Deaf Schools

JoeyDeafNinja said:
I wanted to know why deaf children goes deaf school instead mainstream schools? I always goes to Mainstream schools, and tell ya truth I am actually against deaf schools because of their education. I want deaf people to be smart and wise. I went to VSDB and they didnt have english class! such shame. Then I moved to Sc and checked out SCSDB...NO English class! also they dont respect each other well. I cant live with people who show no respect. so my opinon is Mainstream Schools is much better than deaf schools. Hope I dont piss you guys off (laughs)
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Which VSDB did you attend? The one in Hampton or the one in Staunton?

I used to go to the one in Staunton. I wasn't happy there so i transfererd to MSSD.
 
souggy said:
Yeah...

AT HOME!

My reading and writing is because of my grandmother, not because of Deaf school or mainstreamed school-- and I had been in both.
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My English is good cuz I read a lot.. and my parents encouraged reading as well. By the time I was 18, I had gone to 8 different schools of various types like oral, mainstream and deaf school.
 
jazzy said:
I remember when I lived at deaf school, i was jealous of those smart kids who were in top class and all of them went to college. My English stinks, do you think they wanted to put me in with those smart kids? I read kindergarten level when I was in 6th grade. Why my English suck because I did not learn sign language till I was 9. But I used to play card games with senior citizens when I was 4 and I beat hell out of them. No one taught me how to play card games, I learned by watch them. Anyway I went to public schools in my last few years of school, I required to have ASL teacher and ASL interepter. Did my English improved? no never and it never will. It is alike I have learning disability but it is not. Being in oral program first few years of my deaf childhood damaged me somewhat.

You do not know deaf schools and you can not tell us education there are bad. U have to live in and then u will know and understand.
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You and my nephew should play cards.. He used to beat me at memory when he was 4. My sister in law asked me how can you let a 4 year old beat you? :giggle:
 
Mainstream schools which properly welcome deaf children and "get it" can be good for many. However, this is a minority of mainstream schools. I was a primary teacher and classroom assistant and I've sat in those staff rooms. The schools and the authorities will make the right noises, but in practice they are all moaning that these kids should be in special schools. They complain about wearing a radio aid transmitter, refuse to even shut the classroom door for basic acoustics, won't turn on the Soundfield, constantly ask "can you manage just this once without your ____" (insert type of technology), they get on about what level of hearing the kids have "oh she can hear me when she really wants to" - are you an audiologist?! No! Technology breaks down in the deaf school or deaf unit the kids take their radio aid down to the audiology office to get it changed for another one. If the Soundfield breaks down then all the kids get up and move to a classroom with a working system and theirs gets fixed. Not months later, not weeks later, that day.

In the deaf school the kids get audiology visits on site so they don't miss lessons all the time for earmould updates and hearing aid programming. Their speech therapy (if desired) is integrated into the educational program, not something they are taken out of their other lessons to go and get.

Things I have heard working in the mainstream:
- These kids should be in special schools (practically daily!)
- Every kid has some diagnosis or other these days
- He just needs a good kick up the backside, he's just slow
- Parents will make any excuse for their kid being slow
- I can't be expected to deal with this, I am not trained
- I'm not taking off my necklace so I can wear his stupid transmitter thing
- I don't see why I should have anything to do with batteries and stuff
- I can't be responsible for checking if he has his hearing aids on or not
- I have to yell at him all day cos he's so slow
- I don't like having an assistant in my classroom all day
- It drives me mad having someone waving their arms about all day long (interpreter)
- If you can't hear properly then you shouldn't be allowed to teach (about me)
- He's so antisocial (about a deaf kid who doesn't have English or an interpreter at break times!)
- They should all be made to talk and lipread, it's better for them than signing because it's normal.
- He should be held back a year until he can learn to speak
- Supply teachers (substitutes) shouldn't be expected to wear the radio aid transmitter (!!!)
- She just doesn't listen
- I have to tell her everything twenty times over (said with exasperation)

I don't have much experience of deaf/Deaf ed from this side of the fence, I was in a HI unit at school for a while because my teachers moaned and groaned about my radio aid. I am not so sure about one of the deaf schools that is aural/oral and discourages BSL even between children in social periods, it's all oral/aural education, so even within deaf ed there is a lot of difference, but there is massive variability in quality of mainstream placement, and I don't want my daughter going mainstream if she has to go to our local school. I'd mainstream her elsewhere, but if we don't get in to the other mainstream school we will apply for a hearing, speech and language placement for her.

Oh, and they will not tell us which schools already have good technology or other deaf pupils because they have an obligation under the DDA to adjust the local school for her. So they pretend they are going to do this. I know kids still waiting 3 years later for the promised ramp, wheelchair lift and disabled toilet that was going to be in place in time for them to start school, and I never got any adjustments done when I was a member of staff either, despite promises. I have only 3 months to request any installations like Soundfield, there's not a chance they will actually do it, they will just promise.
 
deafskeptic said:
I know someone who graduated from there and she has excellent English skills.
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I don't suppose you know my old classmate Rhonda Jennings, Joeydeafninja? She's an English teacher at VSDB in the high school dept and she's a grad of VSDB.
 
I perfer Deaf Schools by miles miles miles ahead than mainstream schools. I have been 4 different mainstream schools and one Deaf school.

Mainstream school can't cope with Deaf student, they don't know how to teach us, what to do with us, keep us safe from bullies, etc. All mainstream schools I been too have treated me badly, I have been bullied in all of them. Two of them was really bad and other two was just bad. I been stabbed by maths compass sharp end by 11 year old girl. I have been stabbed by 3 pins in my head by 3 8 years old boys/girls. I had stones thrown at me by 11-12 years old in playground. Teachers knew it going on but they didn't do anything about it and doesn't help that one of bullies are teacher's favourite and gets away with anything.

