Deaf President Now Research

[margaret102]

Good Morning,

My name is Margaret and I am a sophomore in college. I am writing you today because I am doing a research project on the Deaf President Now movement for my American Sign Language 102 class and as I was researching for this project I was curious to know if anyone in this chat would be interested in answering a couple questions for me. One of the aspects of this project is actually going out and talking/communicating with people who are knowledgeable on said topic. I am writing to you today with a couple of questions in hopes that within your busy schedule you could give me some of your personal insight on the Deaf President Now movement. My questions are as followed:

1) Why was the Deaf President Now movement so important for the Deaf Community, not only on Gallaudet campus, but across the world?

2) What is your personal insight on Deaf President Now and what does it mean to you?

3) Has Deaf President Now affected your life? If so, what aspects of this movement are influential to you?

4) Lastly, if you could tell a group of people something that not many people know about the Deaf President Now movement, what would that be and why?

If you do end up answering these questions, please leave your name so I credit this to you! Thank you in advance for even taking the time to read this. Have a great week everyone!

Best,

Margaret

 

[x1heavy]

I graduated in 1987 from MSD, and a friend of mine graduated in 1988 from MSSD which was essentially part of Galludet so I was physically in the area that year and was aware of the situation from the deaf there. I myself was finishing up with trucking school in Baltimore and working on getting rolling after having the Class A from the DMV that year.

There was a President who was not deaf in charge of the School and frankly in the decades prior to that there was not much advocate or movement as its termed now. Among the deaf. About 1988 or so there was among us a feeling that if you are going to be a President of a Deaf School, it would no longer be acceptable to be some hearing or worse a politcal appointee or what have you in that kind of position. it was past time to have a actual deaf president in charge. So... if i remember right the deaf classmates stated loudly that there will be a deaf president and only a deaf president. What if there was no deaf president? Well... thankfully it did not escalate that far because they found a deaf president.

It was important to understand that the student body and deaf in general in the area believed that if you are going to do something in charge of other people you need to be one of the deaf. (In those days being deaf is also inclusive a little deaf, HOH, Brain injury or whatever that hurt the hearing enough to where you cannot hear anymore or was born that way etc was sufficient to be considered legally deaf and part of the community.) And so the people got with each other and made the noise that they made and presto. Done.

When you have change like that when before you did not really have change against a Insutitional or Political System or anything in between, the people would feel that they made a difference and they have. I probably with some thought can recognize some who were a part of that and indeed it was topic of converstation among the deaf that I ran into now and again in those years. It was important to remember that I was sick of school. I graduated at 20, aged out. You can imagine the stress of having essentially a adult full grown in a residential school situation like that. The state serves students until 21. Then they either graduate, quit or get a certificate which has no meaning saying that yes they went to school But no did not graduate and if they wanted GED they will have to go get it themselves. Being involved in trucking as a deaf person made a little bit of noise as well. Not so much. The worst thing about it was the systematic discrimiantion in hiring that was evident in that part of the USA. There was no way you are going to stick someone with medical limitations into a rig that is worth more than some houses and haul loads potentially a million plus in value. etc. in all weathers and in any terrain. So winter weather that causes people to empty the stores and hide under their homes, we are just getting started and roll. It was pretty isolating as it was.

I soon lost regular contact with most of the people in the area as my work took off and evolved as it were. However the last batch I recall visiting with were with employers who were paid to hire deaf and other handicapped workers and subsudized and so on. We had none of that in trucking. And that caused some problems all around. (The industry was undergoing very big changes as well so new things were happening as well)

I did however noticed that MSD in Frederick had new people in charge as Superintendent, Principals and so on and on occasional visits realized that what we were in the 80's were not allowed into the 90's I found the students there in a position that they might be allowed to speak up and exercise what they thought was free speech but to do it off the school property (At home) and so on. There was not very much advocacy or voice among the what I call a fractured and compliant student body who did not feel empowered as a body so to speak and collectively tell the State or whomever what they think should happen. And so through that kind of suppression changes were created which also hurt the Deaf Community as well.

