kagablog

For the last five years, deaf learners coming into grade 8 have been illiterate. They are fearful of the written word and cannot associate a sign with some very simple words: e.g. they know the word ‘hand’ but do not know the word ‘fist’. There is a wide range in abilities of a deaf learner, and a wide range in their psychological history. The latter cannot be emphasized more strongly.

My biggest surprise with deaf education has been the collective lack of will amongst deaf learners to read. I then realised that reading is a taught skill. How do you know what a word IS if you haven’t heard it? Given the fact that most of their parents cannot sign, cannot communicate with their own children, reading is rejected willfully. This is particularly marked in the lower grades, for eventually as the learners mature and they realise that the mode of learning is through the written word and cannot be avoided - exam format, setting homework - they begin to adjust their attitude. At least they are able to associate a sign with a word and thus improve their ‘text’ vocabulary. But you will never find a deaf learner at my school with a reader, or with the slightest interest in reading per se. The challenge then has been to get them to use words, in the same way that I have to use my hands (to sign). Sign Language is an accredited subject in the school, where the educator uses a video camera to film the learners response as a record of their ability.

I feel (and this is a personal view entirely) that the real issue surrounding the matter of illiteracy began some years ago when ‘mother tongue’ became the buzz word. Somewhere along the way, they got the idea that Sign Language was their mother tongue and that they had a right to be taught in that language. Fair enough, but within this parameter every negative trait associated with ‘mother tongue’ seems to have become magnified. This has caused the deaf learner to shut out the hearing world, almost to a point of denial in trying to create their own ‘culture’. How this notion caught on, or why, is an absolute mystery. What is certain, is that it has caused more damage than good. Apart from the fact that Sign Language is a VISUAL language i.e. it has no written form, the notion of Sign Language as a LANGUAGE has to be seen in the context of a DEAF person. The crux here seems to be that the deaf are attempting to create a culture out of a handicap! Yet, the fact that a deaf person lives in a HEARING world can never be denied, and the advent of SMS and internet further emphasise the importance of the WRITTEN word. To this end, it must also be mentioned that in my subject, Life Science, the syllabus has become extremely TEXT based causing the deaf learner to be marginalised even further! This has wiped out any notion of ‘academia’ in Deaf Education and for a deaf person to acquire a matric certificate through Deaf Education as it currently stands. Not only is there a greater emphasis on text, but also on cognitive abilities such as hypothesis formulation and testing. So even if they coped with the text, they would be stumped in this arena. Having an interpreter in the exam room is not a solution either, as a sign for a particular word could quite easily suggest the answer!

A deaf learner lives in a very literal world: black and white. The development of nuance in their cognitive abilities only develops much later as a form of communication. I am not saying they are not aware of nuance, it just becomes extremely problematic when a deaf learner is asked to express this aspect of literacy in the classroom. It becomes impossible to cover every viable angle in explanation of a concept. This is a skill which is mostly acquired through experience and rests on an ability to extract information and apply it to a situation. To cross-reference. Question and answer i.e. deductive learning, takes on an added dimension of energy input. Imparting information within Deaf Education therefore follows its own unique pattern. This is because you can never fully comprehend how little knowledge the deaf learner has, even at matric level e.g. I was truly astonished to discover that my two matric learners did not know how day and night came about. It is therefore imperative for me to be able to intuit how the lesson unfolds. I am much aided by a computer and video projector permanently installed in my classroom, with access to an enormous amount of visual stimulation. We often embark on tangential journeys in our exploration of understanding! In a sense, this is what real education should be, but given that everything has to be ‘standardised’ and measured and that I am filling gaps that should in essence already be known, becomes problematic in ‘syllabus’ terms.

In my three years of teaching deaf learners I have faced one baffling situation after the next. While initially I felt partially to blame because my signing skills were still rusty, I had to step back to navigate my way intuitively through this dilemma and to analyse where the root cause lay in what I perceived as their collective lack of will or drive. It is herein that one requires an enormous amount of compassion because there are many tragic scenarios. But I was amazed to discover that the exact same problems I was experiencing were being experienced by deaf educators themselves!!

I therefore had to ask myself this question: How do I get inside a deaf child’s head in order to ascertain how the particular learning problems arise? How do I, as an Educator, rise to the challenge of taking their education seriously? In this process, I have had to re-examine everything I had taken for granted in ‘hearing’ education.

