Moot Thoughts & Musings

Our early intervention has taken a new twist. So far a teach comes every other week from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. She brings resources, information, and conversation. In between, we watch Signing Time! and read.

PSD is trying to start a new facet to the early intervention services, pairing up the family with a deaf mentor. Yesterday, she brought along a high school teacher from PSD, who has been deaf from age two caused by spinal meningitis. His hearing loss is very similar to Ellis's in terms of what he can't hear and how aids help. He doesn't wear his aids anymore; he said that when he went to college at Gallaudet University, he found the speech of deaf people annoying. He communicates through ASL. Our early intervention lady interpreted for us, since we are nowhere near fluid enough with ASL.

We're really excited about having him come. We really liked him. He is about our age and in many ways carries on a life with similar interests. It's incredibly helpful to be able to talk to someone who can help us understand what life is like from the perspective of our son. I hope that as Ellis gets older and is more social, we'll begin to have a social life that includes the deaf community, but for now, it is helpful to have this interaction to prepare us for Ellis's growth as a communicating, social child.

Deaf Mentor told us a little bit about how he grew up, education, etc. He went to Gallaudet and majored in history. A few years later he went back and got a master's in deaf education, which he recently completed, just before coming to teach at PSD.

Through the course of the conversation, he told us about student protests that are currently going on at Gallaudet. Apparently, a new president has recently been elected, and the students and faculty are not happy with the choice. I don't really understand all the issues being discussed, but I gather that the central theme is that they feel that deaf culture is being challenged. They see in the new president a compromise between the hearing world and the deaf community that undermines their deaf identity. (read more news here and here. ) The president-elect is deaf, but grew up speaking, and didn't learn ASL, the primary language at Gallaudet, until her twenties.

As better technologies and treatments are developed for those with hearing loss, what it means to be deaf is changing. Deaf culture is fiercely guarded and loved by its members, holding an identity almost as strong as racial identity. I hope that they will find a leader that can preserve this distinctness while taking into consideration new developments. Sitting there with Deaf Mentor, I was enthralled as his hands moved and how he engaged with us. ASL is a bonding language as the whole body speaks.

Reading and talking briefly about what is going on at Gallaudet, I'm also struck at the institutional politics of it all. This isn't the first time such a protest has occurred. In the '80s a student protest got the university's first deaf president elected, ousting the hearing president-elect. Though this protest is different, the issues much more nuanced, it is thought-provoking to see what kind of power a student body can wield upon a university. Even the faculty passed a no confidence vote. There is such unity of what is perceived as the university's goals, mission, and identity as to judge that a president does not fit these. It is inspiring.