p.s. Re: Vanilla Deaf

[Guest guest]

egads! I became so taken away by my own story and experience of it, I lost my

way of replying!

What a lovely man you describe who had the pleasure of tutoring Kendra! I am

certain he would be very proud to see what you have written of him. I agree

deeply with all you have said (and I am still very sad about your earlier story

about the woman and HER ASL). Perhaps the controversy arises from an inflated

sense of scarcity. What the deaf have fought for was only recently hard won,

and certainly that sense of scarcity is hard to forgo. Oh to have a

Mandela and Desmond Tutu of the Deaf. A visionary and a peacemaker - a

wholeness maker. And as Michele noted earlier - with the increase in medical

technologies and the tendency to mainstream - perhaps the next step is for Deaf

adults to seek careers in special education! Where they can bring their

wholeness and language to those who most need it, be creators of a new way of

life.

Deafness, unlike other cultures, is not inherited. The hearing can have deaf

children, and the deaf can have hearing children. I have seen one deaf family

insist their hearing daughter be educated as deaf on the basis that her hearing

loss may be progressive. They did not want to lose her to the hearing world.

And then there's the hearing parents who deny deafness, seeking " cures " - though

when a battery is dead, all the augmentive aids in the world are only that -

aids...... perhaps this adds to the overprotectiveness of the deaf world.....

I must be feeling met and understood - because I am no longer feeling the need

to explore my own losses and disappointments to the world of deafness, but am

feeling a desire to seek to understand and meet on a common ground of loss.

Thank you so much for your part in taking my bitterness away....

Yuka

Re: Vanilla Deaf

Our former neighbor, who was the first deaf individual to earn a Ph.D. degree

at UCLA, often told us that he, and he felt most other deaf individuals who used

their voice, truly valued that capability. He was fully enmeshed in the deaf

community and a proficient signer of both ASL and signed English. However, he

used his voice in some instances and fully enjoyed participation in the hearing

world and the deaf world. He often created opportunities where the two joined

together. He was Kendra's tutor for many years.

The sadness to me is that the controversies only seem to deepen and prolong

the difficulties that deaf students experience. I think that the lack of respect

contributes to the ultimate relatively low achievement level of many (vanilla)

deaf students. There is no reason for this to be the case. I love to imagine the

strides that could be made if the energy that continues the negativity in this

arena could be harnessed in a positive way. It would be exceptional for all deaf

students, either for those who are typical, or for those with special needs.

Mom to Kendra, and Camille

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