Alice Ann Darrow Statement

Communication with the hearing impaired learner will help the teacher to access what support would be suitable for the learner. The learner can inform the teacher as to what issues they are having and how the environment can be made more suitable. Agreement between the learner and the teacher about methods of communication will be useful; and the teacher should also take the opportunity to inform other learners in the group about their disabled peer although it will require the input of the disabled learner. Any negative behaviour in the classroom should be dealt with appropriately. All learners are encouraged to feel confident around each other

Deaf people living in a hearing world have certainly made their mark in the hearing community. Deaf people can do anything that hearing people can do. The band shown in the film called “Beethoven’s Nightmare “caused quite a stir in our class. I think that we were simply amazed that deaf musicians could play so well. By showing the audience this experience, it provides hearing viewers with the knowledge that this type of event does occur within the deaf community and that the deaf can appreciate

In mainstream American society, we tend to approach deafness as a defect. Helen Keller is alleged to have said, "Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people." (rnib.org) This seems a very accurate description of what Keller's world must have been. We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for "real" communication. We assume that all deaf people will try to lip-read and we applaud deaf people who use their voices to show us how far they have come from the grips of their disability. Given this climate, many hearing people are surprised, as I was at

Mark Drolsbaugh presentation titled “Madness in the Mainstream” encompassed Deaf education and challenges Deaf children face with mainstream education. Drolsbaugh was born hearing and as he grew up, he had progressive hearing loss and became Deaf by college. Luckily for him, he was born into a Deaf family. Drolsbaugh went on to Graduate from Gallaudet and wrote for different deaf newspapers and publications and became a school counselor. He had written four books by 2014 pertaining to the Deaf community. Madness in the Mainstream was actually his fourth book and was the basis to this presentation.

In Alice-Ann Darrow’s article “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses” she states that it can be difficult to involve students with hearing losses in the music classroom and in the regular classroom as well. There are a numerous amount of students with hearing losses ranging from the ages of six to twenty-one. About 71,000 of special education students struggle with a hearing loss. A majority of students go without knowing that they have a hearing problem. Although most people believe that a person must be good at hearing in order to be musical, it is stated to be not true. The music classroom is actually a great place for students to practice good listening skills. Since listening is a mental process and hearing is a physical. Objectives for hard at hearing students should include listening to music, singing, playing instruments, moving to music, creating music and reading music. Music should be presented to the student’s strength and preferences. It is also helpful to have students feel stereo speakers or instruments as well as the use of kinesthetic movements. Alice-Ann Darrow believes that involving students with hearing losses into the music class room can be difficult but in the long run beneficial to the student.

All of these “issues” go back to the argument that people grow tired of a lack of representation. Logically, one would assume that a university for the deaf would mainly consist of either deaf or highly qualified hearing instructors. The Washington Post article also opened my eyes to how helpless deaf people felt during that time. The paternalistic viewpoint is so engrained into life that some deaf people complied with the view that because someone is hearing, they are better adapted to care for those who are hard of hearing. These ideals/views are horrible because they make people feel inferior for things that are often out of control. In my opinion, a hearing person that makes that argument for why hearing people need to “govern” the deaf are less than smart because even though the deaf cannot hear, they have other senses, like vison that are much stronger than ours as hearing individuals. Ultimately, I do not think it changed my perspective on deaf people, simply because I believe that you should respect people regardless of their differences. I can say that I relate to it in the way of

Although most state schools today have been adjusted to meet the needs of deaf pupils by providing help, such as, interpreters, note takers and radio aids; in previous years when schools could not afford to obtain the help, educational accomplishment for most hearing impaired pupils would have been fictional. Only 29% of deaf children were accomplishing the standard five GCSE’s A*-C, compared to 51% of their hearing peers (Cathy Heffernan, 2011).

The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to PBS home video “Through Deaf Eyes,” there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing (Hott, Garey & et al., 2007) . Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are over ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents. Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group, every region, and every economic class.” The

Deaf is defined as partially or completely lacking the sense of hearing as to where Deaf culture refers to members of the Deaf community who share common values, traditions, norms, language and behaviors. According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, three out of every 1,000 American children are born deaf or with hearing loss and 9 out of 10 of those children are born to fully-hearing parents. Most of these children who are deaf will attend public schools. By all, means teaching children who are deaf is not easy an easy task and can seem challenging for both the students and the teacher alike but it is certainly accomplishable. Therefore, in order for children who are deaf to succeed in a mainstream classroom, the teacher must first understand the Deaf culture and counteract stereotypes so that he or she may better serve students who are deaf. The article Deaf Culture Tip Sheet by Professor Linda Siple (2003) and Deaf Myths by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (2013) elaborates on these exact issues and provides a better insight on the culture of the Deaf community.

There have been some reviews shown that “the barriers such as standardized testing, lack of support services, discrimination, and lack of awareness of deafness among principals in hiring positions are keeping deaf professionals out of schools.” The deaf teachers do not receive support as much as the hearing ones do, making it difficult for a deaf person to want to become a teacher and be continually motivated to complete the program to become a teacher and to ensure that they can also get a job. The journal emphasizes that the deaf students need the appropriate type of teachers, deaf teachers to be

She states that Deaf culturist feel that society should not look for a cure for deafness. She says deaf people believe “curing deafness would

Turning the Tide: Making Life Better for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Schoolchildren by Gina Oliva and Linda Lytle has valuable information about the challenges hearing-impaired students experience in the public

Learning music as a student with hearing loss can be difficult just as teaching a student with hearing losses can be also. There are many children who are being diagnosed with hearing losses almost every day. In the article, “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses,” by Alice-Ann Darrow, an Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy at Florida State University, Tallahassee conveyed a message that students with hearing losses are capable of learning music. When hearing the words “hearing losses” you automatically jumped to conclusion that they can’t hear anything at all however that is wrong. Darrow stated in her article that, “Very few individuals have no hearing at all however most students who are described deaf do have some

As a closing thought, please keep in mind the respect for “difference” that we all MUST have in this country. Deaf or hearing-impaired individuals are not necessarily “disabled”, but rather “different”. Although this difference may seem extremely complicated to the hearing world, it is one that is often embraced in the deaf world. Let us respect all people and their right to knowledge! Hopefully,

Imagine the day when you see your child’s report card, and all you see are As, and you are speechlessly staring at your child’s grades. Are you still waiting for that moment to come when you will be proud of your child for getting good grades? Have you ever wondered why your child has not been able to do well at school?It is possibly because your child has not been exposed to listening to music while studying. Listening to musiccould be the golden solution for your child. Students definitely need to be granted the freedom to listen music during classes. Listening to music while studying helps to keep one’s mind relaxed. It also helps in finishing work faster and in memorization.