Miss-Delectable
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Fulton Sun
Even more baffling is imagining a world without real contact, relationships or friends. For many little ones taking that first plunge into the classroom, it is a reality they are forced to confront and overcome.
There is a philosophical rift in the deaf education community when it comes to what is considered the most effective approach. For some, mainstreaming children into hearing classrooms is the only acceptable method, the belief being it readies the child for interaction in the “real” world. Others feel that the only way a deaf child can completely socialize is to be around other deaf students. With companions who can relate to their circumstance, a higher level of connection can be reached.
The Missouri School for the Deaf has been campaigning for funding from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish a preschool. DESE has maintained the stance that state money is better spent on local preschool hearing impaired programs in school districts throughout Missouri. Superintendent Barbara Garrison is asking that DESE treat MSD like any other school district and appropriate the funds for its proposed preschool.
“We feel it's a critical area we are currently not addressing,” said Garrison. “The primary reason (we need the school) is that kids who can't hear are language deprived. It creates a gap in education and learning processes that follows them for their whole life.”
According to administrators at MSD, many children enter the school at the kindergarten level lacking basic communication skills, putting them immediately behind. A preschool would enable MSD to oversee those preliminary concepts children age 3-5 need.
Garrison said 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents and that 95 percent of those parents do not learn to communicate Amercican Sign Language effectively.
“Therefore, you've got this 1- to 4-year-old deaf child who is not picking up language like (those with hearing), and he or she doesn't have anyone around signing to help with development of that language,” said Garrison.
MSD board of advisors vice president Brenda Weggenmann, of Eureka, has a son, Johnny, who is deaf. She and Johnny have struggled through the process of preschool education in the Jefferson County Northwest School District.
“First, they tried to put him in a non-categorical preschool for multi-handicapped kids,” said Weggenmann. “He would have been the only hearing-impaired child, but I went to the program with an open mind. There were Down's Syndrome children, blind children, a wide range ... it was not even close to being appropriate for him.”
After pulling Johnny out of that program, Weggenmann and her son then embarked on a journey that would take them to multiple school districts, the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, and, fortunately for Johnny, MSD.
“He actually made the decision to go to school at MSD,” said Weggenmann. “He spent the day there and immediately bonded with another child. He looked at me at the end of the day and said ‘are we coming back tomorrow?'”
Tosha Drew has been through that same wide-eyed experience as a student and witnesses it now as an instructor. She and colleague Norma Vickers are both teachers of the deaf and are deaf themselves.
“When I first came to the school, I was just in awe,” said Drew. “It was culture shock, but then I started to thrive. I grew and I found out who I was, and people forget about that. There were no frustrations and there was no awkwardness of trying to understand. It was a sense of freedom”
“Most of the children when they first come to school here don't know their names or their ABCs,” said Vickers. “They don't know any sign language and there's a delay. If we had a preschool, we could teach them as soon as they got here at that kindergarten level.”
Some skeptics of the proposed preschool say that parents may be reluctant to send their children away to school at such a young age. Those in favor of it feel the extraordinary learning process makes it worth it.
“I see many students come in with that look but then grow and thrive,” said Drew. “It's a beautiful thing to see.”
Weggenmann said that facilities for the preschool already exist, and that it would require very little on the part of DESE to begin the process.
Several attempts to reach DESE for comment were unsuccessful.
In the meantime, Garrison and MSD continue to wait for funding enabling its only missing educational link.
“All we're asking for is the same opportunity that local school districts have,” said Garrison. “We work with school districts consulting on the best practices and how to do this and that for preschoolers. We can't consult them on a preschool and not have one of our own. It's ludicrous. The light bulb is just not going off there (at DESE), but it will.”
Even more baffling is imagining a world without real contact, relationships or friends. For many little ones taking that first plunge into the classroom, it is a reality they are forced to confront and overcome.
There is a philosophical rift in the deaf education community when it comes to what is considered the most effective approach. For some, mainstreaming children into hearing classrooms is the only acceptable method, the belief being it readies the child for interaction in the “real” world. Others feel that the only way a deaf child can completely socialize is to be around other deaf students. With companions who can relate to their circumstance, a higher level of connection can be reached.
The Missouri School for the Deaf has been campaigning for funding from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish a preschool. DESE has maintained the stance that state money is better spent on local preschool hearing impaired programs in school districts throughout Missouri. Superintendent Barbara Garrison is asking that DESE treat MSD like any other school district and appropriate the funds for its proposed preschool.
“We feel it's a critical area we are currently not addressing,” said Garrison. “The primary reason (we need the school) is that kids who can't hear are language deprived. It creates a gap in education and learning processes that follows them for their whole life.”
According to administrators at MSD, many children enter the school at the kindergarten level lacking basic communication skills, putting them immediately behind. A preschool would enable MSD to oversee those preliminary concepts children age 3-5 need.
Garrison said 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents and that 95 percent of those parents do not learn to communicate Amercican Sign Language effectively.
“Therefore, you've got this 1- to 4-year-old deaf child who is not picking up language like (those with hearing), and he or she doesn't have anyone around signing to help with development of that language,” said Garrison.
MSD board of advisors vice president Brenda Weggenmann, of Eureka, has a son, Johnny, who is deaf. She and Johnny have struggled through the process of preschool education in the Jefferson County Northwest School District.
“First, they tried to put him in a non-categorical preschool for multi-handicapped kids,” said Weggenmann. “He would have been the only hearing-impaired child, but I went to the program with an open mind. There were Down's Syndrome children, blind children, a wide range ... it was not even close to being appropriate for him.”
After pulling Johnny out of that program, Weggenmann and her son then embarked on a journey that would take them to multiple school districts, the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, and, fortunately for Johnny, MSD.
“He actually made the decision to go to school at MSD,” said Weggenmann. “He spent the day there and immediately bonded with another child. He looked at me at the end of the day and said ‘are we coming back tomorrow?'”
Tosha Drew has been through that same wide-eyed experience as a student and witnesses it now as an instructor. She and colleague Norma Vickers are both teachers of the deaf and are deaf themselves.
“When I first came to the school, I was just in awe,” said Drew. “It was culture shock, but then I started to thrive. I grew and I found out who I was, and people forget about that. There were no frustrations and there was no awkwardness of trying to understand. It was a sense of freedom”
“Most of the children when they first come to school here don't know their names or their ABCs,” said Vickers. “They don't know any sign language and there's a delay. If we had a preschool, we could teach them as soon as they got here at that kindergarten level.”
Some skeptics of the proposed preschool say that parents may be reluctant to send their children away to school at such a young age. Those in favor of it feel the extraordinary learning process makes it worth it.
“I see many students come in with that look but then grow and thrive,” said Drew. “It's a beautiful thing to see.”
Weggenmann said that facilities for the preschool already exist, and that it would require very little on the part of DESE to begin the process.
Several attempts to reach DESE for comment were unsuccessful.
In the meantime, Garrison and MSD continue to wait for funding enabling its only missing educational link.
“All we're asking for is the same opportunity that local school districts have,” said Garrison. “We work with school districts consulting on the best practices and how to do this and that for preschoolers. We can't consult them on a preschool and not have one of our own. It's ludicrous. The light bulb is just not going off there (at DESE), but it will.”