I received an email today from Miss Kat's former principal (from the bi-bi school). She said she had received notice that the Utah State Board of Education had voted to close down Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and have ALL the children be served by their local school districts.
Wow....I am just dumbfounded. That is incredibly inappropriate. The only thing that closing USDB would do is guarantee a huge portion of the deaf and blind student in Utah will miss out on their educations. The bi-bi school allows for free communication between an ASL using student and their teachers and peers. What will happen to these students? There are so many student that (I personally know!) that would be completely unable to function in the mainstream with an interpreter! Either they are still language learners (and we all know you can't learn language from an interpreter!) or come from homes with many challenges, or maybe they just don't have an outgoing personality and would feel isolated in the mainstream.
And that is just the signing kids! What about the oral kids too? How would you provide an appropriate eduction for a child who is in 6th grade but their language is not age appropriate? How do you help them fill their language gaps but still make sure they have access to the curriculum WITHOUT a small, self contained option with a teacher of the deaf?
This is truly an outrage. MAINSTREAMING ISN'T ALWAYS THE ANSWER!!! And inclusion is WAY more than just geography! Just because you place a deaf child with typical peers does not give them access to the curriculum or access to direct communication with ANYONE!
I really hope this isn't the case. I hope that the legislature sees that this would be a profound mistake. Our deaf kids deserve options. Just because a local school district placement may work for some oral kids, it certainly WON'T work for all. And while their are some kids who do wonderfully with interpreters in a hearing setting, it is NOT the place for all of them...
(Oh, and that is just the beginning....what about the preschoolers.....how will they ever learn language without immersion in a language rich environment???)
20 comments:
Its true. I just now read a new article about utah deaf school. The best these parents can do is relocate.
But if it does happen and the child can't learn in a regular setting, the school will do what they done for the deaf who went to mainstreamed in the past, they will put them in special eduation class with hearing children, probably full time too. IF those classes still exist. Thats the way it goes.
I am a professional certified RID/NIC Interpreter, with an EIPA 4.o A college degree and an ITP certification... with that said. I have never in my life seen such a dis-service to the Deaf as I have seen these past few months. Let me explain. I was recently hired as an EDU Terp for well below what I am worth, sounds harsh PCP tenant 6-6.8 I work with 11 interpreters, one has an EIPA 3.5 the others can sign a little. Can not interpret in the class room. I have spent the last four months correcting and teaching signs to a 15 year old student. All of his/her previous signers taught her/him the wrong signs. I am getting really good a deciphering his/her meaning and correcting her/his signs. Example, because I know we do not correct the deaf. Iron as in a meatal, dominate hand "I" touch chin. ?! W H a T !? I showed the correct way to sign it. fingerspell i-r-o-n sign metal. everything is letter initalized or made up. It makes me crazy to think they will close a Deaf school and turn the kids lose to unqualified people to sign for them. And one of the reasons is Freelance and college work pays us a a fair market price. Where educational interpreters still after my 20 years of doing this make the same wages I did 20 years ago.I live in a very small town and like so many other people lost alot this past year. Belive me as soon as I can I have to leave this situation behind, it kills me. What to do?
The oral kids will do fine in the mainstream schools. The signing kids will have to adjust. They dont like it, tough, its part of the evolution.
To Mr. Anonymous who talks tough about evolution. You are a coward and are hiding behind your anonymity. How dare you! Signing children have just a right to a fair and APPROPRIATE education. If you had a child that was deaf and was signing, you wouldn't make that comment. You should be ashamed of your ignorance and arrogance.
Unforturnately this is happening way too frequently in education. When funding gets cut and things get tough the school systems try to find ways to save money. Almost always at the cost of the children who need it the most!
"Oral will do fine". Are you so sure? i have talked with numerous "oral" who graduated with GPA of .9 avg. Yes, they got diploma, not certificate.
It saddens me to hear of another deaf school closing.
The certified prof.cert. terp is right. We need to be more concerned as to quality of people hired to work with deaf/hh kids
Looks like i will be another anonymous. GOGGLE is not letting my acct show up. HAT
Appalling. The "evolution" that will happen after a time when children fall behind and teachers throw up their hands because they can't deal with integrated classrooms.
There will again be specialized classes in the public schools with several age groups in one classroom--a return to the one-room schoolhouse.
Teachers will either be deaf-unqualified but fully certified, or not certified and of various levels of skill with deaf children.
This condition already exists in some public schools, especially those outside large cities.
Essentially, the parents will have to take the initiative and demand better for their kids. Residential schools may be on the way out, but most mainstream and day schools have a long, long way to go before being effective.
