Since Jillo is looking at a population from a whole and if she is wrong, then do we start making educational policies for a majority based on a few cases?
That is where I am seeing the conflict between many...many look at from one or few cases and try to apply it to a population while Jillo is looking from a whole population to apply it to a whole population. Nobody is right or wrong but we honestly cant make educational policies based on a few cases, can we?
That is the whole point. We cannot look at one or two cases, and then say, "Well, this is the way it is for the majority of children with CIs, so we will set policy based on these two." Likewise, what we hear of these one or two cases is by and large anecdotal. Even these two cases would no doubt turn up some surprising results if they were to participate in a controlled study that used valid measurement rather than hopeful observation that is related second hand. This is why we obtain data from the individual, and not from the parent, the brother, the sister, or another observer who colors the data with their own expectations. I, not long ago, posted the results of a study that took data from the parents regarding their perceptions of their deaf child's social functioning, and then data from the child regarding their perceptions of their own social functioning just to illustrate that what the parents believe to be true for their child is not the same as what the child believes to be true for themselves.
I fail to see how making the newest research information available so that not just parents, but those educators that are responsible for the success and the academic achievement of deaf students can use the term "bullying". How is it bullying to take the time to make information available to those should, in all reality, be searching it out for themselves? Is it bullying because the information challenges the status quo, or takes the rosy color out of the glasses people tend to wear? Is it bulllying because it presents an accurrate picture of what the majority of deaf children experience in the educational environment? Is it bullying to push for the changes that will allow deaf children to function to the best of their abilities rather than sticking tothe same old policies that prevent them from reading on grade level, from developing critical thinking skills, and from developing native fluency with language? The sad facts of deaf education over the last 30 years speak for themselves. If it is bullying to refuse to accept less than adequate education for any deaf child, then yes, I am a bully. If it is bullying to demand that deaf students receive those accommodations that allow them access to the curriculum that hearing peers receive, then yes, I am a bully. And if it is being a bully to point out where the system is failing our deaf children academically and socially, then yes, I'm a bully. And I will be a bully until the day I die for that cause. Deaf kids deserve it. I am sick to death of people sticking to the status quo just because its the easy way out. I amsick to death of people accepting less than the deaf child deserves and is entitled to just because it is more comfortable. That does nothing, absolutely nothing, to improve the educational or the psychosocial circumstances of the deaf child. If speaking out and working to initiate those changes that have been shown, time and time again, to be a benefit to the deaf child eductionally, socially, psychologically, and linguistically makes me a bully in some people's eyes, then so be it. When a deaf student comes to me and thanks me for understanding, or for going to bat for them against administrative policy that served to restrict them, I'm damned proud to be a bully, because it is that deaf student that is my main concern.
I have a question that will no doubt get me banned, but I am going to ask it again. Why is it, instead of opening their minds and actually attempting to process information that is available through research, people resort to name calling in an attempt to refute it? Why is it that people claim to have the best interest of children at heart, yet totally ignore the information that could actually benefit the children they claim to be concerned about? Is it because it is easier just to hang onto outdated methodologies and ideas that have been shown, time and time again to be less than effective? Or is it because they simply don't want to put forth the effort to learn? Is it just more comfortable to accept less than adequate educational policy for deaf children than to speak out against the inequality?
