a picture of oral only education

ash345

ash345

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very very interesting... found this today... and LOVE the picture it creates...
Imagine if, instead of attending the grade schools and high schools that you went to, you were instead sent to schools in another country where they spoke a different language. And... given that sooner or later your hearing would allow you to pick up this different language, for good measure let's say you had NO language to begin with in the first place -- and that in this foreign environment, you and your teachers were separated by a thick glass wall that prevented you from actually hearing them. How much do you think you would learn in this environment? Exactly.
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oral only education... this is what its like.
 
Exactly and the audists refuse to see it. It is a shame.
 
I know... but i figured that I would at least put it out there... so many of us can relate to it... and it makes such a big difference when people can see it... My mom a few months ago saw the movie "and your name is Jonah" and that is when she realized... "what did i do to my kid?"
 
I'm interested in all these threads about education cos I'm dreading going back to school after the holidays

What's meant by oral only education?
 
Education using spoken language only, and not one of the national sign languages for the deaf.
 
let's say you had NO language to begin with in the first place -- and that in this foreign environment, you and your teachers were separated by a thick glass wall that prevented you from actually hearing them. How much do you think you would learn in this environment? Exactly.
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OTOH, nowadays, it's kind of unusual for kids to not aquire SOME spoken language. It HAPPENS yes.......but nowadays it's more like the profoundly and severely dhh kids have spoken language issues that I dealt with almost 30 years ago as a HOH aided kid.
 
ash345 said:
very very interesting... found this today... and LOVE the picture it creates...

oral only education... this is what its like.
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It wasn't for me. As soon as I had hearing aids, I was going, "I can hear this" or "I can hear that!" I remember the very first time I heard a jet flying overhead, and somehow I knew it was the jet flying and not a motor running behind a house where I couldn't see it. I also sucked down several years of deaf school classes in a year and a half's time and had to be mainstreamed way ahead of time.

Oral education works for some people who have enough of "something" in hearing to be able to take advantage of it. What the Oralists failed to realize is that it doesn't work for everyone. A lot of deaf will not succeed at it and instead get held back in language development and other areas of life. I know of people who had no business being there and needed to be in an ASL-based school system, and yet the school pressed that oralist mold on everyone regardless of suitability.

I know what that was like from being undiagnosed as profoundly deaf until after I had already gone through kindergarten, failed 1st grade after 6 weeks, bounced from doctor to doctor who declared me retarded, and finally was diagnosed near the end of the 1st grade (I was taken out after the first 6 weeks and went to a school for mental retardation or whatever it was for a brief period during that year). During the summer, my parents packed up the house in Corpus Christi and moved to San Antonio for me to go to the Sunshine Cottage for the next school year. I was well past 7 by the time I was properly diagnosed.
 
Beach girl said:
Education using spoken language only, and not one of the national sign languages for the deaf.
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And back in my day, you were physically punished for using sign language, which is why you see some people with the residual habit of signing in a very private manner (signing is not very visible from a distance or the signer has a tendency to "hide" the signing while doing so). I remember being threatened with the loss of my hands with the paper cutter in the library if I didn't stop signing one day at school. Never forgot it. And I was signing for a friend who had much more trouble with speech than I did.
 
deafdrummer said:
It wasn't for me. Oral education works for some people who have enough of "something" in hearing to be able to take advantage of it. What the Oralists failed to realize is that it doesn't work for everyone. A lot of deaf will not succeed at it and instead get held back in language development and other areas of life. I know of people who had no business being there and needed to be in an ASL-based school system, and yet the school pressed that oralist mold on everyone regardless of suitability.

