Tag-Archive for » misconceptions «

06
Jan

Oppression of Spanish and ASL in Education Part II: Reductionist vs Holistic Paradigms


Below is the English version:

Further Parallels between Bilingual Latino and ASL-English bilingual Deaf Students

I have noticed some parallels between the issues faced by bilingual Latino students, and the ones faced by Deaf ASL/English bilingual students.  In Manuel’s situation, did the teachers who marked his written test check his passage for content—that is, did Manuel answer the question posed to him in the test? Did the teachers analyze the passage in its entirety what Manuel said?

No, the teachers focused on the errors in spelling, capitalization and punctuation, which were parts of the whole passage so that they missed whether Manuel actually answered the question!

Manuel answered both parts of the question!  He wanted to be Juan Carlos because the other student was smarter than Manuel was.  Manuel expressed his opinion and feelings of inadequacy in intellectual ability.  He has explained why he was feeling stupid.  Therefore, he has completed what was required of him. What is more, he gave his own opinion and explained his point of view.  Unfortunately, because of those spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors, the content was lost, and the passage labeled UNREADABLE.

This same type of situation has occurred with many Deaf ASL/English bilingual students. If errors in the form of missing articles or misspellings were found, the students’ answers were automatically wrong, regardless of whether they actually answered questions.  ASL Bilingual students were frequently placed in grade 1 programs even though they were Grade 4 students.

[Clarification is needed here: When I mention Deaf ASL/English bilingual students, I am talking about those who have already acquired all the linguistic features in ASL, from birth (i.e. children from ASL Deaf families).   I am not talking about Deaf students who have not acquired full command of either ASL or English (due to language deprivation).  Please keep this in mind.]

Impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Legislation in the USA:

What happens when Latino (and other minority) students fail English written tests (i.e., high stakes state tests)?  Schools are required to provide remedial programs, so these students get limited curriculum and learn only reading and math all day in English.

For example, since NCLB (No Child Left Behind) legislation was passed, according to Dr. Escamilla on p. 8, students like Manuel could get schedules that contain:

  • more reading and math
  • no recess
  • for Bilingual Learners (i.e. Manuel)- More English
  • Less gym, art and music
  • Bilingualism is ignored (Spanish language is no longer taught as a language or study or instruction, and English becomes the ONLY language taught and studied).

Why won’t students like Manuel be able to continue bilingual education, using both English and Spanish as languages of instruction and study?

There are many  teachers and educational professionals who believe that Spanish is interfering with English language development of Latino students, therefore Spanish should NOT be taught or included in the school system. Once Spanish is removed from the program, it would make it easier for these students to develop English writing/reading skills more quickly. This will solve his English problems. Right?

WRONG!

These beliefs held by the educational professionals who work with Latino students are quite similar to those held by many educational professionals working with Deaf students.

Many Deaf ASL bilingual students have been told:

  1. that English is more important than ASL
  2. that they cannot improve in English because ASL was interfering with English development
  3. ASL should be replaced with flawed communicative methods (i.e. Total Communication, Signed Exact English) to help them develop English skills. (This, proved to be a disastrous mistake that made things worse for the students.)

So far, the parallels between the Latino and ASL/English bilingual students in the educational system have been quite similar.

REDUCTIONIST- An attempt to make the complex simple. (p. 5, Escamilla, 2009)

Why is there pressure to remove the languages of Spanish and ASL from the educational system in order to focus on the English language?

This is because the system is of a monolingual bent.  English rules supreme as the official language in the USA.  This is despite the fact that there are not supposed to be any official languages in the country.  English is the ultimate, and the only, language students are expected to acquire and study.

Bilingualism is out. Teachers have been trained in universities under the monolingual system in the USA.  This means that the teachers have been trained to think in monolingual terms. They have not received training in bilingual language development, and do not understand how to look at things from bilingual lens.  bilingualism.  They have not studied the intricacies inherent in bilingual education to date.

So, what happens is that instead of looking at the whole child, with two languages, they focus on the child’s development of ONE language…English.    Rather, they have learned to seek out errors (deficiencies) in the child’s English writing without taking into account the effects of bilingual development.

For instance, Manuel is bilingual.  He speaks Spanish and English.  Wow!  This fact should have be taken into account in a positive way. What should be examined is how the development of two distinct languages (and Manuel’s background) affect the child’s written work.  This did not happen.

