What Deafhood did for me, Part 1: The Hearing person that couldn’t hear
Some of you have asked why I’m “into” Deafhood. In this series, I will tell about my life and experiences (some of it, anyway) that have led toward my understanding and support of the Deafhood concept. Due to the length, I have broken it up into three parts:
- Part 1: The Hearing person that couldn’t hear (relates to before I developed a Deaf identity)
- Part 2: Developing a Deaf Identity (relates to after I entered a school for the Deaf)
- Part 3: Integration (How my past and present were reconciled by learning about Deafhood)
I realize that this vlog may not fully answer your questions. I welcome all open, honest questions and feedback, and will respond as appropriate. I will not accept or post any negative comments (including insults or “bashing”) due to the personal nature of this series.
MM said,
July 28, 2008 @ 3:38 am
I think I’ll blog what deafhood hasn’t done for me…. or for deaf culture.
nacpac said,
July 28, 2008 @ 10:50 am
Don, Thanks for sharing your story from birth up to entering MSSD. I have always wndered about your life journey and what made you the way you are. See, I am Deaf of Deaf parents and the road my parents took me was almost void of potholes. In other words, I had the most perfect upbringing as a deaf child. I need to be less judgemental of Deafhoodism as I have not experienced what it is like growing up without d/Deaf role models, withou sign language or ASL, and having to put up with hearing people’s compliments about how great my hearing and speech were. The story about your grandmother’s excitement about how well you could communicate and hear on the phone is a very good example. The only thing I am envious about you is that you had a swivel chair!!!! Ha Ha.
Your experience as the only HOH child in public school is the very reason why I REFUSE to place my Deaf child in his neighborhood school despite the fact that my child has a cochlear implant and functions like a hard-of-hearing kid. My child is fully mainstreamed at a nearby school has d/h peers (both signing and oral). He has the best of both worlds. He is academically challenged in regular ed full time and has oppotunities to mingle with deaf peers during recess and lunch. This arrangement clearly does not prevent him from developing his aural/oral skills in case some of you hearing parents of deaf oral kids wonder.
To ensure my child a healthy self-esteem I intend on keeping him in his Deaf Ghetto school! Sending him to a residential Deaf school is not an option. Do not get me wrong, there are deaf/hoh children even with CI who would be happier if at a state school for the deaf. Our decision warrants a lengthy explanation and it is not related to this vlog of yours.
Well, anyway… thanks for sharing your story. Every parent of deaf/HOH child with or without CI needs to hear it.
MM said,
July 29, 2008 @ 2:43 am
Don, have you read here ? http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbouch/F2322274?thread=5661461&post=66634372#p66634372
DrDonG said,
July 29, 2008 @ 9:29 am
Thanks for the link, MM — Glad to see I’m not the only one you’re needling!
Just curious, though… what did you want me to see that I haven’t already seen you say before on this side of the Pond?
MM said,
July 29, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
I thought I was fairly muted via deaf.read
I thought you would see how little ‘local’ interest there actually is in deafhood here. Considering how confrontational I am toward it, you would have expected the fans to come out against me, it didn’t happen. I saw them off pretty quick really, it does seem no-one has read it but me here ! I also thought you might see how differently Brit deaf debate things, we take no prisoners for sure, do you think we are too direct ? more disrespectful to each other than Americans ? Looking around a few ‘major’ deaf sites in the UK, there is no debate going on at all. As one contributor put it, until MM started going for the jugular of Mr Ladd, nobody knew who he was. I seemed to have given him the validity he couldn’t give himself..