Miss-Delectable
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Signing, speech debate hinders recruitment of deaf teachers
School boards across Alberta say they need more teachers who are deaf to help the province's students with hearing impairments but the community is divided over what they should be learning.
There are about 200 deaf teachers working in Canada, but only six in Alberta.
"These deaf kids are our future. We need to be able to give them what they need," said Norma Jean Taylor, system principal for the deaf and hard of hearing at the Calgary Board of Education.
People in the deaf community, who have gathered in Calgary for a national conference this week, said many young deaf people are not choosing to teach because they're caught between conflicting pressures.
Some deaf students are encouraged to pursue American sign language, while others are pushed to learn to speak English, sometimes utilizing hearing technology.
Imran Hakamali, 30, grew up in a family that pushed him to learn how to speak English, so he didn't formally learn sign language until he was 13. By that time, he said, he wasn't comfortable in English or in signing.
"We all get tired of struggling with English because we are trying to learn it and we don't have a learning base on which to learn it," he said through a signing interpreter.
Dave Mason, a retired professor of deaf studies at York University, in Toronto, said too many young people don't get the chance to excel in sign language because they're pushed into speaking.
"It's so unnecessary. It's beyond words. I just think if people would just have the common sense, they can see the benefits of sign language," he said through an interpreter. "Why would you put so much pressure by not providing that? Why not give people the freedom to sign?"
Taylor is pitching the idea of teaching as a career to young deaf people at the Deaf Canada Conference, as the Calgary Board of Education would like to find five more teachers for deaf students.
In the last five years, the number of deaf students in Calgary has increased from about 200 to 350, but the number of teachers has stayed the same, at three.
School boards across Alberta say they need more teachers who are deaf to help the province's students with hearing impairments but the community is divided over what they should be learning.
There are about 200 deaf teachers working in Canada, but only six in Alberta.
"These deaf kids are our future. We need to be able to give them what they need," said Norma Jean Taylor, system principal for the deaf and hard of hearing at the Calgary Board of Education.
People in the deaf community, who have gathered in Calgary for a national conference this week, said many young deaf people are not choosing to teach because they're caught between conflicting pressures.
Some deaf students are encouraged to pursue American sign language, while others are pushed to learn to speak English, sometimes utilizing hearing technology.
Imran Hakamali, 30, grew up in a family that pushed him to learn how to speak English, so he didn't formally learn sign language until he was 13. By that time, he said, he wasn't comfortable in English or in signing.
"We all get tired of struggling with English because we are trying to learn it and we don't have a learning base on which to learn it," he said through a signing interpreter.
Dave Mason, a retired professor of deaf studies at York University, in Toronto, said too many young people don't get the chance to excel in sign language because they're pushed into speaking.
"It's so unnecessary. It's beyond words. I just think if people would just have the common sense, they can see the benefits of sign language," he said through an interpreter. "Why would you put so much pressure by not providing that? Why not give people the freedom to sign?"
Taylor is pitching the idea of teaching as a career to young deaf people at the Deaf Canada Conference, as the Calgary Board of Education would like to find five more teachers for deaf students.
In the last five years, the number of deaf students in Calgary has increased from about 200 to 350, but the number of teachers has stayed the same, at three.