The teachers who marked Manuel’s passage focused on errors in English from a monolingual perspective.  They forgot to take into account the Spanish background that may influence how the passage has been written.   Instead of looking at the passage as a whole, including the content—message—and whether it actually answered the question, they focused on nitpicking on the errors in spelling, punctuation.

That is reductionist.

Think of a large complex picture that is amazing—(like a Rembrandt painting for example).  People are awed by that picture, until they spot a small section of the picture that has errors. They focus on that errors and spend all their energies criticizing those errors. The result is that the whole complex picture has been trashed, and reduced to that ONE section.  The whole picture is judged on the basis of that ONE section.

Complexity has been reduced to simplicity.  That is reductionist.

Reductionist Paradigm Leads To Misunderestimation

The reductionist paradigm caused those teachers to focus on the small, deficient, components of Manuel’s passage that rather than the whole content, which answered the question correctly. Unfortunately, the attention to the deficiencies resulted in a “F”, or unreadable mark.

As mentioned before, this focus on the parts rather than the whole has negatively impacted not only bilingual Latino students, but also Deaf ASL/English bilingual students.

This reductionist paradigm has led to the phenomenon of misunderestimation.

Simply put, misunderestimation is a combination of misunderstanding and underestimation.  In other words, professionals in the educational system does not understand the language development of bilingual students.  As a result of that misunderstanding, these professionals underestimate the skills and abilities of those bilingual students.

This misunderestimation of many bilingual Latino students and Deaf ASL-English bilingual students occur because they do not fit within the system’s reductionist viewpoint of the world.

Reductionist  Monolingualism Paradigm to Holistic Bilingualism Paradigm

Dr. Escamilla recommends a complete overhaul of the educational system.  There needs to be a shift from the reductionist paradigm to the holistic paradigm.  Allow me to explain.

For the sake of  bilingual children of Latino, ASL and other language minority groups, the educational system must be overhauled, and shifted from the current reductionist paradigm to a holistic paradigm, which includes bilingualism.

Shifting from the reductionist paradigm to the holistic paradigm… what does that mean?

Reductionist paradigm is the monolingual one.  This is where the idea is held that having two languages is too complicated and therefore must be reduced to a single language for study in schools.  This entails ignoring any other languages, including the language which a bilingual child has acquired/learned.   This forces the bilingual child to focus only on English at the expense of that child’s native language.

This paradigm does not fit the bilingual child’s learning needs at all.  This is because reductionism focuses on fixing the perceived deficiencies in the child’s development of English (thereby misunderstanding and underestimating that child’s true language ability).  This has proven to be a failure for Spanish-English bilingual children, nor for the ASL-English bilingual children.

Thus, the monolingual reductionist paradigm must be abandoned in order to examine the whole bilingual child’s learning process.  This examination would lead educators to better understand how Latino children’s acquisition of Spanish affects their learning of English, and work with both languages.  Educators would do well to examine how ASL affects the ASL-English bilingual children’s development of English, and work with both languages.  This way, the whole child’s needs would be addressed.  That is what the holistic paradigm is.

There is much research information out there on bilingualism.  For instance, Dr. Escamilla has done much research on this.  So has Dr. Laura Ann Petitto (who specializes on the study of the brain and effects of bilingual learning on the brain.). Research on bilingualism would support the shift from the reductionist paradigm to the holistic one.

It is now time for universities, teacher training programs, and schools to begin shifting from the monolingual reductionist paradigm to the bilingual (multilingual) holistic paradigm. Once educational professionals are trained on bilingual learning processes, they would be able to look at the students’ written test responses from a holistic perspective.  They would be better able to analyze the contents as a whole, with bilingual lens.  Instead of reducing the contents to errors and dismissing the whole written passage without analyzing for bilingual effects, the teachers would then take steps to design a bilingual program to support the students’ bilingual learning process.

It would behoove the educational system to encourage a bilingual education program in which both languages are studied from Kindergarten to Grade 12, rather than drop the minority language during the elementary years.    This would, in the end, benefit ALL bilingual children, regardless of their language backgrounds. This is why the holistic paradigm has to be adopted.

What can be done to ensure that this paradigm shift occurs? People must become advocates and pressure the government and educators to make the necessary reforms to completely overhaul the educational system so that the flawed, reductionist monolingual model is jettisoned in favour of the bilingual holistic model.  That means ensuring that legislations and policies be reformed that will effect paradigm shifts in government, universities, and schools.

