http://www.deafeducation.org/stories/facts.html
Sweetmind
FACTS From My School Time
I'm now 33. I was born and brought up in Southampton. I'm proud to be a BSL user, but I haven't always signed. I was educated in a mainstream school which taught through speech and listening - the oral method.
I want to compare my earlier experiences with my life now - I use sign language - because the differences are interesting. You can make your own mind up - see what you think.
The school I went to was a mainstream school with a Partially Hearing Unit for the Deaf pupils. The teaching was all through speech and listening (oral method). It was quite a big school with maybe 400 hearing students and maybe 15 Deaf mixed in with them.
Without a doubt, the education I received was poor, and I would say that the main reason for that was that the mainstream teachers didn't really know how to teach Deaf pupils. Basically, I spent my entire school career missing most of what was going on around me in the classroom. Any time I asked one of the other Deaf for clarification or owned up to the fact that we didn't understand something, the teacher would suggest that we came back at break time so she could explain to us again, but when we did go back, she never had any time for us and was always too busy to explain again for us. I mean! What could we do? We got used to that kind of treatment eventually.
Although the teaching method was oral, we Deaf students did use signs to communicate with each other. It wasn't proper sign language, just a few signs and gestures we would use with each other. But during lesson time, we had to be careful not to get caught because even that was forbidden. They tried to force us to use speech all the time, even with each other, and if you got caught signing you'd be in trouble! You'd get the cane for that and we were all quite scared of getting caught, but you just had to live with it - it was a fact of life.
Although the school had Deaf and hearing pupils, we all never really mixed and we Deaf never felt included. Communication between us was so difficult. At break times and lunch times we would always seek each other out and hang around together in a group because it was so much easier to communicate with each other in sign. It was just more comfortable that way.
The scope of my education was limited by the school because I was Deaf. I remember that when it came to choosing options for CSE, I was not allowed to do Geography, which I was really keen on. The teacher told me it was because I was Deaf. I was really disappointed. I didn't really understand the reasons for their decision.
When I was younger, all us Deaf kids used to have to use a 'Phonic Ear' hearing aid thing that had the part you had to wear round your body. We had to wear these all the time in class. They weren't bad - they worked a bit for me, but the school got rid of all the Phonic Ears at some point and replaced them with a personal loop system for each of us. But that was hopeless for me! I couldn't hear a thing using this loop. Of course, I told the staff this, but after checking to make sure the equipment was working OK, which it was, they just told me to put it back on. Despite what I was telling them, they believed I could head using this loop and it didn't seem to matter how many times I complained I couldn't hear anything using it. Their attitude was so arrogant, like they knew best! How dare they tell me I can hear if I can't. They are my ears; I know better than anyone whether I can hear something or not, because I am in the best position to judge. In the end I would just switch the damned thing off because I couldn't hear anything with it, and would just wear my regular hearing aids. The teachers never seemed to catch onto the fact that I would switch it off!
I was very frustrated in school as I grew up. I know that my parents and the school staff used to say I had behavioural problems. I remember regularly telling my parents how unhappy I was. I used to spell out "NOT HAPPY" to them, but they just told me that I had no choice, that I had to go, that I had to put up with it because it's a hearing world and that's that. My mother told me if I didn't go to school she could be taken to court, so I grudgingly went. Really, those who failed to educate me should have been in prison, not my mother.
I was never bored at school though. I had two close friends, and in class we used to secretly sign to each other under the tables. We used to fingerspell back and forth, like you sometimes see older Deaf people doing. We never got caught doing that! So we always had company and our chatting meant we never got bored even though we didn't understand the teacher.
My mum and dad were adamant that they wanted me to learn to speak. They held the view that Deaf people who sign are troublemakers, and they strongly felt that I shouldn't get mixed up with them. Their view was that I should try t o get along in the hearing would because hearing people are in the majority, so I should try to fit in with them. But I had seen adult Deaf sign language users and I wasn't convinced that my parents were right.
