Deaf teachers losing jobs because of English

Grummer said:
I know some hearing teachers who CANT sign, and actually looked at me like a freak, she been 'publically qualified' as a teacher of the deaf it made me REAL FUCKING ANGRY !!!! i am willing to go there (that school) barge in and risk being arrested to say what a fraud that bitch is, and thsat she has NO fucking rights to be a teacher for deaf students. In my mind, there SHOULD be a council of collective deaf/Deaf/Hoh and late deafened combined to have a clout/power to approve./deny this sort of qualification because after all these are Real d/Deaf people with first hard experience and with this, they are better judges of who ought able to teach - not some standard hearing institutions. geeez
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That I agree with...unfortunately some of those standatd hearing institutuions and many school systems that have deaf programs dont see how critical it is to have a teacher for the deaf be fluent in ASL. Heck, some of them dont believe in ASL...they believe in SEE, Sim-Com, CS, or oralism-only so as a result, trying to set up a council to implement this qualification for all teaching programs and school systems has been a failure historically. Most hearing people especially politicians who are responsible for the school budgets really do not understand the need for raising the standards for ASL fluency..they only see the English part. It is a shame how ASL is not really respected by so many who work in the field of Deaf Education.
 
i know i know,l but also the Deaf politics is too obsessed with 'cultural ideation' (nothing wrong with it) but its short sighted, as we need to look as How ADA operates and Deaf leaders/community should be channeling more energy in proposing and erecting/ establishing such a group to represent this interest.
ADA is excellent, but its again only limited to 'certain realms which akin to civil rights', my idea is saying take it alot further, to say Deaf people have real understanding of what benefits should education offers d/Deaf children, and in so also the importance of bringing into the legal aspects into criterion of the actual praxis of the teaching professions.
(hope im clear here)

blah my sillier 2 cents
 
Obviously our teachers SHOULD be certified in order to teach. However it's also pretty obvious that there is a lack of teachers or even interest in being a teacher...

Isn't it obvious that no wonder why some hearing teachers with poor ASL skills get by as a teacher of the deaf? Isn't that the same reason as why some deaf teachers with poor English skills get by teaching ASL?
 
Daredevel7 said:
Obviously our teachers SHOULD be certified in order to teach. However it's also pretty obvious that there is a lack of teachers or even interest in being a teacher...

Isn't it obvious that no wonder why some hearing teachers with poor ASL skills get by as a teacher of the deaf? Isn't that the same reason as why some deaf teachers with poor English skills get by teaching ASL?
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If deaf teachers with poor English get jobs teaching ASL courses then there is no need for them to have good English due to not teaching in any of the content areas. However, for a hearing teacher teaching deaf kids using ASL, proficiency in ASL is very important. However, this thread is about deaf teachers teaching in all context areas not deaf teachers who teach ASL courses.

The certification exams are very very difficult. I didnt pass the first few times even though I have good English. The bar has been set very high and if people want it so high, fine, but the pay should be higher as well. Not $0.98 an hour in Deafbajagal's case. That's where people get turned off by this field and pursue other more rewarding fields.
 
shel90 said:
If deaf teachers with poor English get jobs teaching ASL courses then there is no need for them to have good English due to not teaching in any of the content areas. However, for a hearing teacher teaching deaf kids using ASL, proficiency in ASL is very important. However, this thread is about deaf teachers teaching in all context areas not deaf teachers who teach ASL courses.

The certification exams are very very difficult. I didnt pass the first few times even though I have good English. The bar has been set very high and if people want it so high, fine, but the pay should be higher as well. Not $0.98 an hour in Deafbajagal's case. That's where people get turned off by this field and pursue other more rewarding fields.
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Very true. It's a shame that teachers don't get paid more. It's stupid really. The better teachers you have, the better the next generation will be!
 
shel90 said:
If deaf teachers with poor English get jobs teaching ASL courses then there is no need for them to have good English due to not teaching in any of the content areas. However, for a hearing teacher teaching deaf kids using ASL, proficiency in ASL is very important. However, this thread is about deaf teachers teaching in all context areas not deaf teachers who teach ASL courses.

The certification exams are very very difficult. I didnt pass the first few times even though I have good English. The bar has been set very high and if people want it so high, fine, but the pay should be higher as well. Not $0.98 an hour in Deafbajagal's case. That's where people get turned off by this field and pursue other more rewarding fields.
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Then a teacher who is teaching English shouldn't need to know ASL, right? Of course not. Fluency is even more important in written English for Deaf kids, and therefore their teachers, because that is the ONLY way they can communicate with the rest of the world.
 
shel90 said:
The bar has been set very high and if people want it so high, fine, but the pay should be higher as well. Not $0.98 an hour in Deafbajagal's case. That's where people get turned off by this field and pursue other more rewarding fields.
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You can blame the universities for that. Education and other jobs relation to the public like Journalism get the short-end of the stick because college students treat those degrees as a last-resort bailout. I don'[t know why, but it seems like almost every student that realized they won't be able to get a stand-alone degree panicked in their 3rd or 4th year of their Bacholars or Masters program, then decide to combine it with Education so they don't feel like they wasted all that tuition money. So in the end, you get a bunch of people that indirectly cause teachers not to be as well-respected as they should be.