We have an enormous job ahead of us, but it MUST be done.  The current status quo in the educational system, and society, is not acceptable.  At present, all bilingual children, including the Latino and ASL children as well as those from other language minority groups are experiencing severe language oppression and marginalization in favour of English only.  This must end now.

 

Reference:

Escamilla, K. The Misunderestimation of Manuel: Issues in Reductionist Paradigms and Parallel Monolingual Frameworks in the Quest to Improve Policy and Practice for Bilingual Learners. University of Colorado. Boulder, Colorado, 2009

 

CAVEAT: Ad hominem attacks, derogatory and inflammatory comments will NOT be published. 

Category: Bilingualism, Deaf, Deaf Education  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  3 Comments
06
Mar

Parental Choice: Truth or Illusion?

Interesting.  I just viewed the three-part blog series “The Right to Be…Deaf” at Patti Durr’s People of the Eye.  This series reminded me of the v/blog posts I created last May on the subject of neutrality. The question raised in my two posts was whether the information being given to parents of newly-diagnosed Deaf babies and children was neutral or not.  Here are the titles which you can click to view (Neutrality: Does It Exist? and Got Neutrality? )

In Patti’s blog series, she raises the question on whether parents were given choices without undue pressure to go for a specific option.   Part II of Durr’s series describes what ensues at hospitals soon after babies are born (with infant hearing screenings).  That particular post brought a flashback of  my experience at an audiology clinic with my second eldest infant son.

Before I go into details about that experience, I must let you know that I am a Deaf mother of 5 Hearing boys.  Despite the fact that my babies were found to be hearing, I still encountered audism during one of my boys’ testings.  My eldest was born in a hospital.  Two weeks later, I brought him to an audiology clinic to find out if he was hearing or deaf.  My suspicion that he was Hearing was confirmed.

My third son, who was born at home rather than at a hospital, never took an official hearing screen test.   My husband and I decided to skip the infant hearing screen because it was so obvious that the baby was Hearing.  Our home-made hearing test came in the form of our two older sons, aged 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 or 3 years old.  The noise they produced kept startling the baby.  That cheap home-made hearing test sure saved the government oodles of dollars that time!

My youngest, the twins, were born in the hospital rather than in the home due to the fact that twin pregnancies are automatically considered high risk.   The morning after the boys were born, they each received an on-site hearing screening test.  The results were that they were hearing.  Technology have clearly improved to the point that there was no need for drugs to sedate them (unlike the situations described in the comments section of Patti’s Part III blog).

My experience with my second eldest son was different from that of my other boys.  He was born at home, so that meant I had to take him to the audiology clinic a couple or so weeks later.  It was eleven and a half years ago, but the memory is still fresh in my mind.  I had to nurse him to sleep so the ABR test could be performed.  Halfway through the test, I had to switch him to the other breast so his other ear could be tested.  While nursing him to sleep, I inadvertently fell asleep as well.  I must have been tired that day!

After a few minutes, I woke up just as the test was completed.  The audiologist was looking at her computer and machines when suddenly she seemed disturbed. I could perceive a look of alarm on her face. That caused me to think that something was up.  She looked back at us then at the screen and back with anxiety in her body language and on her face.   I looked down at my sleeping infant and noticed that one of the wires fell off his scalp.  I brought the audiologist’s attention to that fact.  She administered the test on that ear once more.  Once the results were in, there was an obvious look of relief on her face.

“He is hearing.”

Supposing the results were like this: One ear was Hearing, but the other ear was deaf.  She would likely still have that look of alarm on her face and tension in her body.  That would give me a clear message right there.  Supposing my boy were hard of hearing, what kind of message would her body and words impart?  I don’t know, but her alarm and body language were indelibly marked in my memory.  I will never forget that.

Patti Durr’s description of the type of pressures American parents face in hospitals, regardless of whether these parents were Deaf or Hearing.  When babies are diagnosed Deaf, audism run rampant in hospitals.  Buzz phrases like ” your baby failed the hearing test” are used and impart negative messages to the parents.   Pamphlets on cochlear implants are given out to parents soon after the Deaf babies are diagnosed.   Deaf parents of Deaf babies experience and react to audism in the approaches used by medical professionals in dealing with them. (See comments section here.)