.
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Nope. What the oralists failed to realize is that spoken language,while a valueable tool does not give dhh kids strict equliaty. Even those who don't struggle with language development, still struggle in beyond one on one situtions.
 
deafdrummer said:
And back in my day, you were physically punished for using sign language, which is why you see some people with the residual habit of signing in a very private manner (signing is not very visible from a distance or the signer has a tendency to "hide" the signing while doing so). I remember being threatened with the loss of my hands with the paper cutter in the library if I didn't stop signing one day at school. Never forgot it. And I was signing for a friend who had much more trouble with speech than I did.
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It is that mentality plus some behind this philosophy which is why I consider oral-only deaf ed abusive.
 
shel90 said:
It is that mentality plus some behind this philosophy which is why I consider oral-only deaf ed abusive.
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shel, in other words you're against oral only being the be all and end all of a dhh kid's education right? I don't understand WHY oralists seem to think that deaf schools (including Clarke) are the equliavant of sending your kid to Willowbrook State School. Matter of fact, I don't understand why inclusionists seem to think that specialized education= OH NO.....SEGREGATED education. You bring up the possibilty of specialized educational placement, and the parents are all "Oh no! That's limiting!"
 
and for the lurkers, this is VERY true for HOH kids too.....not just kids who have something like 40% speech perception with HA/CI.
 
deafdyke said:
Nope. What the oralists failed to realize is that spoken language,while a valueable tool does not give dhh kids strict equliaty. Even those who don't struggle with language development, still struggle in beyond one on one situtions.
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Well, you have to start somewhere. It's a lot for a child to get the hang of things. I was able to advance at a rapid pace. Keep in mind that kids are able to learn multiple languages at once. They do it all the time. I don't see a problem with kids learning speech and signing at the same time. They ought to gear the program to the child's abilities.

For what it's worth, it worked out for me. Yes, I'm very isolated socially and spiritually. I may have a total of 17.5 months of intimate relationship experience in a span of 22 years, but I have a master's degree, have toured Europe twice as an orchestra musician, played in a variety of music settings, and I work retail on the floor, where I have exposure to customers from all over the world. I'm an exception to the rule. It isn't for everyone.

But I don't know that there is a way around the inherent inequality present in the bridge between the deaf and hearing worlds, unlike between first and second language worlds, where all the foreign speakers have to do is learn the second language. I realize that this is not an option for those unable to learn to speak well enough for it to be useful to them. I don't know what to suggest to get around this limitation. As well as I do, I'm ALWAYS going to be faced with limitations beyond one-on-one. The only answer I can see if stem-cell-therapy (SCT), but it won't be coming for quite some time, I think.

What is your suggestion for getting around this AND maximizing the student's potential for doing well in the hearing world?
 
deafdrummer said:
Well, you have to start somewhere. It's a lot for a child to get the hang of things. I was able to advance at a rapid pace. Keep in mind that kids are able to learn multiple languages at once. They do it all the time. I don't see a problem with kids learning speech and signing at the same time. They ought to gear the program to the child's abilities.

For what it's worth, it worked out for me. Yes, I'm very isolated socially and spiritually. I may have a total of 17.5 months of intimate relationship experience in a span of 22 years, but I have a master's degree, have toured Europe twice as an orchestra musician, played in a variety of music settings, and I work retail on the floor, where I have exposure to customers from all over the world. I'm an exception to the rule. It isn't for everyone.

But I don't know that there is a way around the inherent inequality present in the bridge between the deaf and hearing worlds, unlike between first and second language worlds, where all the foreign speakers have to do is learn the second language. I realize that this is not an option for those unable to learn to speak well enough for it to be useful to them. I don't know what to suggest to get around this limitation. As well as I do, I'm ALWAYS going to be faced with limitation beyond one-on-one. The only answer I can see if stem-cell-therapy (SCT), but it won't be coming for quite some time, I think.

What is your suggestion for getting around this AND maximizing the student's potential for doing well in the hearing world?
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There are deaf people who have no speech skills who do well in the hearing world.

Society's attitudes about ASL and the need for speech as priority needs to change.
 
shel90 said:
There are deaf people who have no speech skills who do well in the hearing world.

Society's attitudes about ASL and the need for speech as priority needs to change.
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Rather than just say "needs to change" do you have any ideas of how to get it to actually change?
 
Jane B. said:
Rather than just say "needs to change" do you have any ideas of how to get it to actually change?
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Education and advocacy, but the problem is that the backwards attitudes are returning due to CIs. That there has been a lot of blogs and organizations set up by Deaf people trying to educate hearing people about deafness and ASL.

I think the media is the key...
 
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