Gotham Gal reports on a fundraiser for the League of Hard of Hearing. Near the end of her blog post, she gives the example of a teenage girl telling the audience how her teacher had told her she could only expect to work at McDonald's. That had me wondering how many teachers out there are telling their deaf and hard of hearing students they have low expectations of them? Fortunately, this girl did not listen and had higher expectations for herself.
However, there may be deaf and hard of hearing students out there who have teachers who are telling them similar things. Some of them may actually believe it, and lower their expectations of themselves. How can the deaf community prevent that from happening in an era where most deaf and hard of hearing children are mainstreamed?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I'm not surprised. I grew up in mainstreamed programs and I was lucky and unlucky at same time..being the teacher's pet (hence I was encouraged to learn a lot) and being bullied by other deaf students because the teacher neglected them (to focus on me.) I heard a lot of "you can do it" "you will be successful" and "you are so smart" yet I'd watch the teacher tell other deaf students "you're troublemakers" "you're no good" and "you won't be successful like Julie here." Now it's 20 years later and all the other deaf students had finished high school, yes, however they are still unemployed or working at jobs (like carpet-cleaning, McDonalds or Walmart stocking.) You're right about that...it's HOW the teachers perceive students and how they SAY things to the students that will affect the students mentally (and permanently.) (For me, I'm a counselor for Deaf after I received my university degree.)
It's not only the mainstreamed programs...teachers at residential schools also say such things. I've seen it. Sad.
I recently learned that a school for the deaf, which shall go unnamed, does not allow its teachers to flunk a student, no matter how poorly the student performs.
I learned this from a teacher who left the school (to teach at a better school) because of this and other policies. This horrible policy not only lowers expectations, it also drives away quality teachers, leaving the bad ones to feed off each other and make the problem even worse.
We as a community have got to start speaking up more against against administrations like that.
Low expectations are a widespread problem not only among teachers of deaf students but also among those who teach any culture "other" than the majority.
I did research for my PhD dissertation on this and from dozens of interviews of Deaf adults that I did that culturally Deaf teachers are more likely to have higher expectations (although there are exceptions of course).
Even more interesting is the term often used when deaf kids ask Deaf adults for help: "Finish try it yourself yet?" or "Yourself find out!" This reflects raised expectations. Of course we know the usual hearing response "Oh! let me do it for you..." or "Never mind, it's not important"
-Dave Smith
Yeah, I remember when I was in high school, I was invited to a graduation ceremony by a deaf friend, we were in a mainstreamed program, upon after graduation night, he showed me his "so-called" diploma book but it did not have his diploma in there. Nevertheless he was upset about it. He then called his teacher next day to find out why and she patiently explained to him that he did not pass enough courses in order to receive a diploma and that he was to receive a certificate. He became so upset and angry with her for not telling him the truth because he would have stayed at school maybe for one more year or try to take more courses in order to receive a diploma. Now that I look back, I wonder if his parents had any part in this and wonder why he was not told about it and given a choice before his graduation night.
Post a Comment