Do you feel that hearing teachers restrict Deaf children in learning?

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QuietlyAnointed

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I grew up hard of hearing but have years of experience working with hearing children (toddlers and preschoolers). I was an opened teacher and followed the interest of the children. If the were interested in planets, I taught planets. If they were interested in the air, I taught air.

Since my hearing has been getting worst, I decided to change my focus from hearing children to Deaf children. When presenting my ideas to the teachers and assistants at this school for the Deaf, they are very resistant to them. And make comments like "They wouldn't understand. They are deaf." or "It's too abstract for them".

Those statements made me do a little research on Deafness and Education. I found the high percentages of people who are Deaf who dropped out of high school, or who do not read past 3rd grade reading levels, etc.

This makes me wonder if it is the teachers who put those restrictions on the children because they are Deaf and the teachers themselves do not believe that the children are CAPABLE.

I believe that ALL children are capable and it is my responsibility as a teacher to understand how they learn so that they CAN.

I would love to read your thoughts
 
If it is a school for the deaf they would probably know best based on the vast experience they have teaching deaf kids. It's also a problem because of the controversy surrounding how to best educate a deaf child.
 
QuietlyAnointed said:
I grew up hard of hearing but have years of experience working with hearing children (toddlers and preschoolers). I was an opened teacher and followed the interest of the children. If the were interested in planets, I taught planets. If they were interested in the air, I taught air.

Since my hearing has been getting worst, I decided to change my focus from hearing children to Deaf children. When presenting my ideas to the teachers and assistants at this school for the Deaf, they are very resistant to them. And make comments like "They wouldn't understand. They are deaf." or "It's too abstract for them".

Those statements made me do a little research on Deafness and Education. I found the high percentages of people who are Deaf who dropped out of high school, or who do not read past 3rd grade reading levels, etc.

This makes me wonder if it is the teachers who put those restrictions on the children because they are Deaf and the teachers themselves do not believe that the children are CAPABLE.

I believe that ALL children are capable and it is my responsibility as a teacher to understand how they learn so that they CAN.

I would love to read your thoughts
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You said it best (in bold part). Not all hearing teachers are like that but most are. It is also not even the teachers' fault. It is the system....and it starts at the deaf education training programs.

Deaf people have known about the 3rd to 6th grade reading (and writing) levels of deaf and hoh children for YEARS. We have tried to change that trend for YEARS. It is hard to change the system that has been in place for years. I would suggest that you read Harlan Lane's books (When the Mind Hears and The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community).

Don't change what you believe, deaf and hoh children CAN and DO learn.
 
DoDaDew said:
You said it best (in bold part). Not all hearing teachers are like that but most are. It is also not even the teachers' fault. It is the system....and it starts at the deaf education training programs.

Deaf people have known about the 3rd to 6th grade reading (and writing) levels of deaf and hoh children for YEARS. We have tried to change that trend for YEARS. It is hard to change the system that has been in place for years. I would suggest that you read Harlan Lane's books (When the Mind Hears and The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community).

Don't change what you believe, deaf and hoh children CAN and DO learn.
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I don't understand that apparently deaf children leave school with a very low reading level. How can this be if they know ASL/English? In primary school(elementary) at 8 years I had a reading level of a 10-11 year old. I suppose it does depend on how much a child reads at school and at home etc. I feel hearing people do treat deaf children differently as I went through it.
 
Oh yes. my old school, most teachers found their ways of not working harder with some of us who are capable of learning anything but yet allowed us to learn nothing and doing nothing in some classes. One day, I asked the teacher that I knew that three of us who are capable of doing the mock trail. Know what the teacher told me that the teacher feels that three of us are not capable of doing the mock trail. That's where it hits me real hard and realize that few teachers weren't interested in getting challenge academy for us because we are the few people who have slightly higher levels than other kids. Apparently, the teachers made us hold back on education and knows we won't make it to attend to college. Unfortunately, my former school area was in the snobbish town that's where older teachers have lower expects of deaf children's capable of understanding the concept of reading and writing. Some of their spouses who didn't work at school and made $$$$$ outside of school so the teachers found a way of their easy lifes of not working hard with us. I did fight with them once in a while and often got nasty scolds from teachers. That's the past. BUT now I feel bad for other deaf children that i allow that attitudes that teachers still carry it and treat disabled children differently and make things worse on disabled children. I know any kind of disabled people are bright in their own ways of learning differently.
 
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I don't get why teachers don't think deaf children and those with disabilities cannot learn the same things as everybody else. Of course accomodations would have to be used e.g translate in ASL/BSL to make the work easier for deaf children to understand etc. But they are capable once the right things has been done for them. Disabled and deaf children should not be treated differently, it will only make them feel insecure/loss of confidence.
 
unfortunately yes. I think it is really up to us to educate our own because they don't understand. That's why they put them in LD classes.

