I am oral (still am) and was mainstreamed starting in Year 4 until Year 10 ... I was the only deaf there. Those were very lonely years! My parents forbade me to mingle with the signing Deaf for all those years. So that's probably why I don't like socializing much even up to this day. If I had my life all over again (not that I would want to), I would not have attended a hearing school, if I had the choice.
I believe that if we are happy among our own kind, I'm sure we will be well-off emotionally. Never take us out of our Deaf environment like I was. Those were fun years for me and as far as I remember I was happy! being in the deaf circle. I felt free among my deaf peers in the early days and felt myself blossoming, only to wilt when I was mainstreamed. That was like cutting off my lifeline!
I even suffered a nervous breakdown for a month towards the end of Year 4 and still, I wasn't sent back to the Deaf school ... I was pleading to but that had fallen on 'deaf ears'.
It was only when my hubby & I turned 40, that we were reunited with our deaf friends and have been getting together about once a year. We don't get invited enough because we are "fence-sitters" through no fault of our own ... we have a difficult time mingling with the hearing world because we're deaf to them whereas we have a hard time mixing with the deaf world because we're not deaf enough to them or don’t sign. A catch-22. Even though, our friends willingly speak with us and we do try to basic sign, it's not the same.
