Good example, I grew up in a jewish community where I lived, i can see how proud they are jewish. It's their strong jewish community that makes me feel comfortable asking them lots of questions. They are SO great to me, even though I am not jewish. I learn so MUCh from them. I swear that I NEVER saw the leader who is jew in my old town, and was telling me that he wishes he was not jew.. NEVER.. He was DAMN proud of being Jewish. I realize how important jewish culture to them, and i highly respect for them and who they are. They taught me so MUCh how proud they are. SAME DEAL with Deaf community. Thats why I am puzzled how dare what OP's ASL teacher commented about DEAF CULTURE!!! Only if it comes to the LEADER or TEACHER.
I am a little confused by this. He admires Deaf culture but feels he is separate from it and unable to claim it. I believe he would be very proud to be a part of it. He just feels it is impossible due to his upbringing, which seems untrue to me. I was wondering if there were any resources I could direct him to that help him feel like times have changed, and he *would* be accepted by the greater Deaf community.
Reba, I agree he should be a bit more up-to-date. He says he has taught this beginner ASL class for 17 years. The book he uses (I am not a fan) for vocabulary is ten years old. I am puzzled by this. He had never heard of lifeprint or Bill Vicars (again, not a litmus test, but... ?).
I am connected to my own small local deaf community and love it. None of the people I've met have been anything less than completely welcoming, energetic, confident people. I am very honored to be welcomed into their small circle to learn from them. I've learned more from my meetings with them than I would in hundreds of hours of this class.
FriskyFeline, I'm not sure it's prudent to share his name on the Internet? I highly doubt he is known well in the community. He does mention a few deaf friends, but he seems pretty isolated. I would be shocked if he went to any events or conferences or otherwise networked with the ASL community. Our class is held in a little library, not a school, and he appears to act independently of any organization.
His teaching progression is very odd. He wants us to start with SEE and then move into ASL. I don't see why we need a middle man. When I learned Spanish, we did not start with English word order and then switch it up later.