Compatriots,
American Sign Language is being put to the test in the next week. As I type, there are 3,800 signatures needed by Dec. 12 to reach the goal of 25,000.
Once it arrives at 25,000, then President Obama must issue a response to officially revongize ASL as a community language and language of instruction in schools.
It only takes 5 minutes to make a significant impact.
Please click here for change or go to https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk
Thank you in advance,
D
Friday, December 7, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
New development on bilingualism in California
This excerpt is from Dr. Tom Humphries via a listserv that I wanted to share with ya'll.
"
Today, the Committee on Accreditation of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing voted to approve a bilingual authorization for ASL for our teacher preparation program there at the University of California, San Diego. You may have known that we have had an experimental program under Commission approval for several years that resulted in our graduates receiving the California Bilingual credential as well as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist credential. California recently moved from a bilingual credential to a bilingual authorization on the regular education credentials with new standards and requirements. We wrote to those standards and after a long process of review (and internal debate in the CCCTC, I'm sure!) our authorization for ASL was approved along with other languages that we include in our bilingual teacher preparation. So we are no longer "experimental" and other teacher preparation programs can, if desired, write to the new bilingual authorization in the same way they do for other languages. We're "regularized"! Our graduates now get the Multiple Subjects credential with bilingual authorization (ASL) and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist credentials. I'm sure the deaf students they work with will benefit greatly.
"
This is great news. There are a few interesting concerns that other academics have raised notably Timothy Reagan as to ASL being classified as a foreign language. Some states forbid bilingual education including California (Prop 227) and Arizona (Prop 200 which Arizona was ironically the first to offer bilingualism in the 1960's). However, ASL and bilingualism for the deaf is allowed in the public curriculum (i.e. California's CSD-F and CSD-R as well as Arizonia's PDSD and ASDB). This is only because being deaf, is by statue, a disability. If we want to fight that deaf people are an ethnic group (a la Harlan Lane), then we risk being categorized as a linguistic minority (which is fine!) but then we become regulated on the margins along with Spanish-speaking folks whose native language continues to be suppressed in public schools.
Catch-22 for sure. The fact that ASL is recognized along with other languages is good, but we need to be careful. I do think there is a way that we can syngergize our being deaf via a disability model (because we are disabled in one level, not by choice, but rather the society disables us) which is why provisions of an interpreter would become a civil right (so that society can accommodate us), but at the same time, in another level, being deaf as a cultural model. We cannot 100% become classified in the cultural model (i.e. along with Hispanics) because then we lose our accessibility needs (i.e. interpreters and VRS). Until our larger system changes (which is not anytime soon), I am willing to compromise my being disabled in one level for accommodation needs, but in another level, be culturally deaf when it comes to language.
Whatever label the system gives me, for I shall not care. Just give me my god-given right to sign language...as the noblest language for the deaf. Let freedom roll for our future deaf generation for it is our duty to pave the road for them as those before us have fought for our right to be here and to be heard.
"
Today, the Committee on Accreditation of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing voted to approve a bilingual authorization for ASL for our teacher preparation program there at the University of California, San Diego. You may have known that we have had an experimental program under Commission approval for several years that resulted in our graduates receiving the California Bilingual credential as well as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist credential. California recently moved from a bilingual credential to a bilingual authorization on the regular education credentials with new standards and requirements. We wrote to those standards and after a long process of review (and internal debate in the CCCTC, I'm sure!) our authorization for ASL was approved along with other languages that we include in our bilingual teacher preparation. So we are no longer "experimental" and other teacher preparation programs can, if desired, write to the new bilingual authorization in the same way they do for other languages. We're "regularized"! Our graduates now get the Multiple Subjects credential with bilingual authorization (ASL) and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist credentials. I'm sure the deaf students they work with will benefit greatly.
"
This is great news. There are a few interesting concerns that other academics have raised notably Timothy Reagan as to ASL being classified as a foreign language. Some states forbid bilingual education including California (Prop 227) and Arizona (Prop 200 which Arizona was ironically the first to offer bilingualism in the 1960's). However, ASL and bilingualism for the deaf is allowed in the public curriculum (i.e. California's CSD-F and CSD-R as well as Arizonia's PDSD and ASDB). This is only because being deaf, is by statue, a disability. If we want to fight that deaf people are an ethnic group (a la Harlan Lane), then we risk being categorized as a linguistic minority (which is fine!) but then we become regulated on the margins along with Spanish-speaking folks whose native language continues to be suppressed in public schools.