The combination of  infant hearing screening tests, cochlear implant pamphlets and “neutral” websites cause me to question whether parents were given true choices.

Are parents given TRUE choices?

Remember: I am a Deaf parent.  I have witnessed the negative facial and body language of that audiologist.  I cannot help but conclude that if my child were diagnosed to hard of hearing, I would have received a negative message.   Of that, I have no doubt.

Supposing that I were a Hearing mother with a newly diagnosed Deaf baby, and saw that alarmed facial expression and body language, what would my reaction be?  I would have been taken aback, confused and upset .  To make matters worse, I would be regretfully told, “Your child has failed the hearing test.”  Shock, dismay and grief would follow that statement, especially when combined with the negative message given with that type of body language.

The audiologist would follow up with a reassuring “Don’t worry.  There are cochlear implants and speech therapy available to help your child become more like us.  The Infant Hearing Program will help you with this. “  Pamphlets are given to the beleaguered mother who is overwhelmed with what has to be done to rehabilitate her child.

Supposing that parent is told: “Don’t worry. I have a Deaf mentor available to support you.  Your Deaf child is fortunate to be able to develop two languages–English and ASL–and grow up in two cultures. This will be a wonderful experience for you”?  That would be great, but that has not happened.  To date, I have not heard of any audiologists or other medical professional say that, ever.  It’s usually ”Sorry, your baby failed the hearing screening test.”

Now, that’s BIAS for you! Usually, information about ASL is not shared (or at least mentioned briefly).  Pamphlets on CIs are available to be given out, with alacrity. ”

“and we get the news – it is delivered to us with concerned looks, wringing of hands, and glossy pamphlets, DVDs, and display models of what CAN be DONE to overcome what IS

yes, instead of another basket of goodies and words of congratulations on your wee things Deafhood, we are whacked on the head with ….. the A word folks.  And no it is not spelled with a “v” (ask the NAD they know how to spell it correctly)

we see the news and we sigh – just what we wanted “A healthy baby and we knew s/he was healthy all along” – healthy for us means Deaf or Hearing -  y nada mas importa

but wait despite our joy and relief – they “the specialists” are still frowning – they is VERY worried now

they start selling their wares – they start tooting the scope of their practice ”

(Durr. People of the Eye blog. March 5)

Is that giving out neutral information?  Can you say websites like this give out neutral and balanced information? Can you say that parents are given complete unbiased information with which to make their decisions? No, you cannot. (That particular website doesn’t even mention ASL. You have to make an effort to look for it in a link there somewhere.) There is CLEAR BIAS here in favour of making Deaf children hear rather than allow them to be Deaf bilinguals, exposed to ASL and ASL Deaf culture as well as English.

Back to my question…

Are parents of newly diagnosed babies given true choice in raising their Deaf children?  Are they being given the chance to make a  true choice without undue influence or pressure from audistic medical professionals and biased pamphlets and websites? Without subtle and subliminal messages that it is not a good thing for a child to be Deaf?

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Have parents of  Deaf babies able to exercise TRUE choice in the first place?  Or is “True Choice” an illusion?

 

ADDENDUM: Here is another vlog (captioned) by Dr. Donald Grushkin for your viewing pleasure on the same issue.

Category: Audism, Bilingualism, Deaf, Family  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  7 Comments
09
Jan

Wow! iPhone App as an Educational Tool for Deaf Kids in Newfoundland!


Newfoundland-Labrador Minister of Education Darin King promised to provide technological support in the classroom for Deaf/Hard of hearing children in mainstream setting in the province after closing Newfoundland School for the Deaf.   Check out the last paragraph in his response to Gary Malkowski’s August 7 letter in The Telegram.

Here’s the excerpt in case you have trouble accessing the link:

The Department of Education will continue to provide a sound education and opportunities for networking within the larger community by supplying iPhones to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, their teachers and parents to create better access for communication. We are working in liaison with Canadian Hard of Hearing Association – NL (CHHA-NL) to keep abreast of the latest technology and advice for setting up classrooms that are conducive for learning.

King delivered on his promise to supply iPhones to the students, parents and teachers last October… sort of.   The recipients received iPhone 3G which does NOT have video capability.  Goes to show what he knows about Deaf children and their needs. ZIP. NADA. ZERO.

