Deaf teachers losing jobs because of English

I am confused. I honestly don't see how a full access to language automatically means good English skills. I'm guessing being proficient in ASL and communicating/learning via mainly ASL still does not mean full access to language? Unless you meant full access to BOTH the communication and written aspect (which would mean learning English).

I find it interesting that when viewing a deaf person with poor English skills, some Deaf people automatically assume that he didn't learn sign, while some hearing people assume he learned sign.
 
souggy said:
Am I the only one that noticed that they were uncertified? They didn't lose their jobs because they lack sufficient English. They lost their jobs because they were not certified to teach to begin with.
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And I wouldn't want an oralist teaching my deaf/hoh children. This argument goes both ways, there is no certification requirement for ASL to be a teacher for the deaf... I don't want my children taught by a teacher who cannot communicate with them in a proficient manner.
 
Daredevel7 said:
I am confused. I honestly don't see how a full access to language automatically means good English skills. I'm guessing being proficient in ASL and communicating/learning via mainly ASL still does not mean full access to language? Unless you meant full access to BOTH the communication and written aspect (which would mean learning English).

I find it interesting that when viewing a deaf person with poor English skills, some Deaf people automatically assume that he didn't learn sign, while some hearing people assume he learned sign.
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I didnt assume anything...I am not saying that by full access to language will guarantee good English skills but u agree that not having full access increases the risks greatly. That's my whole point.

That's why I want all students to have both to give them better chances at life later on.
 
I have mixed feelings about this issue. I personally have a friend who's a teacher (deaf) who possess excellent English and ASL skills. She taught for about five years...and is without a doubt one of the best teachers I ever encountered. ALL of her first graders left her classroom reading on (or above) grade-level, etc. The data spoke for itself. However she was unable to pass the Praxis Tests by only 2 or 3 points...she ended up moving to another state in which the required Praxis scores were lower (that reinforces what Shel was saying about the inconsistency of deaf education across the nation)...and as a result, it was a great loss for the school. On the other hand, I can see why the standards exist. Teachers, deaf or hearing, need to meet standards. The problem now is that the standards vary state by state. And there's too much politics involved.

Approaching the problem from bottom to top isn't going to work because the problem itself comes from the top to bottom principle. In other words, we need to get the state departments and legistatures to get their act together and to be educated on the education of deaf and hard of hearing children. And they need to be united on a national front so we can have national standards.

This is tricky as the Constitution assures that states can make their own determinations about educational-related decisions (to a point).

How do we deal with the crisis of deaf education falling through the cracks? What must we do?
 
rjcon88 said:
And I wouldn't want an oralist teaching my deaf/hoh children. This argument goes both ways, there is no certification requirement for ASL to be a teacher for the deaf... I don't want my children taught by a teacher who cannot communicate with them in a proficient manner.
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Like I said in my previous post, the flaws in deaf education is an entirely different matter than what was in the article. Don't want an oralist teaching your kids? Well, tell the government that you want educators of the deaf to have certification in ASL as well.

a deaf person failing a required English exam is not the same thing as a hearing educator not being required to learn ASL. The prior is just self-neglect to understand the guideline, the latter is due to having no guideline in place. Completely different in my eyes.

Right now, I am just telling the parents I know of to let their kids interact with other deaf. Our mainstream education here is severely flawed, and I can only hope that getting the proper social interaction outside of the school in their own language will keep them motivated enough to struggle through school to make it to university while I try to get myself back on track to become a teacher myself.

I would had never made it through a mainstream school if I didn't have two or three other deaf people to interact with during high school. We all knew it was wrong, and the only way we could fix the education system was to do our best and go to post-secondary and take up positions to change the system from the inside. However despite that we hated mainstream education, we understood the need for English standardization.
 
Someone at the original site posed an interesting question.

How did the deaf teachers graduate teaching college without English reading and writing skills? If they passed college level English courses, then they should be able to pass the certification test, right?
 
Reba said:
Someone at the original site posed an interesting question.

How did the deaf teachers graduate teaching college without English reading and writing skills? If they passed college level English courses, then they should be able to pass the certification test, right?
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The certification tests are very very very hard.
 
And they should be hard! These people are teaching our children! If they can't use English, how can they possibly teach it? What happened to the BI in bilingual? For many of the students the main way they will be receiving information from the vast majority of the world will be through written English, they need a teacher who uses it exceptionally well.
 
