The very important key is “communication”. I been studying in the legal matters for a couple of years. In the first sessions of my studying was all about required to have clear communications in many areas in hearing world. I felt it should be the same for the Deaf world here.

Again, “communication”….

I been thinking and wondering how this whole world be able to “communication” and “education” both at the same time? I just popped to think “YES” I did my job for many years as “nothing new” since I been teaching my own Deaf sons how to communication at the same time for them to learn their education by using our “ASL”, showing pictures, and our body language, too. Plus some english.

Yes, I often went to any of the public mainstream schools where provide Deaf education, many staffs who not know how to communicate with any Deaf students which effected me to wonder how can they be able to teach any Deaf students while these staffs not know how to communicate? How can any of these Deaf students be able to learn? This must be shamefully and selfish because these staffs know they can earn good benfits while they can have good numbers of Deaf students in their areas which really harm so many Deaf students who got lost in their life and had no hope. What can we do?

Of course, I know I just cannot do this by myself alone, I really need your help in this area very much to help these other Deaf students to be successful in their future with good hopes. I often visited some public schools where they provide Deaf education in some areas and I hope I helped some of those Deaf students to reach their goals after they looked at me. I want more of you to come to any public mainstream schools and do the same as what I am doing…. Just show Deaf students that we Deaf people can do reach our goals in many areas!

I feel sorry for all of these public mainstream Deaf students who their parents not allow any of their Deaf children to be able to attend to the Deaf school for any reasons like my parents done to me till I was only 14 years old, I finally attended the Deaf school during my high school years! I know I missed a lot in the Deaf school and anyway, I thanked my parents to let me go. I bet the same feelings for the others. If any of you want to know more about my schoolings, I can share this information with you later. Feel free to ask me.

Please do not ever misunderstand this any at all, we here are not trying to steal any of your Deaf children away from any of you, parents. It’s only that where Deaf children or Deaf students need their own education for their future sakes to be successful!! They can always thank you for allowed them go to have their own good education which is very important to them, not you.

Thanks….

I saw your video and didn’t have time to read all the comments, so I apologize if I bring up issues that are already discussed or expressed.

What are the percentage rate of deaf being part of these orgs (board, chair, etc..)? (CAL-ED, CEASD, and State Summit)

When watching your video, I kept thinking of a word, “myself”.

I believe that myself and other deaf people need to be out there and educate everyone as much as we can. I am currently in school to get special education degree and I have gone through some issues and battles to deal with but I know I taught them as well. For example, a teacher of mine once said this, “Deaf children don’t learn language til around 5 or when in school.” Did I say something about that? Sure, I did. I was lucky enough to share my experiences as a deaf person with the class by the request of the teacher. I bluntly told him that I learned langauge when I first started signing milk at age 8 months… or so. I told him that I was communicating so I disagreed with your comments. He realized his mistake and had said that he should have worded that differently.

My point of that is, we need to educate people out there about our culture, history, and language in order to have them understand us as a whole, not as a problem.

Education system everywhere is still lacking in some areas, both hearing and deaf.

How can we improve education system? It really depends on where, what, why, how, who and when. For example, at Texas School for the Deaf, the supertindent is hearing, with some deaf people with big role under her, but is it the best solution? We don’t know, because it depends on the person, on how they were educated, why are they in the field, who are they, what they believe in, and so forth. It really depends on which school. Again, I stress the word “myself”, I need to go out there and make it happen. Hopefully being out there, you can find allies to work with and move forward together on making education system for deaf better.

I hope that I can put my hand out there on making the system better for our deaf children.

I do my best to help hearing parents cherish their Deaf child’s language and slip in positive aspects of Deafness to them every chance I get. My own children are doing everything children their age should be doing, so I know these parents respect my knowledge and opinions, but there are several that I can’t get to be involved. I would like to see IEPs (Individual Educational Plans, required by law) include a page that has the parents commit what they are going to do to help their child. Even getting a parent to put on paper that they will enroll their child in a summer camp to foster social development would help so many children. (Everything you need to learn does not come from a book. ) Educating children is suppose to be a partnership of school and family. Too many parents of deaf children do not do their part.

Thank you for your comment. To a lesser extent, I agree with some of your comments about ‘grading’ Deaf schools like CSDF and CSDR. I am well aware of the systemic issues affecting the student bodies at both institutions, and marvel on how well their respective faculty and staff have worked with them in acheiving greater academic heights. I am impressed with CSDR and the tremendous progress Mr. Grossinger has undertaken there.

I wonder if you (And other commentators) have ever heard of the Stanford Achievement Test - Hearing Impaired (SAT-HI) edition? I don’t know if CSDF/CSDR uses those tests in addition to the regular California-required testing. I still want some degree of accountability, and perhaps the SAT-HI test can be a reliable metric of Deaf school performance which can be used all over the U.S.

Imagine, if the GRI could release a list of all Deaf institutions that have undertaken the SAT-HI regimen, and rank them according to the results of such testing? We’d all know immediately which schools are excellent, and which ones are in dire need of reform. Now, that’ll be one standard of accountability I’m willing to accept for Deaf Schools nationwide, but not on a long-term basis.

However, on a gradual basis, spread over years and across all grade levels, I would like to see more and more Deaf schools undertake their respective State testing and be held accountable to their student population, parents, and stakeholders.

At one time people thought “the Deaf could not be educated,” but thankfully, people persevered until the answer came. I need to say Deaf children who I don’t think are unique. What is unique is they have parents and educators who engage and really care about all that they do. The implication the education system is not handling Deaf children very well, and mostly don’t get “caught” in time because there are people out there who are not that engaged. We perceive as the school districts’ unaccountability towards Deaf students’ needs, whereas intervention and prevention services were not in place in time. We are in a terrible bind of a bureaucratic process.

Is there a current data available of how many Deaf children we have in each state on hand? Should we ask for a percentage of Deaf children who are in partnership with school districts? I ask because I wonder about this partnership, the financial arrangement the mainstream and Deaf schools are paid by local districts. Is there a real shared responsibility for ALL children? I am not in favor of organizing school districts just to make trouble for them, but if the districts do have a fundamental responsibility for “their” children, they should be the “right” advocates toward the DOE.

Pardon my expression but I agree with your laundry list of concerns for the lack of resources and trained staff to work with Deaf children. I am glad the lot of you reiterated, and I’d like to add that raising education standards isn’t the only issue. I’d have the committee board make a priority to see the necessary wrap-around services and support available plus training to raise awareness for all involved with challenging Deaf children as well. Because the developmental milestones are passing day by day for Deaf children including my own, I see the need to generate help and healing for parents and educators, deaf and hearing alike. It is important the education system acknowledges the responsibility toward all Deaf children. We keep hammering for a mechanism using a commitment to make positive changes.

We would gain access to valuable resources to help parents and educators raise a Deaf child, even may put conviction in their hearts while evaluating areas they may have been off base. We can bond with situations that echo our own. We share thoughts, comments, feelings and actions especially for hearing parents who go through as they struggle to get right answers to the many questions they discover how to raise a Deaf child. To help ensure families in CA receive appropriate services, the CDE established an Early Start Workgroup (to provide an ongoing guidance to early start providers, parents and others for early intervention) they are meeting as of now and tomorrow for an overview of Family Resource Center Network. Should you want more information, contact Nancy Sager at nsager@cde.ca.gov.