OH. OOPS. I digress. Back to the subject at hand…

I was asked to give my opinion on the iASL app as a tool for the classroom since I am a Deaf ASL-bilingual teacher.   I have an iPhone 3GS (which has video capability).  This is my opinion:

I downloaded and then put the  iASL app to the acid test… it failed miserably.

1. For English sentences to be translated into ASL, you have to type only  5 words at a time.

I wanted to type: The Persians defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Thermoplyae.  (This is because  I had taught a high school World History class at a Deaf school several years ago.)  I was limited to this:

Persians defeated Spartans at Thermoplyae.

The ASL TRANSLATION was in English words (gloss) but in ASL order (or close enough).  The text looked like this:
Spartans
Thermoplyae
Persians
ARREST
Then I clicked VIEW.  What happened next had me slapping myself in the forehead and groaning.
For Spartans, Thermoplyae and Persians… I got a black background with white text “S” then a woman appeared onscreen and produced S and fades to black, then the letter P appears and the woman appears and produces P.   and so on until EVERY letter was spelled.
No lexicalized fingerspelling.  It took forever, then finally, when we arrived at ARREST, she signed ARREST.
Unfortunately, that’s not the sign I’d have chosen.  I’d have used an entirely different ASL word to properly explain the defeat term. Also, there’s no nonmanual grammar signals/markers. No lexicalized fingerspelling was use.  It wasn’t possible with the type of technology available!

You may wish to view my ASL description of the Battle of Thermoplyae in my ASL vlog above (2:49-6:09).  (Remember that movie, The 300? That was based on the Battle of Thermoplyae!)  You will see me give an abridged version of the epic battle, and then show the book, Gates of Fire, which is one of my sources of information for that historical event.

2. iASL doesn’t have ASL words for the English words like province, Ontario, Newfoundland, etc, because iASL is an American innovation, and designed only to develop ASL signs that is standard, and ignores ASL regional differences.

MY RATING: I give the iASL app THUMBS DOWN for use in the classroom.

3. The use of iASL for networking within the larger (Hearing) community will only serve as a hindrance rather than an asset.

Can you imagine trying as a  high school student to gossip via iASL app with peers about someone cheating on his/her sweetheart, especially given the cumbersome translation process as demonstrated in the vlog?  Worse yet, that iPhone 3G doesn’t even have the video capacity to capture ASL comments of the Deaf student, let alone translate them into English text!  The iASL app doesn’t even have the capability to translate ASL into English text to facilitate a two-way conversation!  Wow! That’s a sure-fire way to destroy networking efforts among students.

The best place for opportunities for natural barrier-free social interactions with peers in ASL and development of strong social skills are actually in a Deaf school.  Oh yeah. That’s right. (*Smacking my forehead*) I forgot. The NL minister of education closed the ONLY remaining school for the Deaf in the Maritimes.

4. iASL app will NEVER replace QUALIFIED, LIVE, ASL (or LSQ) interpreters in parent/teacher meetings.

What about Deaf parents of mainstreamed Deaf/Hard of Hearing children who need to meet with monolingual Hearing teachers? Could they have used iASL app/iPhone technology to bypass the need for a real live ASL interpreter? Again, given what was demonstrated in this post, the answer would have to be a resounding  NO!

How could we forget LSQ?  There is NO app for LSQ.  So, Francophones and LSQ users are flat out of luck.  Sorry.

To use an over-used buzz word of today… EPIC FAIL!

My grade for the iASL app and iPhone 3G technology…BIG FAT F!

So much for ASL and technological support in the classroom and networking with the larger community as promised by the all-knowing Minister of Education King!

Had Minister King consulted with any of the Deaf educators at NSD or outside the province as well as Deaf technies rather than with CHHA-NL, he would have known all this before wasting thousands, or even millions,  of dollars on  iPhone technology that would NEVER ever do an adequate job of translating information, let alone capture ASL signing.  So much for keeping abreast with the latest technology.

Guess this proves that King is really a CFA to the Deaf community and Deaf Education. (CFA is a Maritime term ”Come From Away” applied to those who are newcomers or visitors to the Maritimes provinces and know NOTHING about the area.  There are times when Maritimers complain that CFAs tell them what is best for them while knowing nothing about them.) Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, Newfoundlanders and Labradorans?

Category: Audism, Bilingualism, Deaf, Deaf Education  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  15 Comments
24
Oct

NSD: The Quiet Death of a Deaf School? NOT SO!