I don't really want them to teach things the way hearing teach hearing children anyway. It would involve with sounds and I don't want anything to do with sounds. They usually do teach hearing kids that way which put us behind.

about reading level, they may be below grade level reading, but their signing may be above, probably more above and advanced than hearing people.

If you have deaf preschoolers there, their parents should take them out immediately if they are like that.
 
Lighthouse77 said:
unfortunately yes. I think it is really up to us to educate our own because they don't understand. That's why they put them in LD classes.

I don't really want them to teach things the way hearing teach hearing children anyway. It would involve with sounds and I don't want anything to do with sounds. They usually do teach hearing kids that way which put us behind.

about reading level, they may be below grade level reading, but their signing may be above, probably more above and advanced than hearing people.

If you have deaf preschoolers there, their parents should take them out immediately if they are like that.
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Not every lesson involves sound
 
There's a reason why I consider myself largely self taught. I don't care much for the low execptations that the hearing teachers have for the deaf.
 
I am a teacher for the deaf. I have worked with both deaf and hearing teachers. I have met hearing teachers who have high expectations for deaf children and some who dont. The same goes for teachers who are deaf themselves. However, I think you are speaking of those hearing teachers who work with deaf children who are mainstreamed? I did work at a deaf program at a mainstreamed school. There were two teachers for that program. Both were hearing and one believed strongly in the oral/pathological view of deafness while the other believed strongly in the BiBi philosophy. The one with the oral view grouped all 13 deaf children from age 6 to 13 years old together in one class for language arts and taught them the same lesson while the other one was against that because she didnt believe it was healthy for the older students' self-esteem to be in the same class and be taught the same lesson as the 1st graders. I definitely sided the BiBi view because she didnt put any of the children down like the other teacher did.

That was when I first ever learned about the BiBi philosophy of deaf education. Because of that teacher and my upbringing with oral-only deaf ed and getting lower expectations from my teachers, I am fully against the oral-only philosophy where the focus seems to be primarly on the ears and mouth, not on the child's abilities.
 
shel90 said:
................................. However, I think you are speaking of those hearing teachers who work with deaf children who are mainstreamed? I...............................
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The OP stated this issue is at a school for the Deaf. No mention of mainstreamed.

When presenting my ideas to the teachers and assistants at this school for the Deaf, they are very resistant to them.
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rockdrummer said:
The OP stated this issue is at a school for the Deaf. No mention of mainstreamed.
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yes, I think what's happening is that they rather deal with English and language in preschool instead of solar system, dinosaurs, etc. that we have in hearing preschool.
 
In my experiences working at Deaf schools, I have seen people who shouldnt be teachers and people who were born to be teachers. Didnt matter if they were hearing or deaf.
 
shel90 said:
In my experiences working at Deaf schools, I have seen people who shouldnt be teachers and people who were born to be teachers. Didnt matter if they were hearing or deaf.
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I agree that some teachers should not become teachers when they have no passions for teaching children.
I could not believe that they didn't fire one of my science teacher at my school that taught nothing but doodling on the papers for the freaking 4 years! Now she retired with a nice pension. :roll: Needless to say that I had a difficult time passing the chemical class and I DID pass in my freshman year. I could have done better grade for it.
 
Lighthouse77 said:
yes, I think what's happening is that they rather deal with English and language in preschool instead of solar system, dinosaurs, etc. that we have in hearing preschool.
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That is why I said that maybe the teachers at the deaf school know what is best based on their many years of experience teaching deaf kids.
 
It start to dawn on me that lots of government cuts down on lot of deaf schools. Thanks a lot to some of stupid teachers who have no passions with varies of hearing loss, deaf, hoh and disabled kids and always got away from with certain teachers who knew about them but tried to fight with the academy administration. That's what I heard from good teachers. =? See, because of the budget issues that they won't hire good teachers who demands good pays to teach childrens due to other lousy teachers who pays the same salary as them. Boy it got out of hands.
 
My brother's girlfriend is a PreK teacher for deaf children and she is teaching her students the concept of addition and subtraction. Also, one of her students is already reading on a 2nd grade level. She has very high expectations for them and she is hearing.

Like at public schools, there are teachers there who shouldnt be teachers and those who dedicate their lives in making their lessons accessible to meet all children's diverse learning needs.

Yes, there are hearing teachers who look down on deaf people and arent there to really help the students achieve to their potential but there because they feel sorry for the poor deaf children. Those people are dangerous to Deaf ed.
 
rockdrummer said:
That is why I said that maybe the teachers at the deaf school know what is best based on their many years of experience teaching deaf kids.
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Or maybe they are just set in their own way instead of coming up with a new idea how to go about it.
 
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