Does anyone else feel like their life was ruined by mainstream school

I always went to a mainstream school and was one of the very few disabled kids in my classes. I didn't know anyone else with a hearing problem, and I never really learned any sign language.

I do know that I was always an easy target and was constantly picked on, teased and had kids trying to start fights with me. One kid kept threatening to punch me in the ears and break my hearing aids. He finally did it one day. Another kid pulled a knife on me.

School wasn't fun. I don't think adult life is that much better.
 
Well, I can understand those who didn't like being mainstreamed and I kinda know how them feel~ but I'm actually glad I'm mainstreamed (I'm deaf but I can speak)..that's how I met some awesome friends! In my province (BC), the deaf schools are um, less-than-stellar in education and I heard the elective courses options are limited.. (example, if one wants to pick Japanese and the other kids want to pick art~ no choice.)
 
I don't believe my life was ruined by the mainstream school nor by the school for the deaf. In fact, I enjoyed both schools.
 
my life is forked too
everyone said pretty much what i was going to say., and right now im TOO TIRED and ran out of headspace to share my experience, maybe later in couple of weeks when things settles

its crazy at uni!! just booking crazy!!
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I don't believe my life was ruined by the mainstream school nor by the school for the deaf. In fact, I enjoyed both schools.
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I think the OP is speaking about an inclusion mainstream schooling setting.
Mainstream formal sizable programs can be quite good......but there's too many flaws for inclusion to really work well, unless you're talking about a school district that is very familair with how to teach dhh kids. I have friends whose kids have mild disabilties. They say they wish their kid was ALSO HOH so they could attend deaf schools. I think that says a HELL of a lot about mainstream/inclusion ed.
 
AND I think it ALSO says something when parents of dhh kids who were formally mainstreamed/oral, transfer them to Deaf School and suddenly start raving about how AWESOME the schools are. Remember its very unusual for kids to start out/ chose intially to attend deaf schools. Most kids at deaf schools are TRANSFERS from the mainstream you know!
 
Naturelchick: :wave: it's nice to meet you. I love this website because it makes me feel less alone. I used to go to a Deaf school, then a deaf program in a mainstream school... Then i was forced to transfer to pure mainstream school without an interpreter. I wish I could have gone to a deaf school like Riverside School for the Deaf. If I had been exposed to the Deaf culture, I wouldve never felt so suppressed. In deaf school as a young girl I was popular, spunky, sarcastic... Everything that I wasn't in a hearing school. I isolated myself from everyone. I have an interpreter now for college, but in a year I'm transferring to Gallaudet!!!! I cannot wait to truly find my deaf identity and friends. :D enough of listening to my parents! My parents may have ruined my childhood that way, but now I get to make my own choices. I want to be a counselor to Deaf kids and parents of deaf kids... So I can encourage them to expose their child to ASL.
 
I'm very sorry to hear that you had to deal with such a traumatic situation, you seem like a very strong willed person, alot like all the other members here. I'm am brand new, but I already feel at home. This is a very welcoming site and provides an excellent source for social interaction.
You guys rule! I-L-Y!
 
I went from to a hearing school (3rd grade) to a nother hearing school with a small classroom just for special ed kids in elem school.. ( all deaf related) from there I learn English signs we did everything thing there. but when I went to high school(keep in mind this was still a hearing school)was consider "stupid" cuz well i was deaf, I had to have "speical ed math, english,etc was not allowed to have algerbra etc..yeah it sucks to high hell (pardon my lanuge)didnt have interpreter or note takers was pretty much shoved along and didnt want to be delt with . well since i have been in college (started in 2007 im a late bloomer ha working full time with 2 kids takes up time) it feels weird having a note taker and a interper let alone learning how to do algerbra for the first time wht?? (gibblish if u ask me) while in college (learning ASL is confusing when I spent my whole life living on English I still get the signs bacwards) I am giving the chance to prove to the hearing world "hey heck with u I can do the same as u can only thing different is I CANT HEAR U" ( in my opinion I dont care if i hear em or not my mother taught me not to let other make fun or taunt me cuz i simply cant hear.) and the best thing about being in the college I got to meet other deaf students and hearing students that was taking classes in the ASL major
 
I don't feel that my life was ruined by mainstreamed school. In fact, I feel that my life would have been worse if I wasn't mainstreamed.

There was one thing that kept "pushing me back" and having a negative effect on me (although I fought it and got through)... and that was the deaf department (deaf program).

Half of my interpreters were the WORST ever. They were rude, annoying, and just plain mean.

In one class, I was taking notes from what the teacher was writing on the overhead. I could tell that she was voicing out what she was writing, so I didn't have the need to just sit there doing nothing while watching the interpreter. Yet, the interpreter reached out and slammed my desk to get my attention. In the process, she hit a pen that was sitting on the edge causing it to flip over her shoulder and through the doorway behind her into the hallway. The whole class looked at me and gave me that, "WTF!? You retard!" look. I tried to explain that the interpreter did it, but the interpreter said that I threw the pen. Of course, I got scolded by the teacher for lying and almost got detention for my behavior. In that same class, my interpreter would always leave 10 minutes before the end of class because she had to take her medication. So, I was always struggling to understand what my homework assignment was and always had to meet the teacher after class to make sure I got it right. I asked the interpreter if she could wait 10 more minutes before taking her medicine, but she ignorantly said, "No! I must take it at 12!" Jeez!

