'Signing' ability crucial for deaf

[Miss-Delectable]

'Signing' ability crucial for deaf - The Clarion-Ledger

I disagree with the comment made about being able to point to a board and teach deaf students ("Unspoken protest," Dec. 5).

Students deserve to have information clearly explained to them. Some deaf students are behind in their reading and language skills; therefore, it is important that the teacher be able to draw a clear picture using American Sign Language.

Communication is the key to success. The only way to successfully teach deaf students is to communicate with them and the only way to communicate with them is to speak their language, which at Mississippi School for the Deaf is American Sign Language.

A good teacher would not attempt to teach students without first knowing and understanding their language, because a good teacher cares and would put the students' needs and best interests first.

Using sign language and truly being able to communicate are two different things. Imagine: Hearing people know that the word blue has many different meanings. Deaf individuals may only know the color blue. It is important to realize that blue is also an emotion. If a teacher cannot sign all the meanings of blue, then the students are going through life thinking everything with the word blue means the color.

This is why it is extremely important for teachers of the deaf to be proficient signers!

M. Shelby Parker, Jr.

Clinton

 

[Miss-Delectable]

Schools need more funds and involvement

Schools need more funds and involvement - The Clarion-Ledger

Shame, shame, shame. How dare our governor and lawmakers allow a lack of full funding for the Mississippi Adequate Education Program and a lack of fiscal commitment to early childhood education programs ("Education: State's investment required," Nov. 26 editorial).

Shame on those who allow teachers who are not proficient in sign language to teach our deaf students and complain when the students protest ("Unspoken protest," Dec. 5). Would our state allow teachers who are not proficient in the English language to teach in our schools and threaten to expel students if they protested?

Early pre-school education for our youth, especially the deaf and other handicapped children, is essential. Early intervention for the deaf can mean the difference in being oral and having to live in an isolated world of signs. More programs like Magnolia Speech School need to be established throughout our state.

More parental involvement is essential to the success of our youth. Parents are a child's first teachers, but often they lack parental skills, and it is becoming too common that grandparents and great-grandparents are raising our youth.

Our state needs to establish, and in some cases, require, family counseling programs to enable parents to help their children succeed in life and in school.

We need to stop spending money on out-of-state programs and start communicating with teachers in the classrooms to figure a realistic way to address the problems with recruiting and keeping qualified teachers in every school.

Mississippi is a great state with lots of success stories. We need original solutions to adequately fund education, to put disruptive students on the right path rather than sending them home, and to keep qualified teachers in our state.

What happened to the days when students misspelled a word, they had to write it correctly 50 times or more until they learned to spell it, to the days when a parent didn't question a teacher's authority or to the days when a substitute teacher was respected by students?

Many praises to those students at Mississippi School for the Deaf who protested, and even more praises to their parents who supported their children.

How much longer will our state turn deaf ears to those who want to learn?

Janice Hogan

Jackson

 

[shel90]

Yea...it is one thing that the teachers need to be adequate signers but there is another problem with young deaf students ..many of them start school with virtually no language whether it is ASL or English. I am fluent in ASL but my students' ASL are at least 3 years delayed due to them not being exposed to it since birth. The key is those first 5 years..critical years for language development.