Thank an educator lately (how oralism can be bad)

Emotional story from a Deaf philiosopher! Check it out!


I hope I am not the only one, but I cannot think of whom to thank for my education from K-12, except my parents. I grew up oral and never learned sign language until I went to college. I am classified as someone with a profound hearing loss, yet I was prodded to wear auditory aids the entire time, as if I can really hear and understand what people say, when a microphone is attached to the person. In reality, I got by because of lipreading, and if it were too tiring to lipread during the entire day, I would simply look down and teach myself from the book. Perhaps the teachers thought I could hear well enough that I can take my eyes off them and read the book. It is because of my fear of failure that I made sure I knew what was going on, try to decipher what I was supposed to learn from the writing on the blackboard to the reading in the book. How can I give credit to any teacher growing up? I don’t remember making a connection with any teacher and I was too proud to ask for help in class. At times, it seemed like the only reason I was in school was just to learn how to speak better, as if my entire career depended on it.

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