Then there's another class where the teacher left the room to get his gradebook. While he was gone, a couple of students in the back of the room started telling each other jokes. When the teacher got back, the interpreter told the teacher on those kids and encouraged the teacher to give them detention. The teacher didn't. (This was a different interpreter.)

I met with the director of the deaf department in her office and saw some filing cabinets. I asked what they were and she said they were where the deaf students records were kept. I asked if I could see mine, and she said I couldn't. (I later found out that I had a right to look at them as they were MINE.) She also said that I had a permanent record for a violent action I did to another student. Apparently, I gave another deaf student a black eye by hitting him with a door... and that she had already talked to my parents about it in my IEP (or ARD) meeting. Well, first of all... it never happened. My parents don't even know anything about this meeting nor have they ever heard of this happening. Second of all, I was 5' tall (I had a growth spurt during my senior year) and the deaf student I supposedly did this to was 6'6" tall and the size of a football player. He had a history of beating up people, but the teachers always let it slide because they said he was "special". :roll:

It was my mainstreamed teachers that were the best. I wouldn't have made it through school if it wasn't for them (and the good interpreters, of course). :)
 
Yeah, but Vampy didn't you mainstream out of a deaf school? Also didn't you end up at a dhh formal program, rather then being a solotaire? That's very different from being a solotaire......I don't think anyone's talking about solotaire "programs" that consist of minimal accomondations, and where you're the only dhh student.
 
I was in a grade school HI program, then when I went to junior and high school, I became solitaire. Never learned sign, just used lipreading and the FM system.

I went through it, thinking it wasn't too bad, but looking back it was intense isolation and it still hurts. I don't think it was even just "okay" anymore, knowing what I know now what the options were. I buried a lot of it, thinking there were no other options. I wish, at least, that I had learned sign, and gone to school with other deaf and hoh students. At least I would not have been so isolated. It really sucks.

People need to realize that we will *never* function as a hearie, no matter what tech we use. It just won't happen.
 
DeafBadger said:
I was in a grade school HI program, then when I went to junior and high school, I became solitaire. Never learned sign, just used lipreading and the FM system.

I went through it, thinking it wasn't too bad, but looking back it was intense isolation and it still hurts. I don't think it was even just "okay" anymore, knowing what I know now what the options were. I buried a lot of it, thinking there were no other options. I wish, at least, that I had learned sign, and gone to school with other deaf and hoh students. At least I would not have been so isolated. It really sucks.

People need to realize that we will *never* function as a hearie, no matter what tech we use. It just won't happen.
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I KNOW...............Believe me I know. I have to say that I honestly think that they need to STOP with the "Clarke School" model of oral education, where kids are in specialized oral programs up to middle school, and then they are mainstreamed into a solotaire hearing set up. Do the experts and hearing parents HONESTLY remember how effing BAD middle and high school are, for even hearing students? I doubt it. ......Parents and experts REALLY ...and I mean REALLY need to understand that yeah a lot of kids can paddle along during elementary school ....but as things get harder BOTH academicly AND socially............and it seems very much universal.
Why don't parents and experts maybe think that "hell maybe it might be better for kids to have an additional toolbox, instead of experianeing social emotional damage that can lead to PSTD?!?!?!
Middle and High school are NOT some "gosh a rooty, let's meet after school for a malted" social arena. In fact it can be HELL.............
 
My Experience with Mainstream schools was much better than with the deaf schools i went to. There were too many corrupted staffs and the system were flawed. It was a living hell for me being there.... The education/teaching they were doing were below 9th grade level, this mean the ones that already exceed that limit would have nothing to do, there is no challenge left to do once you hit that mark. The Staff.. They would randomly give people Detention time all the time for no reason. Teachers would base students' grades on how much they liked them too. I have witnessed things happen at the school that would give a DA a field day.
I must admit though even all of the bullshit i had to deal with, I made tons of friends. It is a good place to make friends that are deaf as well. But other than that, there are no reason to go there. I will never go back or have any of my future children go there. (Oregon School for the Deaf ,that is...)

Mainstream school, The isolation can get pretty bad, Drives you nuts. But that's the only downfall for me. I didn't have to watch my back, I didn't have to worry about getting bad grades because somebody heard some bs rumors about me.. I could relax and not worry about the principal staring me down or calling me names. Sure the Interpreters to teacher thing can be confusing but it worked well for me.
 
deafdyke said:
Yeah, but Vampy didn't you mainstream out of a deaf school? Also didn't you end up at a dhh formal program, rather then being a solotaire? That's very different from being a solotaire......I don't think anyone's talking about solotaire "programs" that consist of minimal accomondations, and where you're the only dhh student.
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Could you elaborate more on what you mean by that?

Yes, I know I wasn't a solotaire... but I always felt like I was left out considering how I was treated by the director of the deaf department and the interpreters. It was their attitude that made me feel that I could never do anything because I was deaf.
 
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