I would get the same story from the school as well - that if I could learn to speak I would be able to fit into the hearing world and that would be the best thing for me. They said that sign language would only lead to trouble.
It was confusing for me because I couldn't see how I could ever do what they wanted. I was Deaf. How could I fit into the hearing world when I understood so little of what hearing people said to me?
I became deeply frustrated and angry inside. I would act up and scream to express my worries. My mum couldn't understand what my problem was. I have a younger brother and older sister who are both Deaf and they seemed to be getting along fine but I felt differently to them. I knew the system was failing me. I knew everything was not alright for me. I had some huge arguments with my parents about this, but their view never changed and I remained unhappy and frustrated until I was 14 when my older sister took me to the local Deaf Club for the first time. I was absolutely gobsmacked. I couldn't believe it - EVERYBODY was signing! I couldn't really follow what was going on because at that time I only knew the few signs that my friends and I made up to use at school. Really, my friends and I relied on a few signs, gestures, lipreading and fingerspelling. I had never seen anything like this full signing before and I was a bit daunted. I sat in a corner and watched everything that was going on around me, fascinated. It was a big shock to me and I didn't understand at first, but I was determined to become a part of this so I went regularly to the Deaf Club from then on, every week. I would pester the other Deaf kids at school to come down with me and we soon started to pick up the language. Once we'd started to communicate in sign language, there was no stopping us.
When I left school, my father asked if I would like to go to college, but I was very reluctant, mostly because I was afraid it would be just like school and I couldn't face going through that again. I ended up getting a place on a YTS scheme, which led to a job, but I was just stuck at that basic level. Work was dull, the same thing day in, day out, and there seemed to be no prospect of improvement or promotion. I felt lost, really.
Then, when I was about 24, my local college set up an English course especially for Deaf people. The woman that was teaching it was Deaf herself. So I went along to that one evening a week and I really enjoyed it - I learned a lot. The teaching was challenging and I could really feel my confidence growing. For the first time, I could actually get an answer to my questions in the classroom. If I didn't understand something, I would just ask and she would explain clearly. I really felt that I was improving my skills in this area, but of course my day job was as dull as ever and I just became more and more depressed about my situation until eventually I had a breakdown. I would just sit and cry for hour because I felt such a failure, that I would never achieve anything.
Eventually I made the decision to give up work and go to college full time. They provided sign language interpreters in class so I was able to access the teaching much more easily. I learned a lot; so much more than I ever learned in school, and my confidence grew.
Now I am at university in Preston, studying for a degree in Interior Design. There is an interpreter present in all my classes so communication is no longer a problem, and there is a strong Deaf community here in Preston so I can mix with Deaf friends every day and live a normal life. Our signing community is as natural to us as speaking is to hearing people.
I have no doubt at all in my mind that the oral system of education and mainstreaming which I suffered under was abusive in the extreme.
And I am not alone - many of my Deaf friends have been through similar things. The repression of our natural language is an abuse of our rights as human beings and our lives are damaged because of this.
I'm one of the lucky ones - I now have pride in myself, my language and my community. I am Deaf. But if I look back on my life, I can see how wrong things were.
I don't want to see what happened to me happen to other Deaf children in the future. I don't want to see the mistakes of the past repeated again in the future. I don't want Deaf children to suffer like us, to go through what we went through. There should be an end to this now.
One final point - I don't believe that mainstream schooling can provide a suitable environment for Deaf children. Deaf kids need a stimulating visual environment and exposure to sign language from a young age, preferably in a Deaf school, so they can start to develop and learn. English should be taught as a second language with the aim of ensuring Deaf children become fluently bilingual in both BSL and English. It is achievable. I know many Deaf people who had exposure to sign from a young age - their English skills are excellent. I would certainly recommend using sign language from the start, both at school and at home, because family communication is really important too. Without that, the Deaf child becomes isolated within the family. That was certainly my experience - me and my Deaf brother and sister always seemed to be left out of the rest of the family and we stuck with each other because of the easy communication between us.
Colin Singh
colly28@hotmail.com
(Translated from British Sign Language to English)
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