Competition for Private Oral Charter Schools
Thursday November 2, 2006
The San Mateo County Times reports that the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf in Redwood City, CA is struggling financially. One reason for the struggle is because "public districts are trying to keep special-needs students within their schools as much as possible." I don't know if it is a possible solution, but it occured to me that one option available to the school to ensure its survival is to modify its mission - from oral only, to total communication. They would still be encouraging the learning of hearing and speech, but also welcoming deaf students who use sign language, thereby enlarging the student enrollment.
Comments
Hey! It is cheaper to use ASL than oralism. Fire those oralists and hire ASL teachers!
Private Oral Charter Schools? They are wasting taxpayers money! To let you know that they will not welcome any parents and Deaf kids who know how to use ASL. It’s not worth to hang around with them while they know how to make fun of us.
Not worth go there Oral school
Go California School for the deaf at Fremont only 30-45 min away from Redwood City
Hey.. hey… we MUSt have all possible educational aproaces on the continuum fre to the public. Oral schools are in fact CHEAPER than state schools for the deaf.
Jamie, I think you hit the nail right on the head. Yes, open the schools so people who want to learn with ASL can benefit from this, total communcation is the key.
This is exactly what the mission at Gallaudet was aiming towards with the appointment of Dr. Frenandes. The protesters freaked when they heard this might be the future mission and ran her out. Good work!! Hopefully students will find an alternative to the discrimination which is occuring towards the students at Gallaudet who want to learn using ALL communication methods. Perhaps if these charter schools are productive using this method the Government can close down the exclusive club of Deaf Culturists there.
what is it with people continuing to think about the total communication philosophy? “TC” has been a method of instruction for thousands of Deaf people including myself and it failed to teach us how to read and write! It was later in life when I learned about the bilingual approach to using ASL/English (written English) that we can improve in our communication fluency and writing/reading skills.
Do you really want to stick to an old method “TC” and continue to see many Deaf children struggle to learn ENglish? Come on, the USA has a lot of money that should be spent supporting the Bilingual approach (ASL/Writing English). Stop continuing a method that’s isn’t working and stop intimidating us the majority of the Deaf community that ASL is not a Language. Gosh when do people learn?!
Chris Kenopic
Canada
I attended a school with total communication. As a hard of hearing student, it was the best experience ever. My family is very oral and doesn’t sign with me, but when I attended my school, I was nearly fluent in ASL and therefore I could communicate with everyone in the school. I definitely recommend a total communication school- not only is it a great experience for the students, it also seems to be better financially!
Just to add to that last one.. When i left that school (only to move across the country where the facilities weren’t available) to go to a hearing high school. I was educated enough in English to graduate with Honours in ALL subjects let alone English. But then again, I’m located in Canada so perhaps the education is a bit different north of the border.