One example will be that a second geneation born to deaf parents also deaf were attening the school when they got old enough. Well, some of the people in charge figures that they will be treated as royalty and anyone and everyone else who were HOH and all the range of less deaf were to be exculded somewhat as being somehow less deserving to be at the deaf school as well. Which flew in the face of the overall Directive by the Statehouse to serve ALL persons of whatever situation they may be in (Deaf, Blind, Handicapped and even before the 60's of Color as well who also were deaf, blind and so forth) So on one hand they got a Deaf President and have a vocal change to make things shake the cage and do well. Thats awesome. On the other hand some of the newer leaders in positions to do so made sure that no more of that noise will be happening while THEY were in charge.

So with that in mind you can imagine basic stressors among all of the system top to bottom. We had a Super who was in a position to have served the Deaf and did very well. Unfortunately in later years the State made sure to eliminate him from that work before retirement. And that would be that. That may have been a indirect result of any deaf school system whose students got together and demanded a deaf president. What do you think will happen if they started demanding say deaf supers, deaf lawmakers in the state house with deaf in power all over the place from Governor all the way down across the Hearing World?

Changes? Absolutely. But sometimes in America if you did one thing you will discover and learn that sometimes there is a price exacted elsewhere along the way. I myself personally was focused on trucking in the traditional work and as such was away from too many people too long to really be involved in those kinds of movements or changes. And my experiences was essentially breaking the discrimination that made sure that no deaf could get to trucking. (Rules were made to allow deaf in FMCSA, DOT etc in the 70's) and frankly deaf should not be so uppity as to try and get "above their place." among the hearing society or whatever you want to look at. That was NOT the only big thing happening as well. You had the new AIDS thing then and a concurrent change int he drug war to what it has become now and combined with the inclusive and other buzzwords of change happening today and into the future.

After a certain age I have lived my life and its quite something. But at the same time like in any generation faced with change from the younger generation they tend to dig in and say ok, thats quite enough of that. Then you get closer to having really big problems in Society if not in our entire Country by then. While I was hauling pharmacy loads many of my deaf classmates were "Existing" as dish washers because their employers were paid by the Goverment to the differences in productive value and wages which were not worth very much. While I had to fight on my own for whatever it is with my employers within the bounds of law and also company policy etc. So it was strictly just me. In many cases improvied the situation so that if there were more deaf truckers they will find work there. In some cases you will NEVER have a deaf trucker in certain companies. Never mind being in positions to train, supervise or in boss type authority over other workers. Lets not even get into all that. The deaf have forgotten their place as it were. And I say the employers in various industries across the USA has forgotten that people has been for hundreds of years before them building a Home regardless of their disabilites or limitations. And so for me to be successful I had to leave the area around Maryland. Its too stratified or frozen in rock a systematic and insitutional discrimaitnion among employers who have the power to hire people and sometimes put them into positions of authority or real power.

Which is why in those days of the 80's having change to the point of actually installing a deaf president was a real victory, a very very big deal. In my last work I would be a boss of 30 people. My bigger boss never for a moment said anything about my own deafness and so on. None of that. You will not find in a proper society that hires qualified people to do real work in life and sometimes be in a position to be in charge and make decisions that hopefully will lift all workers up. (Or in the deaf system, improve the situation overall) And here in the south they are well aware of such history as they lived it long before I came along to make a home here.

One last thought. The deaf here are not as strong as the deaf closer to Washington DC. There is still a generation or three to come that change will happen here among the deaf and technology and other things will evolve to improve the situation to where so what if you were deaf. That means nothing. You get to do wahtever you want in work from President all the way down to Dishwasher. Whatever it is. There will be nothing to build a wall around you to prevent that anymore. And think thats the ultimate effect of what happened in the 80's And thats just a step towards a future where if you were deaf? Great. Awesome. You would find a work that is good for you and sometimes be a Deaf Boss, President or whatever it is.