Also during the lessons I have no idea what being said at all. So I gave up only days later in each of mainstream schools to sit back of class and play paper and pen games with my Deaf friend. We came very good at paper and pen games like hangman, noughts and crosses, guess what picture is, etc, etc. My Dad had to teach me how to read and write and basic maths before I go to Deaf school secondary (High School) because mainstream don't teach me anything, they don't know how to. They ALL got HI unit.

Deaf school was lot different, lot safer, and learnt lesson properly for 1st time and I had LOADS to catch up to before my GCSE started in Year 11 (16 year old). My family thought I would never go to college and uni would be impossible because of very bad eduction at 4-12 years old but I still got in College and Uni. Final year at Uni now.
 
Another story of a deaf person having toplay catch up at the Deaf school. When are these mainstreamed "professionals" are going to learn?
 
The schools and the authorities will make the right noises, but in practice they are all moaning that these kids should be in special schools.
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YES!!!!!!!
There's nothign wrong with opening up the mainstream for kids who just need minimal accomondations to suceed. BUT to assume that ALL kids with classic disabilties should be mainstreamed to the max is REALLY dumb. The thing is, kids get put in the mainstream. Then they get stuck with teachers who don't know how to teach us. As a result we get lumped in with the "Ummmm who's President So and So?" types who are LEGION in Resource Room (special ed programs)
 
It is important to remember that some people succeed in spite of their education, not because of it. Many schools are guilty of selecting pupils who are already doing well and then taking credit for their success. Many kids start poor schools already able to read and their parents carry on teaching them and broadening their education beyond school, feeding their thirst for knowledge. Other kids who get only school and nothing else quickly lose their desire to know things because their curiosity is not being satisfied, and if the school is poor then they don't learn much. You can always pick out examples of kids who went to a poor school and did very well, but would they have done so even if they had never attended school?

And then attendance is the next major obstacle. Some kids are just never present. To an extent there is poor housing and poor home conditions at the root of it, if they are living in damp, smoke, disturbed all night long by noise, underfed, living in severe stress, etc. So they are never fit enough for school and when they make it to school they have so much to catch up and they are still looking rough as anything. There is only so much a school, in isolation, can do for/with children who are not there! Parents of non-attenders share between themselves the number of days the child needs to attend in order not to go to court, and you find they attend exactly that number of days each. Kids have been kept off school for everything from "she had a spot and I didn't want her picked on for it" to "he had to help his father fix the car stereo because he is selling the car". Yes, I have genuinely opened both of those excuse notes for non-attendance. Good, bad or indifferent, a school will be unlikely to help these children as much as the ones which are there!
 
To an extent there is poor housing and poor home conditions at the root of it, if they are living in damp, smoke, disturbed all night long by noise, underfed, living in severe stress, etc. So they are never fit enough for school and when they make it to school they have so much to catch up and they are still looking rough as anything. There is only so much a school, in isolation, can do for/with children who are not there!
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That's one of the points I've been pretty much pushing. While family dysfunction is not exclusive to poor folks, very often they don't have the abilty to fall back on other resources that would be available to wealthier families. Also, extreme dysfunction might be a bit more common.
Maybe if we got some of the dhh kids in really bad poverty situtions out of those situtions, and stabilized with housing, and exposure to healthy realtionships we could STOP the cycle of poverty in a lot of cases.
 
JoeyDeafNinja said:
I wanted to know why deaf children goes deaf school instead mainstream schools? I always goes to Mainstream schools, and tell ya truth I am actually against deaf schools because of their education. I want deaf people to be smart and wise. I went to VSDB and they didnt have english class! such shame. Then I moved to Sc and checked out SCSDB...NO English class! also they dont respect each other well. I cant live with people who show no respect. so my opinon is Mainstream Schools is much better than deaf schools. Hope I dont piss you guys off (laughs)
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I agreed that mainstream school do whole a lot better than deaf institutes. I am sorry if i insult anyone. i did my research. When deaf students goes to deaf institute. reading level n math level is extremely low. But some of us who change over did a lot of improvement. Grammars, Literature, Math, Science. and a lot of clubs and sports and such. it was fun in Mainstream schools than deaf institute. although problem was interpreters notetakers and closed captions. depending on tv in classroom if you know what i mean.
 
CrzyMeg said:
I agreed that mainstream school do whole a lot better than deaf institutes. I am sorry if i insult anyone. i did my research. When deaf students goes to deaf institute. reading level n math level is extremely low. But some of us who change over did a lot of improvement. Grammars, Literature, Math, Science. and a lot of clubs and sports and such. it was fun in Mainstream schools than deaf institute. although problem was interpreters notetakers and closed captions. depending on tv in classroom if you know what i mean.
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CrazyMeg, that's b/c most deaf schools serve kids whom the mainstream has effed up. Most deaf school kids have been mainstreamed. It's really rare for a kid to go P-12 at Deaf School. Some kids start out with preschool, and then more and more products of the mainstream show up.
 
CrzyMeg said:
I agreed that mainstream school do whole a lot better than deaf institutes. I am sorry if i insult anyone. i did my research. When deaf students goes to deaf institute. reading level n math level is extremely low. But some of us who change over did a lot of improvement. Grammars, Literature, Math, Science. and a lot of clubs and sports and such. it was fun in Mainstream schools than deaf institute. although problem was interpreters notetakers and closed captions. depending on tv in classroom if you know what i mean.
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Really? Apparently, you didnt do enough research or didnt research in the right place.

many Deaf people here on AD who went to Deaf schools who are highly educated.

I have experience working in Deaf schools and let me tell you something..there is so much that you dont know.
 
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