Thoughts On Mainstream Schools

Renée12

Renée12

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So I'm profoundly deaf. I have a CI in my left ear and a hearing aid in my right ear. I only use my CI for band and theater. I'm going into my sophomore year now and I'm starting to think about switching to KSSD (Kansas State School for the Deaf). I probably would've switched this year, but I was chosen to be 1 out of the 3 drum majors for marching band this season.
As much as I like my own school, I kind of want a change. All of my friends are hearing and only 3 bothered to learn ASL for me. I feel like it would be nice to go to a school where we have our own language. My interpreter shows up late half the the time so I have to strain my eyes to try to understand what is going on, and my note taker doesn't take very good notes. I almost failed ELA last year and I really don't want a repeat of that. I feel like none of this would happen at KSSD. Any thoughts? I'd be grateful to get some opinions from others in the d/Deaf community than those who are hearing.
 
mainstream is soul crushing...
by design

got to Deafie school

(raises right fist to the sky, covers left ear old Deafie panther salute...)
eheh
 
I wish I had gone to my states deaf school, I struggled in main stream and mostly learned how to cheat and pretend. I didn't learn. Whole lot and only had 2 teachers who were welling to take the time outside of class to help. The school I went to didn't take deaf kids so in fear of being transferred I didn't tell anyone so I didn't get disability help. I don't know if your main stream school helps with that or not but I wish I had it in school.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
I wish I had gone to my states deaf school, I struggled in main stream and mostly learned how to cheat and pretend. I didn't learn. Whole lot and only had 2 teachers who were welling to take the time outside of class to help. The school I went to didn't take deaf kids so in fear of being transferred I didn't tell anyone so I didn't get disability help. I don't know if your main stream school helps with that or not but I wish I had it in school.
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you look a lot younger than me so I find it very upsetting schools are still so far behind in working with deaf or hoh students .
 
I finished high school in 2011 and yea they are still that far behind. Oregon just made ASL a credited second language in high schools.
 
I finish high school in 1967 , I went 2 years of high school in my home town and 2 years in Maine . There was nothing in school for hoh or deaf students all though school no extra help or anything . Maine was rather backward too.
 
most everywhere in the US "mainstream schools" had zero help or assistance in the 1940s through the 1980s at the very least. IEPs and other services didn't come along until I was either nearly finished high school or after. Never got help in either the public or private schools I went to other than speech therapy :P ), sitting in the front (both vision and hearing...), darker lined paper (vision)... and at least 6th grade on we got the teacher to give the class the spelling words the week before... I failed many a spelling test because I didn't have anything visual to connect to the audio (what I could catch anyway). Mostly 'cobbled together' help rather than formalized...and ASL probably would have helped even though I'm considered a "oral success"....yeahhh blah.
 
Coming out of lurk......DO IT! Totally go for it! It will be an AMAZING experiance. KSD is actually pretty good (very academic, and has an established Deaf community) It's very common for kids to struggle in high school. You'll have the supports needed, friends, and basicly everything.....I think a year or two....or even graduating from it would be an AMAZING experiance. I have a friend who works at KSSD, and can answer any questions. I pointed him towards this thread. I think you'll be able to get straight As without even trying, (due to the supports) and you'll have an amazing social time. (and social emotional development is really important) Plus NO depending on an interpreter b/c everyone signs!
 
Again with the "coming out of lurk". Pretty soon that's going to be your motto, DeafDyke. :lol: Ridiculous

Aside from that, I hated being mainstreamed, but my parents weren't letting me have any other choices. I was in high school in the 80's. DeafDucky, I failed spelling tests too because the teachers wouldn't let the interpreters sign the word, they felt it was a "giveaway" and made me lipread the teacher instead. That so sucked. I guess I consider myself lucky my spelling isn't half-bad these days. I don't use autocorrect here on the computer, only on my phone and that's because of the tiny little keys :lol:
 
I'm actually on the complete opposite side.

I loved all of my mainstream schools except the one in Scotland (I was only there for like 7-8 months).

The support was there for me right from the start, my mother saw to that.
I got treated as different at first, but honestly, it wasn't cause of my deafness, it was cause I was a foreigner!

I struggled a lot like most deaf kids but eventually got the hang of it. I had very nice note takers and I enjoyed conversing with my interpreter when she would interpret.

I left high school in 2011 and came back to Scotland, and I've been having trouble with Uni ever since I moved back, I hate the British education system. They are very backwards.


So, maybe it's just an American-British thing? Cause, I had no problem in Japanese schools.
 
I grew up mainstream classes (with interpreter) with the exception of reading/english classes with a Deaf teacher. The cons is that you don't have many Deaf friends unlike you make plenty in Deaf schools. The mainstream level is higher than most Deaf schools and many Deaf students struggle in mainstream, and spend more time in tutoring. It all depends on the IEP the teachers and parents agree on how the student is taught. Deaf school makes the environment much easier for Deaf students and the communications is a breeze.


PS. "Coming out of lurk" is getting old... just come back and post whenever you want to and there's no need to tell us that you're coming out of lurk just to make a comment.
 
Calvin said:
I grew up mainstream classes (with interpreter) with the exception of reading/english classes with a Deaf teacher. The cons is that you don't have many Deaf friends unlike you make plenty in Deaf schools. The mainstream level is higher than most Deaf schools and many Deaf students struggle in mainstream, and spend more time in tutoring.
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That's really only if you get lucky and you hit the jackpot with high academic expectations and a mainstream school that won't fight tooth and nail over good accomondations. Remember there are lower (remedial) tracks in mainstream schools as well. I remember actually a TOD at a state school saying that she taught the same stuff they taught at a public school.... she just taught it in ASL. There ARE deaf schools with crappy curriculum and low expectations, but you can also say that about hearing schools too! Just wanted to correct that. I think most of the time, at a sizable Deaf School you will see a significent minority of strongly academic students. (as opposed to kids who are REALLY behind) You do have to do the research, but there are quite a few deaf schools with the potential to turn out strongly academic students. I know that KSD is one of them. It's a "potentially good" school. I'm NOT saying ALL deaf schools are good.....say Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind or Arkansas School or NC School or SC School might not be the best in the world for example.
 
I cannot relate. I was one sided (left side gone after infection at age 5) all through school. All I did was sit at the front of the classroom; except in one course in high school where the instructor used a blackboard on the side wall a lot. I had no known problems.
 
Jane B. said:
I cannot relate. I was one sided (left side gone after infection at age 5) all through school. All I did was sit at the front of the classroom; except in one course in high school where the instructor used a blackboard on the side wall a lot. I had no known problems.
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Excellent. Most unilateral loss kids (unless they have additional issues) tend to respond VERY well to a minimal accomondations approach. There are even a lot who don't even opt for accomonations, or even a hearing aid! But the bilateral experiance is VERY different.
 
My first time mainstreamed was in HS. I learned sign language but the deaf kids shunned me at first because I didn't sign. back then.
Over the years, deaf friends and I talked about why the deaf schools wants more deaf students but the deaf students already there treated new students like shit.
 
I transferred from mainstreaming high school to the deaf school. It was a change for me since I was not found in ASL but I certainly gotten a lot more education and attention there than I ever did at the hearing school. If you're fluent you should be able to do well. Though the social part was hard on me it is different for everyone. Take a school visit and see what it is like. It is fun being in an all signing environment and you just focus on improving yourself and not about the ear at all. There will be other kids who has come from mainstreaming as well and may relate with what you have experience. You also get to travel to visit other Deaf schools if you are into sports that is. Good luck!
 
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