Low pay and being overworked is a problem everywhere, and you find that with any degree that students use as a bailout for their program. So, the people that are serious about their career are unhappy with how overworked they are, while the people that are looking for an easy way out are happy to just get a job. In this case, I agree, it would have to start from the top-down to fix this problem.
 
faire_jour said:
Then a teacher who is teaching English shouldn't need to know ASL, right? Of course not. Fluency is even more important in written English for Deaf kids, and therefore their teachers, because that is the ONLY way they can communicate with the rest of the world.
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*sighs* I dont think u get my point at all.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Very true. It's a shame that teachers don't get paid more. It's stupid really. The better teachers you have, the better the next generation will be!
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Agreed..Luckily there are people who become teachers because they love working with children...if it wasnt for that, I am sure the teacher turnover would be a lot higher than it is now.
 
faire_jour said:
Then a teacher who is teaching English shouldn't need to know ASL, right? Of course not. Fluency is even more important in written English for Deaf kids, and therefore their teachers, because that is the ONLY way they can communicate with the rest of the world.
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a very flawed logic.

Math can be taught to any pupils in any communicable language. Same thing for chemistry, physics, history, and english. In foreign country - English is taught in their communicable language. so why can't we teach English to deafies in their communicable language called... ASL?

makes you wonder why foreigner can write better English than deafies :hmm:
 
shel90 said:
*sighs* I dont think u get my point at all.
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I think it is a flawed idea that ANY teacher should be teaching when they can not pass their exams. There is simply no excuse for it. I do care if they are teaching fingerpainting, if they don't pass, they don't teach.

The Deaf community should be up in arms that an unqualified teacher was teaching in their schools and demanding that ALL teachers be qualified, instead of defending her.
 
Fairjour that is not what iam saying..u used an example and I explained the difference. Like I said, I don't think you understood the point I was trying to make.
 
shel90 said:
Fairjour that is not what iam saying..u used an example and I explained the difference. Like I said, I don't think you understood the point I was trying to make.
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I thought you said it was ok for a Deaf person with poor english skills to teach ASL.

Was I wrong?
 
shel90 said:
That's another reason why I believe in giving EVERY deaf child all the tools so this wont be a problem later on. Too many deaf children are cheated out of full access to language during their younger years and as a result end up with these problems. I dont understand why people find it ok to put deaf children at risks for language delays and deficits while they are young for the sake of one approach over another. Give them FULL access to language.
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Buffalo said:
You already got my respect!
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She has mine as well. :)

Shel, DO NOT ever sacrifice your principles.

We need more teachers like you; be it hearing or deaf!
 
Jiro said:
a very flawed logic.

Math can be taught to any pupils in any communicable language. Same thing for chemistry, physics, history, and english. In foreign country - English is taught in their communicable language. so why can't we teach English to deafies in their communicable language called... ASL?

makes you wonder why foreigner can write better English than deafies :hmm:
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:gpost:
 
faire_jour said:
I thought you said it was ok for a Deaf person with poor english skills to teach ASL.

Was I wrong?
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If the class is ASL I, ASL II, ASL III, I dont think they should take the same level of standards of Praxis as deaf teachers who teach elementary ed so if they have less than perfect English but want to teach ASL, then I think it is ok. But if they want to teach all content areas, different story. Apparently, u dont agree.
 
shel90 said:
Thank you...:hug:
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you're welcome. :)

I should add that Deafbajagirl also has my respect as well.

To this debate regarding teaching credentials, I think it is very important for a teacher of the deaf to know ASL. It shouldn't matter if they are teaching English or Basket Weaving 101. If you're a TOD, you better know ASL!

just my .02
 
shel90 said:
If the class is ASL I, ASL II, ASL III, I dont think they should take the same level of standards of Praxis as deaf teachers who teach elementary ed so if they have less than perfect English but want to teach ASL, then I think it is ok. But if they want to teach all content areas, different story. Apparently, u dont agree.
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I don't agree. I had plenty of written assignments in my ASL classes. How are they going to deal with that?
 
Oceanbreeze said:
you're welcome. :)

I should add that Deafbajagirl also has my respect as well.

To this debate regarding teaching credentials, I think it is very important for a teacher of the deaf to know ASL. It shouldn't matter if they are teaching English or Basket Weaving 101. If you're a TOD, you better know ASL!

just my .02
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If you are a teacher of the Deaf who works with kids who use ASL. If you teach at Moog or CID, you need a different kind of expertise.
 
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