The Deaf Education Debate

The Deaf Education

Debate

Manual education

Oral education

Fitting in

D(d)eaf culture

Both of these philosophies believe that they are helping children perform the best they can in school.

In some cases, mainstreamed deaf or hard-of-hearing children who receive an oral education never even learn ASL or that the Deaf community exists.

Proponents of this philosophy say that being able to interact in a hearing world opens up more opportunities that deaf students would not have had if they were unable to speak and lipread.

Videos on social media of deaf babies getting cochlear implants or hearing aids and being able to hear for the first time support this philosophy.

Some people have the philosophy that in order for deaf children to interact with a predominately hearing society, they should be trained in their early years for this interaction.

Proponents of Deaf culture say that oral education is unnatural to a deaf child. They believe ASL is a more natural way to communicate, and therefore educate.

Therefore, deaf children should be taught using oral methods, meaning they learn to adapt to a hearing world. This includes learning to lipread and speak. American Sign Language is not emphasized in this method.

People on this side argue that it is best for deaf children to hone these skills at an early age, and the best way to refine these necessary skills is to naturally integrate it into early childhood education.

Proponents of manual or ASL education say that deaf children would succeed better in an environment where they are the same as everyone else around them.

Believers in this philosophy support the idea that the deaf child should choose for him/herself if they want to be in a deaf school or a hearing one. The problem is, children are unable to make this decision when their schooling begins.

The only way for Deaf culture to survive and thrive is if those who are born into the community are proponents for things like the usage of ASL.

The oral versus ASL education debate parallels other debates in the Deaf community, such as the choice to get a Cochlear Implant or not.

This is referred to as "mainstreaming" students, because they are being placed in traditional public schools surrounded by a majority of hearing students.

Videos like this, whether they intend to or not, push the agenda of oral education. They encourage deaf children to change in order to better fit in with the hearing world.

More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents (NIDCD, 2015). Many of these parents agree with this philosophy, and want their student to have a childhood as similar to them as possible.

This philosophy of education tends to be adopted more by deaf children with deaf parents, because these parents want their children to be a part of the community they are already a part of.

Mainstreaming deaf children into hearing learning environments denies deaf culture those new members.

Being in a hearing school hinders deaf children's sense of identity and pride. If a deaf child is in a hearing world, they will always think of themselves as lacking something.

As with many aspects of a child's life, it is up to the parents to choose early on for the child. While some children switch when they are old enough to decide, most tend to stick with their parent's decision, because that is their norm.