Moses Goes to School

Millman, Isaac. Moses Goes to School. New York: Frances Foster Books, 2000.

Isaac Millman, Pratt Institute graduate, describes the purpose of his book in his Author’s Note: to enlighten his audience about the fact that “Children who are deaf and heard of hearing are very much like children who hear. They play with their friends, help their families, and sometimes misbehave.” They take care of their pets and go to school. In school, they learn to read and write and do sports, put on plays sings songs and go on class trips.” Millman successfully achieves his goal through the eyes of his protagonist, Moses, a young deaf boy who attends a public school for the deaf. We see how Moses and his classmates “communicate in sign language,” learn technological skills, and practice “reading and writing.” The reader gets a special look into the bi-lingual aspects of the deaf community. Most people probably do not realize that American Sign Language (ASL) is structured differently than English, so ‘speakers’ of both can speak two languages, which is very impressive in itself. The activities of Moses’ school day are shown as fun and educational as the students write letters to their pen pals, and sign to the popular song Take Me Out to the Ballgame. His school experience is portrayed as very relatable and not at all subordinate.

The illustrations in this book are detailed drawings, showing people signing to each other during various daily activities. Characters in the book are very diverse: of the ten students in Moses’ class, two are Asian, two are African American, one is Pakistani, and one is Latino. Furthermore, Millman included sign-language diagrams on every few pages to help his readers “begin to learn a few words in American Sign Language.”

After having visited the Michigan School for the Deaf, I see this book as a positive reflection of a deaf school environment. Students in the classroom I visited learned the same material as in a public hearing classroom. Faculty members were both deaf and hearing, and all signed ASL, just as in Millman’s book, Moses Goes to School.