Choosing Sides.

Earlier this year, I had planned to make this blog private. I had every intention of doing it. However, I never wrote anything and just didn't do it. Now, I am not going to make it private. There are a lot of changes happening here in Utah concerning our deaf children, and I don't like them very much. My wife and I have always wanted our kids to learn both ASL and spoken english. That has always been our goal. Our son, Johnny has shown recently that he is not very interested in the spoken language, but he still loves signing, and is pretty good at it. Eliza shows more of a tendency to vocalize than Johnny, but she also signs quite a bit. That is probably her main mode of communication. We encourage our kids to do both, and at first thought that we would get that kind of support from Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. Basically we wanted our kids to develop and flourish in every way they could. However, the recent changes by USDB are forcing us to choose one or the other. They will not provide services for parents who want both in their children's lives. I am writing this blog post to state my position on it all and why I feel that way.
First of all, I think it is wrong to force parents to choose one or the other path when the child is only 45 days old. Why? How can a parent know which way would best benefit their children at only 45 days? They can't. At first, we wanted only oral for Johnny and Eliza. However, as time went on we realized they responded better to signing. Imagine if we had to make that choice at only 45 days. I think we would have made the wrong choice for our kids, and there would have been years of frustration following it. I think the real goal of USDB is to eliminate the signing completely. At 45 days, parents who are hearing are still in shock about having a child with hearing loss. They have not yet accepted it, and will only think on the doctors and audiologists who have told them that their children can be normal, happy kids. With modern technology they can hear and speak just like everyone else. The parents, who are still in shock, will overwhelmingly choose the oral route at 45 days, and eventually the ASL program will just fade away. I think this is the real goal of USDB. Utah is a very pro-oral state, so why should the state run school be any different.
So where do I stand? Since I am being forced to choose, I am choosing the ASL/English program for my kids. Before I get a lot of comments about how I am limiting my kids potential, I want to point out a few things. Only in the ASL/English program, will both ASL and spoken english be encouraged. Between the two programs, as now outlined, it is the only one that offers choice. Yes, ASL will be the primary language, but what is so bad about that? It is a beautiful language, and it connects them to a larger community of support and strength. The oral program not only discourages signing, but forbids it completely. There is no option, no choice. No opportunity for my kids to reach their full potential. In the ASL program, my kids will go to school with other deaf children. They will communicate with their friends in their native language, they will receive instruction in their native language, they will be taught that they should take pride in who they are and develop a healthy sense of deafhood. In the oral program they will be mainstreamed into a normal school, where kids will only see their differences, where teachers will spend most of the day talking at them, not to them. They will grow up in atmosphere where they are constantly told how "impaired" and "disabled" they are. For me and my kids, I don't feel like this is right.
I am writing this post, because they are forcing us to choose sides. If you are a parent who is currently doing both, I hope you will join us on this side. Their goal is to take away our options. Don't let them. By choosing the other side, our options are gone.