20 March 2006
Future uncertain for Idaho deaf, blind school -
Another one bites the dust? This is a difficult trend to bear since, as studies have shown, the best method for the deaf, education-wise, is through a natural manual language (ASL, not SEE, which is not a natural language, since it is a manually-coded English). While mainstreaming the deaf students may provide a handful out of many with an optimal learning situation, it is a safe bet that the majority will not receive the learning environment they require to excel at academia, whether through a teacher's insufficient sign skill, a teacher's use of SEE, PSE or various other methods of instruction like cued speech that reek of the remnants of the oralism movement after the devastating Milan Conference.
While the hearing world no longer seems to be enforcing, without question, oralism on students, these bastard-children "languages" of oralism and the grudging acceptance of manual language by hearing educators (which is not a universal trait by far) fail to provide the children with linguistic mastery. Though many of the issues lie with the teacher's lack of linguistic (ASL) fluency, the teacher is not the problem and deserves no blame while he or she is putting forth best effort. The problem lies in the very system itself - it is prohibitavely expensive, so says the article, to teach these children at residential schools, so mainstreaming them into schools that already exist and serve many other students already seems like an economical idea, but it is, in the end, the bearer of a worse outcome to the student, and to the state and nation, than the expenses attributed to an education presented in the best possible environment using the best possible language.
Clearly the issue at hand is the continuance of a residential school. If it is, indeed, a fully residential school, costs can be minimized by creating a day school, which is a more recent development in deaf education. This type of school and the various other options available across the nation to deaf students can be found here: http://www.deaflinx.com/options_place.html. - TS
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BOISE -- A bill to disband the 100-year-old Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind in Gooding is in the works.
It'll be considered tomorrow in the House Education Committee.
Enrollment has been shrinking and per-student costs have risen to more than $80,000 a year.
Members of the legislative budget writing panel say the residential school should be abandoned in favor of a regional approach that puts more children with hearing or seeing disabilities in mainstream classes.
One solution for the school facilities would be to turn it into a treatment center for mothers who are addicted to methamphetamine and get crossways with the law, Rep. Kathy Skippen said.
Idaho prisons are already overcrowded, and the state is seeking alternatives for people addicted to the illegal stimulant.
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KTVB. "Future uncertain for Idaho deaf, blind school." KTVB.com 20 March 2006. < http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-mar2006-deaf_and_blind.44b4228c.html >
Another one bites the dust? This is a difficult trend to bear since, as studies have shown, the best method for the deaf, education-wise, is through a natural manual language (ASL, not SEE, which is not a natural language, since it is a manually-coded English). While mainstreaming the deaf students may provide a handful out of many with an optimal learning situation, it is a safe bet that the majority will not receive the learning environment they require to excel at academia, whether through a teacher's insufficient sign skill, a teacher's use of SEE, PSE or various other methods of instruction like cued speech that reek of the remnants of the oralism movement after the devastating Milan Conference.
While the hearing world no longer seems to be enforcing, without question, oralism on students, these bastard-children "languages" of oralism and the grudging acceptance of manual language by hearing educators (which is not a universal trait by far) fail to provide the children with linguistic mastery. Though many of the issues lie with the teacher's lack of linguistic (ASL) fluency, the teacher is not the problem and deserves no blame while he or she is putting forth best effort. The problem lies in the very system itself - it is prohibitavely expensive, so says the article, to teach these children at residential schools, so mainstreaming them into schools that already exist and serve many other students already seems like an economical idea, but it is, in the end, the bearer of a worse outcome to the student, and to the state and nation, than the expenses attributed to an education presented in the best possible environment using the best possible language.
Clearly the issue at hand is the continuance of a residential school. If it is, indeed, a fully residential school, costs can be minimized by creating a day school, which is a more recent development in deaf education. This type of school and the various other options available across the nation to deaf students can be found here: http://www.deaflinx.com/options_place.html. - TS
---
BOISE -- A bill to disband the 100-year-old Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind in Gooding is in the works.
It'll be considered tomorrow in the House Education Committee.
Enrollment has been shrinking and per-student costs have risen to more than $80,000 a year.
Members of the legislative budget writing panel say the residential school should be abandoned in favor of a regional approach that puts more children with hearing or seeing disabilities in mainstream classes.
One solution for the school facilities would be to turn it into a treatment center for mothers who are addicted to methamphetamine and get crossways with the law, Rep. Kathy Skippen said.
Idaho prisons are already overcrowded, and the state is seeking alternatives for people addicted to the illegal stimulant.
---
KTVB. "Future uncertain for Idaho deaf, blind school." KTVB.com 20 March 2006. < http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-mar2006-deaf_and_blind.44b4228c.html >