My 25 years experience in art, theatre, writing, performance,fashion is not acknowledged in the teaching profession. Yet, I would say that these skills are far more important than my recognised ‘professional’ qualification. This becomes a thankless journey which I take on for myself. I am not saying that this input is not appreciated. Of course it is. And I am fully aware of how I am growing as an individual, and how I manage to spark interest in my subject. But it makes absolutely no difference to my pay package! It simply highlights the level of double standard inherent in the Education system: it is OK and ENCOURAGED for me as an educator to draw on whatever experience or mechanism I can in the effective execution of my duties, but I cannot expect this to be acknowledged! Given the fact that I work for the Governing Body that has no policy document in this regard, and that I do not receive a pension, medical aid, or housing subsidy, or any Government ‘handouts’, and that this shortfall is not built into my contract, this could quite easily become a sore point. In this sense, the system fails ME and I have no more standing than a domestic servant! Even when applying for this job, nothing could have prepared me for the reality!

For me, the immediate problem has been that deaf learners themselves do not take their education seriously. Oh yes, they do understand the importance of schooling, but it is naive and misplaced. They are more interested in ATTENTION than in INFORMATION. This is more true of the lower grades. But I do not make the former statement lightly or without compassion! But for me to have arrived at this insight required an enormous amount of soul searching and observation. I certainly did not read this in a thesis somewhere on Deaf Education, or on the internet!!

Deaf learners struggle with memory. It was only within the last 6 months that I discovered that speech and learning patterns are established before the child is three years old. (In my experience, the learning ability seems to strengthen again after the age of 16 so what I have to say here is focused on the younger deaf learner.) Just think of your average hearing three-year-old who is a fireball of questions at that age, and think of a deaf learner whose parents cannot sign, and are in denial that they have a deaf child. It is the exception rather than the rule, that parents of deaf children embrace their responsibility in this regard. Even though classes are given free to parents, they fail to make use of this facility. Of course there are justifiable reasons why some parents cannot attend these classes. Yet, by the time the learner gets to grade 8, lack of memory seems to have become so ingrained that it is used as an excuse not to do something. Initially I found this extremely disturbing until I realised that the problem is compounded by the fact that deaf learners certainly know how to play up! This problem therefore becomes a self perpetuating one. Yet, to break this pattern of excuse, takes an enormous amount of psychological insight and sensitivity.

Another very difficult pattern to break is that deaf learners struggle with being taught as a class, collectively. They expect you to give the instruction to each one of them individually. This happens no matter how much you insist on their attention when you initially impart the instruction. Remember, that a deaf learner comprehends you with his/her eyes, and if they look away for a moment, they miss the message. Thankfully, class size is relatively small (2 to 11 learners - apparently you X by 7 as far as energy input goes for a ‘normal’ class) but even so, one does an enormous amount of repetitive explaining. Yet if one of them gets an answer right and you acknowledge it, the learner unhesitatingly, triumphantly tells the rest of the class. Those little fingers can rattle off an entire sentence with hardly a glance!! Getting the learner to NOT do this with their information has taken an enormous amount of restraint on my part i.e. to not respond immediately when they get something right. There is an intensely collaborative code amongst deaf learners that undermines and overrides the core aim in education: to get them to arrive at (understand) the answer independently.

It would be too simplistic to argue that deaf learners should be taught by deaf teachers. If this were the case there would be no schools for deaf learners as there is an intense shortage of deaf educators. Given the current adjustments to the text based syllabus, this problem is going to get far worse.

The hearing world is never going to go away. It will always remain as a necessary point of access to life. This is the challenge that will never abate. How Deaf Education adjusts to this challenge will determine what role deaf people play in our developing society. A lot of research has gone into this aspect of deaf education, but there is little consensus of the best way forward. There is much debate in the deaf world with regard to the various education ‘modes’: oralism, inclusion, the use of cochlea implants, speech therapy. One parent has placed her profoundly deaf daughter into a hearing school. She attended school with her daughter as interpreter for the first term, and in spite of the difficulties feels this is the best way forward for her daughter.

What is absolutely evident however, is that in spite of the fact that deafness is ‘an invisible’ handicap, it never-the-less is a very serious one.

It becomes imperative therefore, for hearing people to become more aware and compassionate towards the challenges that face deaf people.