Why are all the "little" words of English so precious? Why should ASL be any less of a language if it doesn't have them? Languages all over the world vary in how many "little words" they have. Language is a means to and end - communication. It doesn't matter what the language looks like, so long as the message is the same. ASL, I believe, is capable of expressing the same ideas that English allows us to express.
Also, I do not agree that the purpose of teaching ASL is to teach English. The whole point of bilingual-bicultural education is to give children the opportunity to be fluent in two separate languages and comfortable with two different cultures. Why does school have to be all about learning English? Why can't it be about learning ASL too? And for a child who was raised speaking ASL, his/her first language is NOT English, it's ASL.
My own education was bilingual in French and English, and I cherish it. My French grammar is not perfect. I still don't know how to use all the "little" words properly. But there's more to it than just linguistic competence, it gives you whole different approach to the world. I wish that everybody would be raised speaking at least one other language.
Deaf children have trouble acquiring English because they have less exposure to it. In the absence of a sufficiently rich stimulus, the infant's brain will not process the incoming information as language and will therefore not 'naturally' acquire that language. One must therefore artificially enhance the stimulus to encourage natural acquisition (ie. SEE). But time is critical. The longer the delay prior to the onset of intervention, the more difficult the language will be to acquire.
On top of that, a writing system is a technology. It is meant to be learned AFTER the language in question has already been mastered. The human brain is not designed to acquire language from print. Otherwise, we wouldn't have so much trouble deciphering the writing systems of ancient civilizations such as Mayan or Egyptian heiroglyphics.
Learning the grammar of another language is NOT easy. Nobody is saying that it is.