I have wondered from time to time if we ever will have a deaf president in the white house. I think the results of that kind of thinking would best be set aside because it will take too much change for that to happen. But only if you can imagine finding a person who has despite everything become somthing more than just their place. That would mean society in general has also improved. And I like to think so.

 

[x1heavy]

I wanted to share a thought also from partly being deaf growing up as a child it comes out several different ways. The easiest would be to break it down to very basic concepts as I lived it in my early life as a deaf.

When I was very young hearing aids were a new thing. Fantastically expensive and so on. There were different kinds of hearing aids back then. When Columbia opened for young children born in the 60's due to german measles and so on meaning there will be a need for a new school to serve a few thousand new deaf above normal. One thing that they did the first year there in class was to use a telecoil system around your neck. You wore hearing aids on your chest in a harness like a horse or a bra etc so that whatever the teacher said by voice only would go to you directly. So the idea is that there is no such thing as deaf. You will wear this and you will be one of the hearing.

Ya right.

Anyway. Another concept is the workshop. You get a bunch of children into there and all of them at some point is part of the Special Education in someway. meaning a special classroom at the far end of a given public school out of the way of the normal kids as much as possible. (To be least disruptive) Well, after four years in columbia they sent me to public elementry and middle school and later high school trying to say that here is someone who can hear and speak because we taught him to. Now here he is going around in your public system without very much additional resources (*As in Special Education side of public education)

Ya right. No one in those days bothered to ask me directly what I thought about the whole thing. What a mess.

Inside a workshop everyone sitting there quietly folding mail are told if they are do a good job, comply with the thousands of rules do nots some day they will be a President. Ignoring for the time that only one at a time will be President and certainly not one in a restrictive situation like a workshop.

Ya right.

Finally my personal favorite. As a deaf student in a new deaf school built by the State of Maryland in Columbia the entire staff from Principal all the way down to the cook told us that were should be honored that we are in a "Least Restrictive Environment"

Pray tell us what was restrictive before? Everything. Why are you telling us then we are free? Have we never been free? No one taught those kinds of thinking to any deaf back then. In class you were taught whatever the material was approved by the State and you were not to question any of it.

For example.

In columbia they taught the US Money System to those of us I think in 3rd grade style. Three months of learning about the US Money system in 1974 for me. Ok cool. A dollar, a quarter, a dime and so on. Great. The people on them, washington etc. wonderful. Awesome. But you were NOT allowed to speak up and ask questions like...

Why did President Nixon refuse to allow the US Money system to be based on the Gold Standard after being closed for good in 1971?

Oh no, we cannot have uppity deaf students that young asking those kinds of questions in a subscribed and approved course of instruction on a subject as simple as the US Money System.

Can you imagine the horror if I actually asked that question or others? That would be the end of that for me in such a system of least restrictive environment. HA. the nerve.

While growing up before deaf school my family was involved in commerce. Resturants, bars, taverns or whatever it was on one side. Some trucking on the other in that side of the family. I was exposed early to the concept of the Silver Certificate Dollar Bill from the 60's and so on. I was even taught that in 1962 Maryland Required my parents in the food service to serve black customers who come in and sit down for a meal as customers. Before 1962 that did not happen. Not legally in Maryland. So, even though I was a child I was already being exposed to many issues that people thought would be important to me growing up soon enough.

But no one thought there will be a actual deaf President a few years later. Its like a seed. You plant a seed on a farm and harvest good things to eat. But once in a while if you dont watch it you have to deal with the weeds, locusts, coyoties and snakes etc. all over that dream world you are trying to create for the deaf to protect them from the real world.

Least restrictive? HA the nerve. Or... even better. You have great potential.

What? Potential? Was I nothing before you told me that today? Ya right.