To the Anonymous who talked about "evolution" and how the kids have to deal with it---
You obviously have no experience working with mainstreamed deaf/hh kids. Let me tell you, it is true that some of these kids are simply not ready to be mainstreamed and that some mainstreamed programs are ill equipped to accommodate these children (lack of qualified interpreters, lack of access to information and language, etc.). Some of these kids, not just deaf/hoh kids, are not granted the same opportunity to learn as everyone else, which is supposed to be one of the main goals of mainstreaming.
I am speaking from experience. I am currently working with various mainstreamed deaf/hoh students, and I am not happy with what I see. Of course, some schools and programs are better than others, but the one I am at now---there are a lot of problems and issues not being dealt with appropriately. These kids are just being pushed around and will most likely graduate not ready to deal with the "real world".
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Google is being weird and not letting me post...
I hope that this won't happen. Unfortunately there are those who don't understand how acquire language and learn and often they are the ones making the decisions.
And in an ideal world everybody would be willing and able to relocate to find the best education for their child but in the real world that doesn't happen, especially if there are those promising them that mainstreaming and/or oralism is guaranteed.
As for the anonymous talking about "evolution" - absolutely clueless.
To anon Feb. 4,2011 9:43pm,
You should consider that some of the deaf who are learning signs may have tried spoken language only but diidn't work out as well. His cochlear may have failed or anything can go wrong. They have the rights to to a great education and not get toss around.If they are delay because of language in public school, they are more like put in special education. In that class, They won't be learning all the stuffs that a typical student learn (its special education, they keep it simple for the kids).
And oral deaf get isolated too, I know that from personal experience in inclusive public school from k-12th and even they are more likely get thrown in one size fit all special education class if they struggle to keep up. (Yes, I was thrown in there since 4th grade to 10th grade)
I wrote some posts about issues I have with mainstreaming based on my personal experiences as an itinerant teacher:
http://www.ehwhathuh.com/2011/01/issues-i-have-with-mainstreaming-deaf.html
http://www.ehwhathuh.com/2011/01/you-have-to-learn-rules-of-game.html
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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51193696-76/board-schools-state-blind.html.csp. heres the news article.
Why dumbfounded? Ella finished warning you all about AB2072 many times in 2010.
Last anonymous poster,
You are an idiot.
This has nothing to do with fully informing parents of their options. In fact, all this is doing is TAKING AWAY options. USDB has both an oral and an ASL program, so it also has nothing to do with oralism or AG Bell or eugenics, or any other ignorant red herring you might throw up. This has to do with money, plain and simple.
Oh, and for those who follow Utah politics, Buttars is the chairman of this committee, so vile ignorance will rule the day....
oh boy, this goes to show that many did not understand AB2072. Deaf school closing has to do with state budget.
I think there need to be available resources and keeping deaf schools alive is one, or perhaps if things get worst, regional schools for the deaf should be considered. I'm surprised that USDB serves 2K kids statewide, that many? They shouldn't close the school.
We are having the same situation in Norway. 3 out of 4 deafschool's are closing down. What will happen to NSL? But we are figthing for our rigths. Hoping the goverment will understand our situation. They are closing down the school for the deafblindes as well. All this stupidty based on a report, made by a group of ppl that haven't even been talking to a single deaf person or someone educated... Save money, save money...
I'm a regular ed teacher in Utah. I'm sorry, but I don't have the training to work with students who are deaf and blind. I can do my best, but I didn't go to school to teach children with special needs. More and more often I am having to deal with children whose parents expect me to give them 50-75% of my time. I teach in a state with the highest class sizes in the nation. I can only split my time with your child evenly with the other 28 children in the room. My son was just diagnosed with hearing loss. I want him (in the future) to be in a classroom where he can succeed. I don't want him in a classroom where he will struggle and the teacher will be unable to meet his needs. Utah has education all wrong.
Tough shit, people.
Too many illiterates here, trying to pretend to be an expert in these matters.
I am glad deaf residential schools are closing one by one.
Either the deaf student will adapt to the hearing world or end up working in Walmart or living in the gutters.
Who cares?
It's called "survival of the fittest."
Deaf people cost too much money in anywhere. They want the deaf to be normal as possible. Thus, they got to work hard for it.
Otherwise, tough shit, people...
Those who want to bash me for speaking the truth, go and have sex with a sheep.
Anon, I sincerely hope that you end up in the woods, without any supplies whatsoever, only with your Darwin-given talents.
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