Deaf son

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AngelDawn40

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Help! Mainstream or deaf school!!!!


Hello, My name is Angela, I have 3 children. My oldest son is 15 and he is deaf. He was born deaf, and has been mainstreamed in school his whole life. This next coming school year he starts high school.He wants to go to the state all deaf school here; I have heard some bad things about this. He is a very smart kid and I want him to get his High School Dipolma not a certificate of completion. He is tooo smart for that. I have heard he will not be pushed, or expected to get the good grades at this deaf school. I need more education, and I would really like to hear from parents of deaf children who have had experiance with both mainstream and deaf schools. I would also love to hear what other deaf teens have to say about this. I really want and need some help. :wave: thank you, Angela
 
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That's a common myth about the Deaf schools because people are looking at the numbers. I work at a Deaf school and my old beliefs about Deaf schools not pushing the kids, dumb down the curriculm and so forth changed. I grew up mainstreamed and always thought those who went to the Deaf schools were lower than average intelligence ..boy was I wrong. I and the other teachers push our students hard. We use the public school curriculm.

Maybe it depends on each school and their philosophy but not all Deaf schools provide less quality education.

If one looks at the statistics and base their opinions on the statistics alone, they are missing the big picture. More than half of the students who graduate from the Deaf schools enter them at a later age after falling so far behind in other programs. In my 5 years as a teacher, I see that as a common but disturbing trend.

I wish I had gone to the Deaf school and I remember I did express wanting to go when I was in middle school only to be told that I was too smart for it. Looking back, those educators were sorely wrong and as a result, my self-esteem almost got completely destroyed cuz I missed out on so much on everything being mainstreamed all day.

My brother attended and graduated from the Deaf school in my hometown and now he is pursuing his Master's at a highly ranked college on the Eastern shore. He is halfway completed so if the Deaf school where he attended failed him, he wouldnt be where he is now. I am glad he wasnt mainstreamed cuz for sure the mainstreamed program would have failed him cuz the attitude from my mainstreamed program was that Deaf people who lack oral skills are "dumb" and my brother was unable to develop oral skills. For sure, he would have been placed in a class with other children with MR , LD or ED. I had good oral skills so therefore I was "smart" according to the specialists at my school which was pretty bullcrap to begin with.
 
You know..............I think I remember Lady Duke (who is Deaf-Blind) went to the South Carolina School for the Deaf. I'll have to track her down and see if she can give you any help. She loved it. Additionally, your son has the option of going to Model Secondary School for the Deaf, in DC. They even offer French and Spanish! You may want to contact SCSD and see if they offer a diploma. One good thing about Schools for the Deaf, is that very often, even if they are small or mostly serve MR kids, there tend to be quite a number of academic kids. Are you guys members of the American Society for Deaf Children? Do you know about the Parent-deaf-hh listserv?
 
Hi Angela!
Well I was looking at SCSDB site: .........it says on the site:Students enrolled in these programs become eligible for either a SC state high school diploma or certificate, depending on the type of program completed. Also, the good news is that its a really good state school....PLUS, there's a School for the multihandicapped, which means that there's less of a risk that " just dhh" kids don't get lumped in with MR kids. I would suggest joining the Parent-deaf-hh listserv: It's an invaluable resource. There's always people talking about educational placements etc.

Archives of PARENTDEAF-HH@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
Join or Leave the PARENTDEAF-HH List
( direct link to how you can join)
Honestly, I would send him to the Deaf School..........what a great experiance! It's more of a "home" then a regular old mainstream school.
Also, high school can be horrible socially. That in turn can affect grades, self esteem etc.
Maybe you could see if he could go to the Deaf School, but also opt for mainstreaming in local schools?
 
Hello... and I am sure you will find good info here ;)
 
I had always wanted to attend the Deaf school here too and my parents refused so I was mainstreamed. My parents thought too that the level of education I would receive at the Deaf school would not be of that of the public schools. I don't know if that was really true or just my parents' personal opinions.

One thing that is interesting -- when I applied to RIT in 1988 (I took RIT classes but I had the services from NTID -- interpreters, etc. so I was essentially applying to NTID) I was told that a 8th-grade literacy level (at 12th grade graduation) was the minimum for acceptance to NTID. I remember being surprised at that and when I asked about that, the answer was that NTID felt that an 8th-grade literacy level was about the best they could reasonably expect from students of the Deaf schools. That's kind of appalling. Again this was 1988 and this also came from a testing administrator testing written English skills so I don't know if that was also partly personal opinion.
 
AlleyCat, eighth grade reading level isn't TOO bad. There are still many hearing people who read at a fifth or sixth grade level.
 
AngelDawn40 said:

Hello, My name is Angela, I have 3 children. My oldest son is 15 and he is deaf. He was born deaf, and has been mainstreamed in school his whole life. This next coming school year he starts high school.He wants to go to the state all deaf school here; I have heard some bad things about this. He is a very smart kid and I want him to get his High School Dipolma not a certificate of completion. He is tooo smart for that. I have heard he will not be pushed, or expected to get the good grades at this deaf school. I need more education, and I would really like to hear from parents of deaf children who have had experiance with both mainstream and deaf schools. I would also love to hear what other deaf teens have to say about this. I really want and need some help. :wave: thank you, Angela
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I had always wished my mother listened to me when I told her I wanted to go to a deaf school. she never did for the same reasons you've listed and as a result, I was really really miserable and was nearly expelled in grade 11 for playing hooky so much. I HATED being mainstreamed. Did your son tell you why he wants to go to one?
 
DeafCaroline said:
I had always wished my mother listened to me when I told her I wanted to go to a deaf school. she never did for the same reasons you've listed and as a result, I was really really miserable and was nearly expelled in grade 11 for playing hooky so much. I HATED being mainstreamed. Did your son tell you why he wants to go to one?
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I told her why I wanted to go there but however they turned down because of what they heard about SCSDB. Lucky, recent I had a talk with my parents and I finally can attend FSDB!
 
huh! how interesting! wow...so, i'm curious ninjadeafjoey - what were the reasons you gave mom for wanting to go to a deaf school?
 
DeafCaroline said:
huh! how interesting! wow...so, i'm curious ninjadeafjoey - what were the reasons you gave mom for wanting to go to a deaf school?
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I told her that I knew mainstream is not for me. They has only few deaf students and I was right. I attended J L Mann high and I'm only deaf student goes there. I dislike how lonely I am, so I told my parents that I want to attend SCSDB few years ago after we moved to SC from Va and they turned down because they think I won't able to go to college if I finish deaf school. Therefore, that caused me to think many deaf schools Education is bad and I caused a flame here at Alldeaf. I'm glad I am not that bitter enough to be open mind about deaf schools and I finally told my parents that even if they want me to go there or not, I will go there. We had that talk few weeks ago and they let me attend FSDB this year. Reason they let me because my grandparents and deaf friends told my parents about FSDB is good place. I wonder what will happen if they never told my parents.
 
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