Re: choosing a kindergarten

[Guest guest]

> From those of you with older children, what have you found to be most

> important to your child's success and happiness? Should I value good

> acoustics over good teachers?

>

Hi Daphne,

My daughter has had both situations -- good acoustics, bad teacher and good

teacher, bad acoustics. If I had to choose, I'd go with the better teacher.

The greatest acoustics and best assistive devices in the world cannot make

up for the psychological and social damage a bad teacher can do. That's

just my opinion. I think rooms that are not acoustically perfect can be

improved upon by other means -- the portable system you mentioned sounds

good and FM systems are tremendously helpful.

Anyway, that's my two cents -- colored from the history of having a terrible

teacher (who also believed my daughter really could hear and " just wasn't

listening " ) -- we are still recovering from that experience.

Good luck,

Pam

[Guest guest]

Ditto here. We have never had that bad teacher, but we have had some pretty

incredibly good teachers, and bad acoustics. We and our kids will probably

have to live with the fact that most places our deaf kids go will have bad

acoustics.

Re: choosing a kindergarten

> > From those of you with older children, what have you found to be most

> > important to your child's success and happiness? Should I value good

> > acoustics over good teachers?

> >

>

> Hi Daphne,

> My daughter has had both situations -- good acoustics, bad teacher and

good

> teacher, bad acoustics. If I had to choose, I'd go with the better

teacher.

> The greatest acoustics and best assistive devices in the world cannot make

> up for the psychological and social damage a bad teacher can do. That's

> just my opinion. I think rooms that are not acoustically perfect can be

> improved upon by other means -- the portable system you mentioned sounds

> good and FM systems are tremendously helpful.

>

> Anyway, that's my two cents -- colored from the history of having a

terrible

> teacher (who also believed my daughter really could hear and " just wasn't

> listening " ) -- we are still recovering from that experience.

>

> Good luck,

> Pam

>

>

>

> All messages posted to this list are private and confidential. Each post

is the intellectual property of the author and therefore subject to

copyright restrictions.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Only you can decide, but I can give you our situation. My daughter

was in a wonderful preschool program for 3 years. My daughter was

the first HOH child in the program. They were not set up

acoustically for her, but the teacher, aid, interpreter, and SLP

made up for any poor acoustics. They did whatever they could to

help her learn. Now...this year, we also live in a " strange little

city/town " (LOL), and she has a kindergarten teacher that I think

shouldn't be teaching young children. (Very harsh, no personality,

no patience, I could go on and on) I feel like my daughter has

learned more from the IT(teacher of the deaf) than her kindergarten

teacher. She has services with her every day. Cassidy uses an fm

system, which also helps tremendously. So what I guess I'm trying

to say is that IMHO, the teacher factor weighs in the most in my

book. I hope this helps!!

Jill

PS I think your reference to the " strange little city " is

hilarious!! You should come visit where I live!!! LOL

[Guest guest]

Hey

This is my first response since I joined last week.

My daughter is 6 1/5 and is getting ready to finish her kindergarten year. She

has a severe/profound hearingloss and uses the Oticon Digifocus II Superpower HA

with the microlink FM system. We went through the same " looking " process when

she was about to go to school. I am happy with the choice we made. We choose

the better instruction over the the better facility. I found, rather than the

room, the teacher and the student/teacher ratio was more important to us.

We did not do much as far as acoustics with the classroom because the teacher

wares the FM system religiously and is careful about the window air conditioner

(I know that was the worst part). They are building a new school that will be

ready next year, but this is a Magnet school which is Montessori (public) and I

can not say enough good things about the instruction. The student teacher ratio

is 8 to one and my daughter has received more one on one instruction than even I

would have anticipated.

She has been very successful with spoken language and only requires a one hour a

week visit from the AV teacher (HI) who does not pull her out. Rather our

classroom teacher would rather she observe and look for any problems or info she

is missing and the classroom teacher provides the additional instruction. All

the children also work to make sure my daughter understands what is going on

around her, that again this is the classroom teacher's doing.

Sorry this is so long, but it was very important to us as well. I hope your

choice goes well.

Regards

Martha Soltani

choosing a kindergarten

Hi there,

We are at the school-choosing point in our year once again and are having a

great deal of trouble choosing a school for . He will be repeating

kindergarten again next year. Even though his academics are on track, he has

trouble in noisy situations (gym, playground, group activities) and we're

hoping another year with lots of intervention will help him stay on track.

He has had a terrible time this year in a very noisy 10-child classroom

(with a rotten teacher who keeps telling me can hear just fine).

Here's our dilemma. We have two schools available to us. One is a school

with 26 kids in the class and pretty poor acoustics (though we will be

trying to get portable acoustical panels for the walls & ceilings). The

teachers and principal are first-rate and tend to keep their classes

orderly. I expect gym, cafeteria, etc. to be a problem at the very least.

However, I feel that despite the terrible acoustics these teachers

understand my son's needs and will work with me to help him succeed.

The other school will be moving into a new facility in September. Good

acoustics, 15 children in the class. Also pretty orderly. But I really had a

bad impression at their Open House. A couple of teachers told me that they

had seen a program on TV about hearing loss so they were pretty experienced

with it. I've come to be ultra-suspicious of people who start telling me how

experienced they are before they even have met my child! However, these were

just two teachers, and I thought that the leadership of the school was

pretty good. Perhaps my impression was wrong.