Catch-22 for sure. The fact that ASL is recognized along with other languages is good, but we need to be careful. I do think there is a way that we can syngergize our being deaf via a disability model (because we are disabled in one level, not by choice, but rather the society disables us) which is why provisions of an interpreter would become a civil right (so that society can accommodate us), but at the same time, in another level, being deaf as a cultural model. We cannot 100% become classified in the cultural model (i.e. along with Hispanics) because then we lose our accessibility needs (i.e. interpreters and VRS). Until our larger system changes (which is not anytime soon), I am willing to compromise my being disabled in one level for accommodation needs, but in another level, be culturally deaf when it comes to language.
Whatever label the system gives me, for I shall not care. Just give me my god-given right to sign language...as the noblest language for the deaf. Let freedom roll for our future deaf generation for it is our duty to pave the road for them as those before us have fought for our right to be here and to be heard.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
My thoughts on Occupy Wall Street
This image says it all. The media plays such a powerful role in the construction of our minds. It is critical that we take responsibility to absorb different elements of the "truth". The photo is one example. I urge you all to visit Patti Durr's excellent blog that chronicles deaf moral entrepreneurs promoting certain important ideas about our current sad state of affairs.
While some of you may (or do not want to) be able to protest, you still can make a difference. If you have a Bank of America account, you may recall that they attempted to start a $5 dollar charge a month for all accounts that you had. GREED. This obviously backfired, now they are taking away that charge, but the audacity and the sheer willingness for them to put their greedy filthy hands in my hard earn money is not acceptable. Show them by closing all accounts and instead join a local credit union. They are more localized. Think of it this way: you feel good about buying food from local farmers (at farmers market) rather than big-chain super grocery stores? You will feel the same about this by joining a credit union. That is one step of many.
Start there, start talking to other people, start realizing that you are one of the 99% Then, you will know what to do.
D
Thoughts about John Yeh and Viable; Justice has been served!
Justice has been served.
The Department of Justice was not "biased" for targeting deaf/foreign-owned companies like Viable as said by some commentators. DOJ has gone after large corporations such as Enron and Madoff's Ponzi Scheme.
Nine years in federal prison does not mean he will serve all nine years. All federal criminals have what is called "truth-in sentencing" where they must serve 85% of their sentence. John Yeh may be transported to a half-way home or house arrest at some point (see Martha Stewart).
Court records have shown that all of the calls from Viable were roughly 67% fraudulent and that John Yeh was directly responsible for pocketing 29+ million dollars. In his recent vlog provided by his brother, he admitted guilt based on being "misguided." I am not convinced. Mr. Yeh was a smart man who was able to start his own company and become very successful business-wise. I see nothing that shows how he would have been misguided. I think he knew very well what the risks were and gambled. He lost.
More importantly, the deaf community lost morale. A lot of the ex-employees lost money, and a lot of other VRS companies are hurt by this Viable fiasco.
Justice has been served, but in the long-run, we all lost.
The Department of Justice was not "biased" for targeting deaf/foreign-owned companies like Viable as said by some commentators. DOJ has gone after large corporations such as Enron and Madoff's Ponzi Scheme.
Nine years in federal prison does not mean he will serve all nine years. All federal criminals have what is called "truth-in sentencing" where they must serve 85% of their sentence. John Yeh may be transported to a half-way home or house arrest at some point (see Martha Stewart).
Court records have shown that all of the calls from Viable were roughly 67% fraudulent and that John Yeh was directly responsible for pocketing 29+ million dollars. In his recent vlog provided by his brother, he admitted guilt based on being "misguided." I am not convinced. Mr. Yeh was a smart man who was able to start his own company and become very successful business-wise. I see nothing that shows how he would have been misguided. I think he knew very well what the risks were and gambled. He lost.
More importantly, the deaf community lost morale. A lot of the ex-employees lost money, and a lot of other VRS companies are hurt by this Viable fiasco.
Justice has been served, but in the long-run, we all lost.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Politics of bilingualism.
Kudos to Joey Baer for pulling up a 1977 clip (see 1:30 minute) by Ella Mae Lentz where she says "we need to teach formal ASL in classrooms along with English." While Ella was emphasizing this as a possible tool of decolonizing audism from the hearing society so that both society and the deaf students can acknowledge their ASL as their native language, this is very relevant to what we call bilingualism.
What bilingualism means is still being debated...still? Unfortunately, despite to scholars advocating why bilingualism works in deaf education. A lot of it has to do with our current American hegemony. Even bilingualism is not welcome for other hearing individuals whose English language is not native to them (see Mexican-Americans).
