Culturally Relevant In Everything

What a truly powerful article in "Dear White Teacher”. The title grasped my eyes loud and bold and when I was reading it, my mind was figuring out what to expect at the end of the article. Mrs. Lathan (author) knew how to target to a right audience. The author's experience with these faculty members who are White reminded me of when I worked, as a Teacher Aide, with a small group of deaf students who were mainstreamed at a regular public high school. Almost all if not all hearing teachers, counselors, and support staff had relied on me, as if I was a Deaf Interpreter, to relay the spoken/signed order English to American Sign Language (ASL) to the deaf students. More than often, when I was “teaching” the deaf students, I felt that I am their classroom teacher instead of a classroom aide. The issue ( challenge) was all about the ASL fluency among the hearing teachers and support staff and me as a deaf teacher whose ASL is my primary language. They often tell me that the deaf students learn and understand quite a lot more from me due to my ASL fluency as compared to their ASL which is the second language to them. Moreover, the hearing teachers often feel that the deaf students do not listen to them because they are hearing (non-Deaf). And that the deaf students will listen more to the Deaf teachers since they feel more related to the Deaf adults (teachers). I often was tempted to point out that, "If I had to take additional English classes to read and write better, therefore you should have taken additional classes in ASL and Deaf Studies to better understand the deaf students’ ASL.” 

Seattle is my home! The article of Students Kneel took place in Garfield High School, one of the largest black high school in Seattle. The picture of Garfield High School below defines its beauty more than I can describe here. I remember when I stood in front of the school building, I was in awe and totally inspired by the center part of the building. It reminded me of a royal crown.

The newest Nike advertisement, having Colin Kaepernick as the face of the company, is bold and straightforward. I applaud Nike’s action to tell America that racism and social injustices are simply unacceptable. Nike’s executive management team had a clear vision and plan when they decided to have Mr. Kapernick to be the face of their company. I, myself come from Pacific Northwest (born in Oregon and grew up across the Columbia River in Washington). Nike’s message displays their belief in diversity, racism, and social justice. When I was reading the article, I rolled my eyes up and said, "There you go again, idiot, are you totally blind or what?" "You" who? I was referring to these traditional, conservative, stubborn nosed old-schoolers especially the “Baby Boomer” white men generation who just need to go for once and all. They are denying or fail to understand that the America society has evolved over time. Nothing stays the same forever. Things change. Life changes. Words change. And the World changes. These Baby Boomers has been too busy fighting to keep the “White America generation” alive in spite what the America history has done toward Native Americans and Black Americans. They lack empathy and sensitivity of the evolving changes since World War II. Since we are trying to be culturally sensitive toward every race in this world, the Star-Spangled Banner needs to be revised. 

For example, the original sentence, "No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:"  I suggest changing "hireling and slave" to the "trespasser"? How about that? I don't see any harm to revise Star-Spangled Banner from time to time to reflect the changing America society. These questions often appear in my mind every time when I see Colin Kaepernick’s news.

Why are the media avoiding the issue of changing the merely few words themselves? Why the heck is everyone avoiding the real issue here? How can we be proud of ourselves if we fully understand what the National Anthem represents? We cannot continue this enabling behavior, just standing-by or to say nothing out of fear that our heads will be bitten off by these Baby Boomer generation who continues to deny the truth behind the changing society.

We need to embrace the facts and the truths instead of arguing the meaning behind these National Anthem words. I ask, "Let's re-word them and move on and we will not see any more kneelings.": As simple as it sounds?? Sadly, that we are making it so complicated. The issue here is “Without an open mind and soulful heart, no one will comprehend and perceive things clearly.”

Enough about those political issues which often gets us nowhere when there are so many disagreements.

The Winn/Johnson article got me thinking about the deaf and hard of hearing students and their academic achievements in the regular public education system. The article discussed the discrepancy of academic achievement gaps among the ethnic groups (minorities). How similar (and how true) these achievement gap issues are for the deaf and hard of hearing students. For example, the national and state standardized tests are basically biased.  The minorities including the deaf are bound to fail these tests.  

An article by National Association of the Deaf (NAD) will support points I have made about biased national and state standardized tests. https://www.nad.org/about-us/position-statements/position-statement-on-high-stakes-assessments-and-accountability/ 

One frequent and most misunderstood fact is that deaf and hard of hearing students, after they graduate from high school, read and write around the 3rd/4th-grade level because of their disability (hearing loss). The sad fact has nothing to do with their hearing loss, but all due to the hearing parents learning and fluency in ASL and failed to provide full communication and information access through sign language. 

For over 100 years, NAD has been trying to break through the barriers of the obstacles the deaf and hard of hearing children have in the public educational system.  Similar to the article I read, one néeds to be aware of what deaf and hard of hearing population need in order to achieve academically.

The authors said exactly the right things how to become culturally relevant teachers and how the school curriculums need to reflect the culturally relevant pedagogy, spaces, and practices for the Black, Hispanics, and Native Americans. It very much applies to the deaf people’s language (ASL) and Deaf culture and how it will be extremely helpful if everyone realizes this as well. Deaf people can write and read as equally as anyone. Some may be lousy at that, some may be an average at that, and some may be excel at that. To become a Deaf Education teacher, the teacher should not practice the low expectations misinterpretations of students’ hearing loss disability, and the cultural background and needs to happen in the classrooms. 

Back to the language deprivation issue within the deaf and hard of hearing population, I am sharing an article by Marc Marschark and other authors to see and understand why a majority of deaf students read and write below the 4th-grade level when they graduate from high school. The article explains what the deaf and hard of hearing students had endured and experienced learning in the classrooms in the public education system, and who is also completely responsible for those deaf children’s academic achievements other than their own parents’ accountability to provide a full access of communication at home.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4634639/.

Hope you learn more about the 100+ Years of Deaf Education and how it continually fail the deaf and hard of hearing students when the ASL has been deprived as the language of instruction after it was banned in 1880 (The Milan Conference). We, the Deaf teachers and leaders continue to argue and fight for the bilingualism in Deaf Education where the dual languages of ASL and English are the languages of instruction throughout the K-12 public education system. For more information on how sign language was banned during the 1880 Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf Conference in Milan, Italy.  https://www.verywellhealth.com/deaf-history-milan-1880-1046547