(Above is an ASL translation of this written blog post)

More than two months have passed since that fateful August day when the Newfoundland-Labrador Minister of Education dropped the bomb on an unsuspecting media, public and NL Deaf community.  The shockwaves of that bomb raced throughout Canada and USA stunning the Deaf community in the two countries.

The Newfoundland School for the Deaf is CLOSED.

The final nail has been hammered into the coffin.  That coffin has been unceremoniously buried in a surprise press release in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  May NSD rest in peace in its grave.

Or so the Minister of Education Darin King thought.

Do you see it? Do you feel it? Do you hear it? What’s that?  Screams?

No, silly. It’s the chilly October wind.

Are you sure?  You know… it’s nearing Halloween when the veil between the living and the dead thins, and things that go bump in the night are given free rein!

I’m positive! That’s all hooey, made up to frighten children!

Are you sure? Those are the screams of the soul of the Newfoundland School for the Deaf!

The soul of the Newfoundland School for the Deaf still LIVES!  IT is screaming… still, in this chilly October wind.   The soul is not just in the building that once housed it, but also in the Deaf community that is currently spread out not only in Newfoundland, but also across Canada and in the USA.

That soul is what you see, feel and hear in the letters, interviews and articles denouncing the closure of NSD by the following individuals and organizations within the Deaf community below:

Gary Malkowski, former Ontario MPP who is Deaf.

Charles Harkins, former NSD principal

Kristen Connors

Jennifer Sooley

Chad Greenham

Darryl Hackett

Linda Wall (Deaf descendant of a Deaf Newfoundlander)

David Kerr, Deaf Chair of DBC (Deaf Bilingual Coalition)

Chris Kenopic, Deaf CEO of Canadian Hearing Society

AVLIC (Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada)

NLAD (Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf)

CAD (Canadian Association of the Deaf)

SDA (Saskatchewan Deaf Association)

Save Newfoundland School for the Deaf in Facebook

That soul-scream also comes from parents and families of Deaf children displaced from NSD at its closure.

Angela Hibbs, mother of Deaf son displaced from NSD when it closed.

Irene Coleman

Other organizations and media outside the Deaf Community, and even political parties have heard and answered the screams to date.

CAEDHH (Canadian Association of Educators of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing)

CBC.ca (They sent transcriptions of their radio interviews with parents and educators of the Deaf to be posted for Deaf people to read, which is more than I can say for the NL Ministry of Education.)

The Liberal Party of NL

The NDP party of NL

Scream though our soul may, it is not out of despair, hopelessness nor defeat.  These screams are of life, hope, and aye, righteous anger!  We, the Deaf and our allies, are still fighting.  Oh yeah, even though that coffin lies in that grave, with dirt ignomiously thrown upon it!

Though the Minister of Education desperately wants it left there, forgotten, we remember and question! We all bring our shovels and begin to dig… and oh, dig we shall!

A quiet death for NSD?  Not on your life!

****Note: I have been informed that some of my links aren’t working.  This is because some of those links lead to Facebook (Save Newfoundland School for the Deaf), and to access those links, you have to have a FB account.  I am currently trying to figure out a way to make those link accessible to those who are not FB users. ***

Category: Audism, Deaf, Deaf Education  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,  5 Comments
10
Oct

MYTH-BUSTING TIME: Discrimination Name Game

Boy, am I in the mood to stomp on myths and put them through the shredder!!!

MYTH:  The term DISCRIMINATION is sufficient, so there is no need to use the term AUDISM.

A blogger indicated his refusal to recognize the term audism by deliberately misspelling the term, and avoiding the use of the term audism in other ways. This guy stated he preferred to use the term discrimination, which is actually a umbrella term for various -isms such as racism and sexism for instance. This is my response to his blog post.

Here we go again…

If discrimination is discrimination, then there’s no need for words like racism or sexism, or even heterosexism. hmmm? Let’s throw out racism and sexism too! Just call the above discrimination. That’s it.

Riiight.

Racism, sexism and heterosexism have been abused before as well (of that you can be sure) and yet I don’t see any of you going to ridiculous lengths to discredit those terms as you are with the word audism.

*shaking my head*

This is his response to my above comment.  My response to each “let’s have a special word for that” phrase is in bold RED letters. Some go with links for you to view.  You can also google each term as I give them.

—Shel, then you also agree that very every condition that people have where they were discriminated against should also have a special word made up to go with it, too.

