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The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper
The hallways are wide and bright, the windows expansive, the floor patterns "playful" and the classrooms equipped with the latest technology.
These are just a few of the features that greeted students who crossed the threshold of the new Maryland School for the Deaf Elementary School for the first time when it opened Aug. 31.
The new $20 million building at the end of South Carroll Street houses not only the school's elementary grades but also a variety of other services, including the infant and toddlers program and many therapy programs, MSD Superintendent James E. Tucker said during a recent tour.
About 75 elementary-age students are educated at the new schoolhouse. The family education program serves families with children from infancy through age 4, Tucker said.
Many architectural aspects of the building were specially designed for a deaf population, Tucker said.
With walls of windows, much of the school is flooded with natural light. Walls and ceiling tiles are designed to be "acoustically friendly" to deaf and hard-of-hearing students and staff members. The hallways are extra-wide to allow people to walk side by side.
"We have to walk alongside each other, and not in front or behind, so we can see what is being said," Tucker said, referring to the use of American Sign Language. "These halls are wonderful."
There are no rows of desks in classrooms at MSD for the same reason. Desks are arranged in a semicircle so all students can see each other, the teacher and the smart boards in each room.
Morning announcements are made via video message boards in each room.
Mary Ann Swann, who works with the infant and toddlers program, said she is thrilled to be in an environment designed just for her young charges.
"I'm very excited to see a building especially designed for small children, and the children love it, too," she said.
From toilets and sinks to furniture, everything is designed to meet their needs, she said. The program for MSD's youngest students never had its own building, and borrowed space wherever it could be found.
The infant and toddlers program is critical for child and parents alike, Tucker said.
"Often, hearing parents have never met a deaf person and then they have a deaf child," he said. "The key is language development and school-readiness, and this program provides that."
The young children learn how to express themselves in English and ASL, and they learn how to socialize and play with other children.
MSD follows the curriculum of Frederick County Public Schools. Graduating seniors receive a Maryland State High School Diploma. The public school is free to all Maryland residents and referrals are accepted at any time, according to the school's website.
The school's claim to fame, Tucker believes, is its bilingual approach to education. Tucker is an example of the results of what he calls a "language-rich environment." He is deaf, with just some residual hearing, but speaks to a reporter without an interpreter. He speaks clearly, reads lips and is fluent in ASL.
Those skills -- the spoken word, speech (lip) reading and sign language -- are emphasized equally and used all the time in the classroom. In many classes, two teachers work with students. One teacher uses spoken English while another uses ASL in reinforcement of each other.
"We use visual learning to support the auditory learning," Tucker said. "Our common denominator is that we depend on the eyes to supplement what our ears do not do."
While laws exist to mainstream special education students and to educate them in the "least restrictive environment," Tucker believes that philosophy isn't as friendly to deaf students as it is to developmentally disabled students.
"Least restrictive environment also includes sending a student to the school closest to his home, and that isn't necessarily good for the deaf or hard-of-hearing student," Tucker said.
Deaf students make up just 1 percent of all students. In a mainstream school, a deaf student may be the only deaf person in his class or even the school, the superintendent said.
"Social development is so important," Tucker said. "You don't want a child to be isolated, you want a child to be part of a community.
"Here, they are part of their peer community and they can equally participate in anything the school offers."
The hallways are wide and bright, the windows expansive, the floor patterns "playful" and the classrooms equipped with the latest technology.
These are just a few of the features that greeted students who crossed the threshold of the new Maryland School for the Deaf Elementary School for the first time when it opened Aug. 31.
The new $20 million building at the end of South Carroll Street houses not only the school's elementary grades but also a variety of other services, including the infant and toddlers program and many therapy programs, MSD Superintendent James E. Tucker said during a recent tour.
About 75 elementary-age students are educated at the new schoolhouse. The family education program serves families with children from infancy through age 4, Tucker said.
Many architectural aspects of the building were specially designed for a deaf population, Tucker said.
With walls of windows, much of the school is flooded with natural light. Walls and ceiling tiles are designed to be "acoustically friendly" to deaf and hard-of-hearing students and staff members. The hallways are extra-wide to allow people to walk side by side.
"We have to walk alongside each other, and not in front or behind, so we can see what is being said," Tucker said, referring to the use of American Sign Language. "These halls are wonderful."
There are no rows of desks in classrooms at MSD for the same reason. Desks are arranged in a semicircle so all students can see each other, the teacher and the smart boards in each room.
Morning announcements are made via video message boards in each room.
Mary Ann Swann, who works with the infant and toddlers program, said she is thrilled to be in an environment designed just for her young charges.
"I'm very excited to see a building especially designed for small children, and the children love it, too," she said.
From toilets and sinks to furniture, everything is designed to meet their needs, she said. The program for MSD's youngest students never had its own building, and borrowed space wherever it could be found.
The infant and toddlers program is critical for child and parents alike, Tucker said.
"Often, hearing parents have never met a deaf person and then they have a deaf child," he said. "The key is language development and school-readiness, and this program provides that."
The young children learn how to express themselves in English and ASL, and they learn how to socialize and play with other children.
MSD follows the curriculum of Frederick County Public Schools. Graduating seniors receive a Maryland State High School Diploma. The public school is free to all Maryland residents and referrals are accepted at any time, according to the school's website.
The school's claim to fame, Tucker believes, is its bilingual approach to education. Tucker is an example of the results of what he calls a "language-rich environment." He is deaf, with just some residual hearing, but speaks to a reporter without an interpreter. He speaks clearly, reads lips and is fluent in ASL.
Those skills -- the spoken word, speech (lip) reading and sign language -- are emphasized equally and used all the time in the classroom. In many classes, two teachers work with students. One teacher uses spoken English while another uses ASL in reinforcement of each other.
"We use visual learning to support the auditory learning," Tucker said. "Our common denominator is that we depend on the eyes to supplement what our ears do not do."
While laws exist to mainstream special education students and to educate them in the "least restrictive environment," Tucker believes that philosophy isn't as friendly to deaf students as it is to developmentally disabled students.
"Least restrictive environment also includes sending a student to the school closest to his home, and that isn't necessarily good for the deaf or hard-of-hearing student," Tucker said.
Deaf students make up just 1 percent of all students. In a mainstream school, a deaf student may be the only deaf person in his class or even the school, the superintendent said.
"Social development is so important," Tucker said. "You don't want a child to be isolated, you want a child to be part of a community.
"Here, they are part of their peer community and they can equally participate in anything the school offers."