Years later into the 80's you had enough deaf who said ok, thats quite enough of that. We get to speak and there will be changes. We have been spoken to long enough. Now we think for ourselves.

The horror. /some satire and some truth.

 

[margaret102]

I wanted to share a thought also from partly being deaf growing up as a child it comes out several different ways. The easiest would be to break it down to very basic concepts as I lived it in my early life as a deaf.

When I was very young hearing aids were a new thing. Fantastically expensive and so on. There were different kinds of hearing aids back then. When Columbia opened for young children born in the 60's due to german measles and so on meaning there will be a need for a new school to serve a few thousand new deaf above normal. One thing that they did the first year there in class was to use a telecoil system around your neck. You wore hearing aids on your chest in a harness like a horse or a bra etc so that whatever the teacher said by voice only would go to you directly. So the idea is that there is no such thing as deaf. You will wear this and you will be one of the hearing.

Ya right.

Anyway. Another concept is the workshop. You get a bunch of children into there and all of them at some point is part of the Special Education in someway. meaning a special classroom at the far end of a given public school out of the way of the normal kids as much as possible. (To be least disruptive) Well, after four years in columbia they sent me to public elementry and middle school and later high school trying to say that here is someone who can hear and speak because we taught him to. Now here he is going around in your public system without very much additional resources (*As in Special Education side of public education)

Ya right. No one in those days bothered to ask me directly what I thought about the whole thing. What a mess.

Inside a workshop everyone sitting there quietly folding mail are told if they are do a good job, comply with the thousands of rules do nots some day they will be a President. Ignoring for the time that only one at a time will be President and certainly not one in a restrictive situation like a workshop.

Ya right.

Finally my personal favorite. As a deaf student in a new deaf school built by the State of Maryland in Columbia the entire staff from Principal all the way down to the cook told us that were should be honored that we are in a "Least Restrictive Environment"

Pray tell us what was restrictive before? Everything. Why are you telling us then we are free? Have we never been free? No one taught those kinds of thinking to any deaf back then. In class you were taught whatever the material was approved by the State and you were not to question any of it.

For example.

In columbia they taught the US Money System to those of us I think in 3rd grade style. Three months of learning about the US Money system in 1974 for me. Ok cool. A dollar, a quarter, a dime and so on. Great. The people on them, washington etc. wonderful. Awesome. But you were NOT allowed to speak up and ask questions like...

Why did President Nixon refuse to allow the US Money system to be based on the Gold Standard after being closed for good in 1971?

Oh no, we cannot have uppity deaf students that young asking those kinds of questions in a subscribed and approved course of instruction on a subject as simple as the US Money System.

Can you imagine the horror if I actually asked that question or others? That would be the end of that for me in such a system of least restrictive environment. HA. the nerve.

While growing up before deaf school my family was involved in commerce. Resturants, bars, taverns or whatever it was on one side. Some trucking on the other in that side of the family. I was exposed early to the concept of the Silver Certificate Dollar Bill from the 60's and so on. I was even taught that in 1962 Maryland Required my parents in the food service to serve black customers who come in and sit down for a meal as customers. Before 1962 that did not happen. Not legally in Maryland. So, even though I was a child I was already being exposed to many issues that people thought would be important to me growing up soon enough.

But no one thought there will be a actual deaf President a few years later. Its like a seed. You plant a seed on a farm and harvest good things to eat. But once in a while if you dont watch it you have to deal with the weeds, locusts, coyoties and snakes etc. all over that dream world you are trying to create for the deaf to protect them from the real world.

Least restrictive? HA the nerve. Or... even better. You have great potential.

What? Potential? Was I nothing before you told me that today? Ya right.

Years later into the 80's you had enough deaf who said ok, thats quite enough of that. We get to speak and there will be changes. We have been spoken to long enough. Now we think for ourselves.

The horror. /some satire and some truth.

Thank you for all the commentary! I greatly appreciate your insight on this.