From those of you with older children, what have you found to be most

important to your child's success and happiness? Should I value good

acoustics over good teachers?

I wish I could have both but in my strange little city that's not an option

for my son.

Thanks for the help.

-Daphne

[Guest guest]

I would go for the good teacher over the good acoustics any day. We've also

had experience with a bad teacher, and I agree. It can take years to get

over any damage they may cause.

Hugs,

Kay

[Guest guest]

Hello Daphne

I recently visited a school with a Hearing Impaired Unit. At present

they only had 1 nursery-aged HOH child, in a class of 30. There were

various reasons why i wouldn't want Dominic to attend this school. The

main one is that there is another excellent one available, with small

staff:child ratio (1:6), good acoustics etc (but that costs and the

local education authority are not keen to fund it. Not keen -

understatement of the year.)

However, here are some other reasons which confirmed my decision against

this other school:

- there is a total of 15 HOH children in a school of 430 children. NONE

of these HOH children take part in extra sports, music or French. The

sample is small, but i still wonder why none of them take part in these?

I could almost accept French and music, but what about sport? Is it lack

of confidence, not feeeling included, not having friends?

- the HOH children are transported to school by bus but the FM system

doesn't go with them on the bus. I can understand how maybe none of the

15 got it in their statement that the FM system should go between school

and home, but the teacher who told me this seemed taken aback that i

even considered the question and her first reply was that the FM system

needs to stay at school to be recharged...(i'm sure the parents could

take equal care of charging it up).

- i was there for just over an hour, so this is a snapshot: i saw one

child with hearing aids in a row of many kids. They had played outside

and were lined up, waiting to go in. The kids in front and the ones

behind were playing up and having fun, the HOH child was on his own,

fumbling with his clothes. Did i see the shiest one in school?

- the much-praised acoustically treated nursery room was noisy. I was in

there alone with a teacher and i could hear what was going on outside in

the yard, the children being taken indoors, the lunch chairs and tables

being dragged out in the big hall (separated by just one door from this

special room), the TV set in the adjacent room where the kids were

watching quietly the funeral of the queen mum - they'd had a change in

their school day, with lots of play outside so they could then sit

silently through the funeral.) I don't know how that room's acoustics

could cope with a class of 30 small children.

- i was not impressed by the expectations they seemed to have from HOH

children, the very simplified vocabulary they thought HOH children

needed (or were able to manage) etc.

- the schools here are inspected by a governmental agency and i didn't

like the report written about the HI Unit, namely that HOH children have

poor listening, speaking and reading skills although some of them are

within the lower limits expected for hearing children their age (so the

best HOH children can do is be at the bottom of what is considered

normal for hearing children).

I know i wasn't impartial as i'd already made up my mind when i saw this

school, but if you haven't, there are other things to consider as well

and i just thought i'd let you know of these too. I would generally

choose good teaching over good acoustics. I think a good teacher can

learn about deafness and what is needed for her teaching to be

effective. I think the school's and teachers' expectations for the HOH

child are important as well. They shouldn't just be expected to cope and

manage, but reach their full potential. I'll be reading a's article

and i'll be prepared to look for other things too when i next visit a

school.

Good luck with your decision. It is a very difficult one. It's not the

best suggestion to offer, but also think that you can re-assess after

one or two terms if this is the best place for your child.

Cristina

Mum to Dominic (2;05 prof. deaf, HA)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/14/02 10:30:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

kay@... writes:

> I would go for the good teacher over the good acoustics any day. We've also

> had experience with a bad teacher, and I agree. It can take years to get

> over any damage they may cause.

>

> Hugs,

> Kay

>

I want to second this! We have struggled through this year with a BAD

teacher and have felt the repercussions of that many many times. I could go

into the classroom everyday of the week and find something she just won't

change. I can tell you that it is clear in her teaching style she doesn't

want my child in her class, and her attitude has changed the dynamics of the

whole year. Simple common sense things that other teachers have taken the

time to understand, to care about have presented themselves on a daily bases

through this year. After 5 years in the public school district I can say

beyond a shadow of a doubt a good teacher even in the cafeteria, is far

better then a bad teacher in a totally quiet room !

Clarion 8/99

Holly Clarion 12/99

[Guest guest]

Thanks to all who replied to my question. I actually was leaning more

towards the school with the bigger classes/better teachers even though my

eyes are open to the troubles poor acoustics can bring. I didn't want to

influence the vote though, so I didn't say anything in advance. We, too, are

having a terrible teacher year and I would do anything not to have a repeat

of that.

I found it very helpful to read about everyone's situations. And a, I

had already read your article on Kay's website. It was very informative.

Because only has a mild-moderately severe hearing loss I kind of think

that mainstream placement is more appropriate for him; but sometimes I wish

for the kind of understanding a good school for the hearing impaired can

offer! , isn't it interesting how you can tell right away that a

school is no good, even if they have the " appropriate credentials " ?

I cross my fingers that this local public school lives up to its promise.

will be the first hearing impaired child they've had. They have a great

deal of experience with children with other disabilities and they push for

effective learning for ALL their children. When I had a long meeting with

the principal they seemed to really understand our needs, despite their lack

of experience with hearing loss. So I am very hopeful.

Thanks again. Your notes made me feel much better.

-Daphne