If you look at current laws on bilingualism, they only focus on those who are ethnic groups; deaf people need not apply since deaf people are still under the Medical/Disability Model (see ADA and IDEA) which is problematic. So, even if these Mexican-Americans were able to convince their states to grant bilingualism, this would not be given to Deaf Americans. But wait, we have deaf schools that actually teach bilingualism! So in a way, our American government is turning a blind eye on the actual language usage made in these schools possibly focusing more on the budgetary "burden" by these schools (which we know now that mainstreaming is the burden here). So, technically, under the current bilingualism laws in America, states could easily shut down deaf schools based on the fact that they are exercising a possibly illegal language pedagogy in the classroom?
Wow, this is getting complicated. I have a point here: going back to the spirit of Ella's 1977 vlog, we need to make bilingualism a weapon. We need to convince America that bilingualism is a good thing and actually, bilingualism becomes a compromise with English (their language) and ASL (our language).
Bilingualism has become an emerging force not just for linguistic minority populations (i.e. English Language Learners-ELL’s), but also within deaf education, and it shows promise in a shared pedagogy (both ASL and spoken English). Bilingualism is starting to be welcome in academic debates and Cummins goes on to contend that “there are close to 150 empirical studies carried out during the past 30 or so years that have reported a positive association between additive bilingualism and students’ linguistic, cognitive, or academic growth” (Cummins 2000, p. 37). I want to argue that this would also alleviate the same oppressive force that Ella talks about in 1977.
I suggest that bilingualism is one way for the divisive schools of thought to respect the diversity of linguistic “cultures” produced by different groups in the shared production of “collective memories, knowledge, social relations, and values within historically constituted relations of power” while at the same time, preserving their unique cultures (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1991, p. 50).
Bilingualism is still an ongoing work in progress even after 1977...we still must continue to embrace and fight our right to language access.
What bilingualism means is still being debated...still? Unfortunately, despite to scholars advocating why bilingualism works in deaf education. A lot of it has to do with our current American hegemony. Even bilingualism is not welcome for other hearing individuals whose English language is not native to them (see Mexican-Americans).
If you look at current laws on bilingualism, they only focus on those who are ethnic groups; deaf people need not apply since deaf people are still under the Medical/Disability Model (see ADA and IDEA) which is problematic. So, even if these Mexican-Americans were able to convince their states to grant bilingualism, this would not be given to Deaf Americans. But wait, we have deaf schools that actually teach bilingualism! So in a way, our American government is turning a blind eye on the actual language usage made in these schools possibly focusing more on the budgetary "burden" by these schools (which we know now that mainstreaming is the burden here). So, technically, under the current bilingualism laws in America, states could easily shut down deaf schools based on the fact that they are exercising a possibly illegal language pedagogy in the classroom?
Wow, this is getting complicated. I have a point here: going back to the spirit of Ella's 1977 vlog, we need to make bilingualism a weapon. We need to convince America that bilingualism is a good thing and actually, bilingualism becomes a compromise with English (their language) and ASL (our language).
Bilingualism has become an emerging force not just for linguistic minority populations (i.e. English Language Learners-ELL’s), but also within deaf education, and it shows promise in a shared pedagogy (both ASL and spoken English). Bilingualism is starting to be welcome in academic debates and Cummins goes on to contend that “there are close to 150 empirical studies carried out during the past 30 or so years that have reported a positive association between additive bilingualism and students’ linguistic, cognitive, or academic growth” (Cummins 2000, p. 37). I want to argue that this would also alleviate the same oppressive force that Ella talks about in 1977.
I suggest that bilingualism is one way for the divisive schools of thought to respect the diversity of linguistic “cultures” produced by different groups in the shared production of “collective memories, knowledge, social relations, and values within historically constituted relations of power” while at the same time, preserving their unique cultures (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1991, p. 50).
Bilingualism is still an ongoing work in progress even after 1977...we still must continue to embrace and fight our right to language access.
My "first" blog.
This blog has numerous intentions not particularly in order:
1) respond to other blogs as well as track comments
2) provide and share my views on certain issues
3) to elevate both 1 & 2 into meta-analytical thought and reasoning to transcend layers of knowledge construction.
I have zero tolerance for trolls, ramblers with no real clear intent, and those who blatantly offend others. In the spirit of Voltaire, I may disagree with you, but I shall defend to the death for your right to disagree with me.
Enjoy!
D
1) respond to other blogs as well as track comments
2) provide and share my views on certain issues
3) to elevate both 1 & 2 into meta-analytical thought and reasoning to transcend layers of knowledge construction.
I have zero tolerance for trolls, ramblers with no real clear intent, and those who blatantly offend others. In the spirit of Voltaire, I may disagree with you, but I shall defend to the death for your right to disagree with me.
Enjoy!
D
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