There are ALREADY terms for each of act of discrimination.

For people who stutters and get discriminated, let’s have a special word for that.  ABLEISM

For people who cannot hear or hear very well and get discriminated, let’s have a special word for that. AUDISM AND ABLEISM (See CHS position paper on audism)

For people who are not pretty and get discriminated for it, let’s get a special word for that. LOOKISM  (Please view this link.)

People who are overweight and get discriminated for that, let’s get a special word for that. Again, LOOKISM

People who cannot walk get discriminated, let’s get a special word for that. ABLEISM

Each and every one of them ripe for abuse use of the word. It never ends.

The same is true of ALL new terminology that name controversial ideas and concepts.

What makes deaf/hh people so “special” and why should people have to accept that new special word? They don’t have to. That’s the point.

MY RESPONSE to that last question:

Deaf/HH people aren’t “special”.  Deaf and Hard of Hearing people are members of a minority group that experiences marginalization on the basis of their hearing ability, just like other minority groups who experience marginalization on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. As such, they deserve the empowerment with naming a form of discrimination,in the same way other minorities were empowered.  Oh, by the way, Canadians have legislation that protect people against the forms of discrimination that are named:

RACISM, SEXISM, HETEROSEXISM, ABLEISM and yes,  AUDISM.

Category: Audism, Deaf  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,  10 Comments
10
Sep

ASL-Only Myth Debunking Time!

After reading the heated debate over at Patti Durr’s blog on the cochlear implant issue, I saw red  (well… more of pink since I’m normally a calm individual) and typed out two comments, which I will show in two different posts.  One has to do with the myth of damaging a Deaf child’s esteem if parents chose the “ASL only” road with their child. That is one myth I will proceed to dismantle here in this very post.

I’m taking an excerpt from one commenter’s long comment here:

“I felt it would be more damaging for her self esteem to grow up ASL only, than to have the implant and the ability to communicate verbally. I also felt that since the majority of the world is hearing, that things would be easier for her, as an adult if she also had the ability to hear.”

I’m focusing on the first sentence here.  (I will dissect the second sentence in the next post.)  Before I continue, I want to make clear that I know that commenter did not say the above with the intention of offending anyone.  The individual doesn’t realize just how politically incorrect her statements are.

Here’s my response to her… edited for this post since I spotted some sections that needed editing for further clarity:

No Deaf child has grown up with ASL only. That is a myth!

Each Deaf child, regardless of the decibel level as measured on audiograms, is required by law to learn English…at least in North America (both USA and Anglophone Canada).  ALL Deaf children have had to learn English through whatever strategies, methods, or modes foisted upon them by the educational system which is heavily dependent on the prescriptive model rather than the cultural model.

You see before you… a Deaf adult who grew up with “ASL only”.  Oops.  I meant bilingual.  Last I checked, my self esteem is pretty intact, thank you very much. I know of MANY Deaf children and adults who grew up BILINGUAL ( again, there’s no such a thing as ASL ONLY).  So far, self esteem has not been an issue.

My mother  (bless her sturdy soul!) told me that she had to buck the audist system… yes, audist… who repeatedly told her that I had to fit in with society. She could easily have caved in and gone the oral method, but she didn’t!  In fact, she told the professionals that THEY had to change to fit ME when I was small.  I remember her telling me when I was 20 years old that when she was at that old crossroads (oral VS manual)… “I decided to raise you normal and sign”.  THAT was a profound statement, which still resonates with me even now.

Another thing, when the CI prototype came up in the 80’s, Mom faced enormous pressure to implant me.  She was told by professionals that I was smart and therefore would benefit from the CI.  She resisted and told them that the decision was mine solely, and not hers, and that she’d support it whatever it may be.  I recall her asking me only ONCE when I was approximately 11 or so if I wanted a CI.  I had no idea what that was.  Once that was explained to me, I said (according to Mom), “Why? I am fine the way I am.  I don’t need to hear.”  That was the end of that.  Never again did she raise that subject.  I completely forgot about that conversation until last year when Mom came to visit me and told me.  It’s still a vague memory, though.

As for God being wrong… No. I agree that He doesn’t make mistakes.

I was born Deaf and Mom told me that God made me that way for a reason.  She saw that as a gift from God.

