have a deaf teacher at an oral only school? It wouldn't make sense.....
Honestly, I think ASL-based schools have some good things while the oral schools have some good things. Where they lack, the other can make up for it. Hence, they need to work together.