Mark Drolsbaugh Online
Saturday October 7, 2006
One of my favorite deaf writers, Mark Drolsbaugh now has a blog/website. I just read his article, "Men Are Pigs," which is about how many hearing men don't or won't learn sign language. Do you agree with the "facts" he cites in this humorously written article?
Comments
I am a man and I am leaning sign lauguage. There are three guys in the class and 25 ladies. They have not made fun or picked at us like Mark’s mentioned. In fact, most of them think it is great that the three of us are leaning. My wife does not understand why I like to learn new things. But to keep the mind alert, active and growing, a person needs to learn new and exciting things. Not all of us guys are pigs. I am thinking even about taking a class on cake decorating. My kids thinks it is great that dad is not a couch potato.
Ouch.
it would be good to learn ASL to pass on to our child.
I’m a hearing guy and and my wife is deaf, so I do know sign language, but it’s choppy and half the time we make up our own signs. Living in a big city, I find that whenever I try signing with someone who signs ASL, I get lost quickly.
My wife and I have both talked about taking ASL classes (she signs Exact English), but we haven’t been looking too hard yet.
And, especially with a new baby on the way
I am a hearing female,and its sad to say that he was generally right on.My hearing female cousin works at a rehab center,so she has a large deaf clientle.One of her charges,David,is developmentally delayed(Downs Syndrome).David is a regular at christmas/easter,so he and I have the opportunity for conversation.
P.S.Congrats Ben H.,may I recommend Sesame Street(My fave)
I am a dad of a deaf child (now 13 years old) who did learn sign. As a matter of fact, I work as an educational interpreter and am currently working on my Masters in Deaf Ed (I did start out with an education background, so I guess that makes a difference). From my experience taking classes and working with deaf children and their families, I know Mark is absolutely right, although I am not sure of his theories.
In the beginning sign classes I took, the men were always way out numbered by women. The advanced sign classes were usually me and the rest women. In my Masters classes, the only men other than me are deaf. The families I work with, only a few Dads have learned more than basic signs (we call them the dog commands: no, stop, sit, eat), and none more than enough to have basic conversations with a child. How they will communicate when the kids become teens, I don’t know.
At Special Ed conferences, there is the same imbalance. 100 women, 10 men (maybe) and some of those are administrators.
This article points out a more serious problem than spouses of deaf women. Dads need to communicate with their children and so few do. Smiling and playing works with a 3 year old, but if you can’t talk with your 8 year old about the kids picking on him on the playground, how will you talk to your 14 year old about girls, drugs, smoking? Can you tell it makes me crazy?
An Unusual Dad
All I can add is what I’ve seen in my own family. My mom is deaf and I’m down to 90 % loss so I’m pretty deaf too. Dad tried to learn sign language from my mother but she was so critical of his signing and poor spelling that he never really got good at it. she would laugh at him and ridicule his beginning attempts to learn, his big hands weren’t very nimble. So needless to say they didn’t talk much towards the end. In fact, when he was dying he was trying to sign something to her and nobody could figure out what he was trying to say. So Dad’s last words were lost. So I guess what I’m trying to say is: Women, don’t be so critical of another’s beginning attempts to sign, sign language is difficult to learn and requires practice and patience, ON EVERYONE’S SIDE, not ridicule. And bless all those men who try to learn, you are indeed special (and unusual too, Brian!)
I’m not surprised. In my classes I’ve had few men. It’s related to nurturing. How many men are nurses, social workers, nursery school teachers etc.? There are some, of course, but these are mainly “women’s work”. Maybe we should remind the men where the women can be found in abundance!;)