DEAF…A gift horse that Hearing society incessantly look in the mouth and curse. A gift horse that they try to modify into what they want. In that, one COULD argue that the CI industry, the audiologist and surgeons are all playing God and second-guessing Him.

Small wonder the world is so screwed up… what with tinkering with what God has wondrously and fearfully created in so many ways, INCLUDING the Deaf  people! All in the name of progress. Progress towards what?  The fully normal HUMAN ideal being? What’s that anyway? More importantly, according to whom?

See you in the next post.  I’m in a debunking mood! ;)

Category: Audism, Bilingualism, Deaf, Family  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,  8 Comments
16
Mar

What is Audism? Part II: The Effects of Audism

THE EFFECTS OF AUDISM:

As I stated in Part 1 of  the What is Audism? series, you cannot explain what audism is, without describing the effects of audism on Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals, and the Deaf community as a whole. Again, this information came from Malkowski’s presentation.

I will now give a few of the effects that Malkowski mentioned during his March 2010 presentation:

Audist beliefs result in intentional or unconscious audist behaviour, such as:

  • treating Deaf children with oral skills differently – more positively – than Deaf children with sign language skills (i.e. in the classroom, in extracurricular activities, sports and recreation.)
  • systemic discrimination
  • negative stereotypes, misconceptions and myths regarding the abilities of Deaf and hard of hearing children, students, employees, social citizens.
  • dehumanization by medical and educational establishments (i.e. the focus on a deficit model or pathological view of hearing loss.
  • lifelong impact on children’s ability to acquire and understand English or ASL or both  (Malkowski, 2010)

To illustrate the systemic discrimination, and negative stereotypes, misconceptions and myths regarding the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, I remind you readers of Amy Cohen Efron’s DVD, which began as a vlog: The Greatest Irony.   In that DVD, she described the irony in allowing Hearing babies to learn ASL while Deaf babies are denied access to ASL, especially by those in the AVT profession.  Malkowski mentions this irony as well in his presentation, saying that ASL is accepted, and viewed as beneficial for Canadian hearing children’s early development and yet viewed as detrimental to the development of Deaf children (Malkowski 2010).

The effects of this misconception in addition to the dehumanization of the Deaf by the medical and educational establishments are clearly described in Malkowski’s research article on audism in the January 2009 edition of The Canadian Hearing Report, page 28-30:

“it is still common practice, for example, for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, early intervention and early childhood education providers, educators of deaf children, boards and government ministries to discourage deaf children from learning and using their natural and accessible language – sign language. In fact, many parents of deaf children who are making decisions around their child’s education are still not given balanced information about the benefits of sign language. This restriction of the use of sign language. coupled with a fundamental belief that a deaf child should learn to use residual hearing or the hearing that is a result of a cochlear implant and learn to speak is the most blatant form of audism.

Sadly, when spoken language, both expressive and receptive, is not accessible, precious time is wasted. The child is labelled a spoken language “failure” and the window of opportunity to acquire language quickly closes. Unfortunately, these spoken language deficiencies can be identified as a learning disability. In some cases there is no cognitive disability; in others, learning disabilities are compounded by language deficiencies. In both instances, it is too late for the language deficit to be repaired and this can have enormous associated costs in terms of special education requirements, and long-term mental health issues, among others. A great number of professionals – audiologists, interpreters, educators, speech-language pathologists, and medical practitioners– have enormous amounts of power and influence.” (Malkowski, 2009)

Malkowski mentions that one of the consequences for  this practice of withholding ASL from Deaf children in favour of oralism, and isolation in the public schools is that there are now a higher number of solitary Deaf adults without contact or connections to the Deaf community at large.  This contributes to the long term mental issues mentioned in the quote above. (Malkowski, 2010)

For further examples of what audism is, and its effects on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, I strongly recommend that you view this DVD, Audism Unveiled, by Bahan, Bauman and Montenegro. This was shown during Mr. Malkowski’s presentation last week, and this will prove to be eyeopening for those who have never seen this movie before.

Simply put, audism is an attitude of prejudice and perception that it is better to be hearing than to be deaf, and that if one is Deaf, one must strive to fit into Hearing society as much as possible.  It is clear that audist attitudes and behaviours by the majority group do have negative effects on the mental, physical, emotional and educational well-being of Deaf and Hard of hearing people as individuals and as a minority group.  Thus, it is proven that audism as a term is valid, and must be addressed.

Category: Audism  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  8 Comments