If u should think those tests should be hard, how about us getting paid a damn lot more than we r getting now? How about that? I feel teachers especially those who work in BiBi programs don't get a lot of respect.
 
shel90 said:
If u should think those tests should be hard, how about us getting paid a damn lot more than we r getting now? How about that? I feel teachers especially those who work in BiBi programs don't get a lot of respect.
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That would be sucks! =/
 
KarissaMann05 said:
That would be sucks! =/
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It is a shame that we teachers get more complaints from the parents and public because we work damn hard with these kids. One day people are not going to be interested in becoming teachers due to the low pay and then we will have a serious serious teacher shortage especially teachers who are fluent in 2 languages. We do it because we love the children and care for them but it sure doesnt help when parents are never happy at all.
 
shel90 said:
It is a shame that we teachers get more complaints from the parents and public because we work damn hard with these kids. One day people are not going to be interested in becoming teachers due to the low pay and then we will have a serious serious teacher shortage especially teachers who are fluent in 2 languages. We do it because we love the children and care for them but it sure doesnt help when parents are never happy at all.
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Maybe you do remember DamienMommy's several posts had mentioned about interpreters had a similar situation, I am not sure if you do? I remember the a couple of months ago, I saw the same problem when I visited some place ... a man was already tired of being heard all the same craps and repeatedly explained the problems in system. Sometimes, parents still did not get it...

Well, I can't imagine how it might hard. =/
 
KarissaMann05 said:
Maybe you do remember DamienMommy's several posts had mentioned about interpreters had a similar situation, I am not sure if you do? I remember the a couple of months ago, I saw the same problem when I visited some place ... a man was already tired of being heard all the same craps and repeatedly explained the problems in system. Sometimes, parents still did not get it...

Well, I can't imagine how it might hard. =/
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Most people do not have ANY idea how hard it is to teach using two languages and to teach children with language delays or deficients from other programs failing them. No idea...

I love the job but I am tired of all the negativity about Deaf schools and Deaf teachers.


Thanks for your sentiments. :) :hug:
 
shel90 said:
It is a shame that we teachers get more complaints from the parents and public because we work damn hard with these kids. One day people are not going to be interested in becoming teachers due to the low pay and then we will have a serious serious teacher shortage especially teachers who are fluent in 2 languages. We do it because we love the children and care for them but it sure doesnt help when parents are never happy at all.
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Low pay? I thought teachers receives their income also during the summer time when they're not even teaching. I know this for matter of fact because two of my family members are teachers.
 
Cheri said:
Low pay? I thought teachers receives their income during the summer time when they're not even teaching. I know this for matter of fact because two of my family members are teachers.
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yea, but it makes our pay even lower due to having to spread the pay out. It is barely enough to cover my bills which is why I am working this summer teaching job. Even during the summer, I still have to attend workshops and take classes.

I was a part of a research group and we have done surveys about the interest in the teaching field. It was shown that less and less people are interested in it due to the low pay and long hours.
 
It may be lower but consider yourself lucky because you would still get paid when you aren't working, I have to work in order to get paid for the hours that I worked. :)
 
Cheri said:
It may be lower but consider yourself lucky because you would still get paid when you aren't working, I have to work in order to get my paid for the hours that I worked. :)
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I had to go to school for several years to get this job. I owe a lot on my student loans and credit cards because I had to support myself through school. If one wants a job like this, then go to school for it. I worked my butt off for 12 years on and off to get certified to teach. It wasn't easy. I dont know if I would call it luck.
 
shel90 said:
It is a shame that we teachers get more complaints from the parents and public because we work damn hard with these kids. One day people are not going to be interested in becoming teachers due to the low pay and then we will have a serious serious teacher shortage especially teachers who are fluent in 2 languages. We do it because we love the children and care for them but it sure doesnt help when parents are never happy at all.
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That's a shame. My dad used to be a teacher too. I think he gave it up eventually and got work as a CAB (citizans advice Beuro) worker. Solving people's problems.

I think teachers like you should get more respect.
 
Cheri said:
It may be lower but consider yourself lucky because you would still get paid when you aren't working, I have to work in order to get paid for the hours that I worked. :)
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Don't know what it's like in USA, but in england, when my father gave up his job as a teacher, and when my mother lived off benifit money I hardly noticed the differance.

Teaching is NOT highly paid.

I think that is a shame. I think good teachers like Shel should be valued more. Especially since they are proping up a failing sysem where people try oral and when it doesn't work the deaf kids get spat out and taught signing as there is nothing else to be done with them. Deaf education needs a change in policy I think.
 
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