I see so many people who are underestimated and feel terrible about themselves even though they are extremely intelligent. My father-in-law is a good example. His English is not strong and he feels badly that he did not pursue any education past grade ten. I would consider him one of the most intelligent people I know (I let him know that, but not too much, you know, big-head!). It’s certainly not a command of the English language that shows you are intelligent! I think upon interacting personally with someone you can have a better understanding of who they are, but again, underestimation and misunderstanding can still occur due to perceptions or “the system”. I felt sorry for “Manuel” after reading his answer but our educational system does rely heavily on a mastery of the English language.

How do we go about teaching truly bilingually? It’s not easy. English idioms creep up so quickly even within early readers which leaves the student perplexed. Currently my husband and I are reading some books on language acquisition and it has been interesting reading. Many of the books discuss bilingualism but there is still the struggle of how to make learning bilingual.

This is why the term misunderestimation is key here. The system misunderestimated people like Gary Malkowski. This misunderestimation continues to to this day. In some ways, I think it’s worse today due to current educational trend for Deaf children, which completely disregards the importance of ASL, and bilingualism.

This phenomenon you mentioned, Don, has been quite divisive. It’s like the paper bag test. You pass the litmus test of English proficiency, you fit better into the majority, or so the assumption goes. It divides you from others who are more comfortable with ASL and less so with English. I suspect the same division occurs with the Latino student populace. This is one facet of language oppression/marginalization.
When you pass the litmus test, you escape the underestimation part of the misunderestimation phenomenon, though you still get misunderstood by the system. Others who fail the litmus test gets the full brunt of systemic misunderestimation phenomenon. That’s brutal on the student’s self-image, which gets truly warped against the self, just like Manuel, and like several classmates that we know.

I noticed this same phenomenon when I attended MSSD. Many students labeled me as “smart” primarily based on my ability to read and write English well. And I have seen some Deaf people who do not have good written English demonstrate high levels of intellectual thinking in their verbal (signed) arguments or their achievements, like Gary Malkowski becoming an MP in Canada or a good friend of mine getting a phd and becoming a supt. of a Deaf school.

My concern is this – why is his writing like this at grade 4?