Being back in school, and learning about deaf culture, has been super fun. I have learned a LOT about deaf people already (and am slowly mastering ASL).
I have seen through the last couple of months a common theme that I heard a lot when I was doing my undergraduate schooling in psychology which is this:
If your child is born a certain way, please please please just leave them be.
I remember back at Moorhead State hearing about babies being born with both genders. Most of the time, the parents just pick the gender they
think is best and then raise the child that way.
9 times out of 10, once these children grow up they are not only extremely disappointed in their gender but also sad that they're body has been essentially mutilated.
In the deaf culture, the big issues are:
cochlear implants
mainstream school vs. residential school
oral vs. ASL education
I honestly cannot say how I would feel if I had a deaf child. As a hearing person I would probably feel distraught that my child would never hear the things we take for granted every day. On the other hand, knowing what I know now about the deaf world I would hopefully not try to "fix" my child.
Trying to teach a deaf child to hear and talk is a futile effort. These children have a language and a culture of their own and expecting them to be just like the other kids is really not even possible.
Time after time I have heard stories from deaf adults who were tortured as a child - not allowed to use sign language, being forced to learn speech, being thrown in to a regular school without other deaf students or an interpreter.
As parents, we see our children as a reflection of ourselves and want them to be "perfect." However, what may seem like a disability to us, is just normal to them and the bottom line is that we should just leave them alone until they are old enough to make decisions about their own life.
