Absolutley, I had high hopes and dreams for my son's future. Those hopes and dreams did not change when I found out he was deaf. I just had to find an alternate method for showing him that those hopes and dreams were possible, and that included exposing him to the Deaf Culture that could show him, in a very real way, that he could achieve anything he wanted to achieve. Children need concrete example in order to relate. Telling him that, given that I was hearing, didn't have much impact. Always available is the reply, "But it isn't the same for you. You are hearing." That excuse is not available when shown a successful deaf role model. My child did not need to be hearing, or to be protected from exposure to the deaf community in order for me to have high expectations of him. I had them no matter. Exposure to the deaf community showed him that he could, indeed, live up to those expectations as a deaf individual.
