Thoughts on Hearing Educators/Teachers?

I

IrisElena

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Hello everyone!

My name is Iris. For the past couple of months I've been doing an internship for my high schools theater program. I've been instructed to do a scene where I play Michelle, a girl who has been deaf since birth.

In order for our scene to be believable, I needed to learn a few signs. But ever since I started learning I can't stop. I have honestly fallen in love with the language and am seriously thinking about pursuing it in the future. I have always wanted to become a teacher, but I have never thought about becoming ASL teacher until now. The only thing that is stopping me is my fear of not being liked/accepted by my students. I

I created this profile to reach out to those of you who have, or have had a hearing teacher. Did any of you like them any less? Is it weird? I'd like to know you guys' general thoughts and experiences with educators who aren't apart of the deaf community.
 
I know this is not your question but...are there any deaf/hh kids at your school? Why not have an actual deaf/hh kid play the role? That would be a way to be inclusive and you would learn from each other.
 
zephren said:
I know this is not your question but...are there any deaf/hh kids at your school? Why not have an actual deaf/hh kid play the role? That would be a way to be inclusive and you would learn from each other.
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No, we don't.
 
I have some hearing teachers and don’t mind at all, since they are all fully fluent and very skilled teachers. However, I would never recommend only learning from hearing teachers. There are some aspects that a Deaf teacher simply would have better personal experience of, and it honestly is important to meet Deaf signers when learning. If I regularly meet with two Deaf teachers, and to try to reach out and meet the Deaf community, then there is no harm at all in meeting a third teacher that is for example an experienced interpreter. That will likely just broaden my skills. However, if I never meet Deaf people at all, and the hearing teacher is the only role model I have, then it is not a great outset for learning. I think it as a student is important to meet native signers frequently, but that doesn’t mean there cannot be good hearing teachers too.

Maybe take a course in Deaf studies or similar to get a broader perspective on what your role can be?
 
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