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.

A Button in Her Ear

Litchfield, Ada B.. A Button in Her Ear. Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Company, 1976.

In her book, A Button in Her Ear, Ada B. Litchfield tells the story of a girl named Angela who is hard of hearing and discovers this through her gradual loss of hearing. She often misunderstands her friends and family, which are the indicators of her hearing loss. After visiting her doctor and an audiologist, Angela gets a hearing aid, which she calls a “magic button” that helps her hear what people around her are saying to her. In her Note about the story, Litchfield explains that hearing aids do not work for every person who experiences hearing loss: “children with more severe hearing loss may need training in using visual clues and in their own speech production. If loss is profound, other means of communication using visual clues, sign language, and finger spelling may be employed.” Angela is presented in a relatable way for children who go to school and play sports just like she does. Perhaps the best part to support acceptance of deaf or hard of hearing children by hearing children is near the end when Angela’s teacher introduces Angela’s presentation of her hearing aid to the class by saying, “Just as Ann and Doug and John and I are wearing glasses to help us see better, so Angela is wearing a hearing aid to help her hear better.” Students can see through this that just because someone is wearing a hearing aid does not make them any less competent, as the aid functions in a similar way to something as accepted as glasses. We see that Angela accepts her hearing loss in a positive way with support from the adults in her life and continues to lead a normal life of a young girl, going to school, playing sports and playing with friends.

Dad and Me in the Morning

Lakin, Patricia. Dad and Me in the Morning. Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Company, 1994.

Patricia Lakin tells a story of a father and a son with a strong relationship who get up early in the morning to share the special experience of a beautiful sunrise. The son in this story is not explicitly described as deaf or hard of hearing, but it is evident in the fact that he uses a “special alarm clock” that flashes, wears hearing aids, is able to “speech-read”, and communicates with his father using sign language. The illustrations and descriptive words in the story portray this father and son to be similar to any hearing father and son who may be reading the story together, or just the same as any reader, for that matter. Just because the son is deaf does not hinder his experience of the wonders of the early morning world. He notices a bunny, smells pine trees, feels the slap of his sandals, and the cold water off the beach. He can smell the rocks, see and feel hermit crabs, and finally, see the beauty of a sunrise. We see that he experiences the world in the same way that we do, just more quietly than we may. The love in the father and son’s relationship also strengthens the sensitivity and normality of these characters. Without blatantly describing his deafness, Lakin portrays this deaf character in a positive light, highlighting his many other senses and abilities to communicate them.

Milk

Last week, I went to the Main Art Theater in Royal Oak to see the movie Milk starring Sean Penn and James Franco. It is the life story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician in the U.S. He was elected city supervisor in Castro in California in 1977, supporting gay and minority rights. I do not want to give anything away about the movie, but his story is so powerful. It also fit in really well with the book we just read, Boy Meets Boy, and the video we watched in class last week, Its Elementary. Also, it seemed to mirror some of the current struggles that homosexual Californians are unfortunately experiencing today with Proposition 8 - which, by the way, I find absolutely appalling. I cannot believe people would actually strip these rights from humans... but I suppose that should be saved for another post...

Anyway, I really encourage everyone to see the film. Not only are the actors wonderful, you will be moved by the story line, as well as Penn's immaculate portrayal of the struggles, faith and persistence of Harvey Milk.  

*Below: Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in Milk, Above: an actual photo of Harvey Milk*

LGBT Acceptance in the Classroom

While reading David Levithan's novel, Boy Meets Boy, for this weeks Questioning The Text paper, there was a particular passage that I noticed that did not fit within the context of my paper that I wanted to address. In the second chapter, after Paul's kindergarden teacher made this comment on his report card, "Paul is definitely gay and has very good sense of self," she had this conversation with him: 

"Mrs. Benchly explained a little more to me - the whole boys-liking-girls thing. I can't say I understood. Mrs. Benchly asked me if I'd noticed that marriages were mostly made up of men and women... Now Mrs. Benchly was telling me something much bigger. Some sort of silly global conspiracy. 

'But that's not how I feel,' I protested. ...'How I feel is what's right...right?' 

'For you, yes,' Mrs. Benchly told me. 'What you feel is absolutely right for you. Always remember that.'"

As a future teacher, this passage really caught my eye. It forced me to think about the realities of the future and that I will probably be asked plenty of questions that are difficult to answer or explain. I especially like the last line of the passage in which Paul's teacher encourages him and shows him true acceptance in her classroom. 

While I do not consider myself to be homophobic, I do realize that I need to educate myself a lot more on many cultural issues, including LGBT, to be an accepting, respectful teacher who will offer my students every opportunity possible. As teachers, we must realize that we help shape the lives and mentalities of the students in our classrooms, whether we intend to or not. We must be more than teachers for every individual student - we must be mentors and a support system. 

To close, I offer a quote from the McLean article, Out of the Closet and Onto the Bookshelves, that accompanied this week's novel that really drives home the point of this post: "Heterosexual teachers need to deal with their own homophobia before they can help heterosexual students deal with theirs, and certainly before they can help build the self-esteem of their gay and lesbian students." (McLean, 195)

The Breaking Point

On Thursday, November 20, I attended an event put on by the RHA called "The Breaking Point." The focus of the event was on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. The audience was presented with a video and a panel of students and an adult representative of the MSU counseling center who discussed the issues in their lives with which they struggle the most and how they deal with the stress, anxiety and depression that are often times the repercussions of these issues. It allowed me to take a step back from my own stresses and realize that everyone on campus has issues that are difficult to deal with. 

I felt the concerns being addressed at this event directly related to our TE 448 class because the voices I heard were speaking out about feeling like an outcast because of their race, culture or sexual orientation. Students also spoke physical attributes they cannot control (i.e. clinical depression) that presented an obstacle in their lives that many people cannot or will not try to understand, much like some individuals we learned about in class when exploring various persons with special needs. 

I was constantly reminded of the sort of added pressures and stresses that the characters deal with because to their cultural backgrounds in the multicultural literature we have been reading in TE 448. Attending this event was one more step to help me open my mind to the realities of oppression and stereotyping in the world around me. I saw how people in the same room as me are forced to deal with obstacles and challenges similar to what we have been exploring. This means that there will absolutely be students in my classroom who experience the same things and I need to be equipped and ready to teach these students in an equal and accepting way. Providing a safe environment for every learner just might be one more step in preventing these issues from causing so much stress in the lives of young adult college students, like those that I saw at this event. 

LGBT Event: Gwen Araujo

On Friday, November 14, I went to an LGBT event about the terrifying murder of Gwen Araujo. I had never heard about this before, but what I learned was absolutely horrendous. To start the seminar, we watched two videos. The first was a personal account of the murder and funeral of Gwen, which was made by a transgender friend. It was very heartwrenching. I am really glad that we were shown such an intimate video first because I felt an immediate connection to Gwen and her family. The second video we watched was a recording of news coverage of the murder and investigation. This video was really informational. This was really beneficial so we did not have to ask these questions to the speaker. Also, there was a lifetime movie made about Gwen, which I really would like to watch. It is called "A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story."

For those reading this post that do not know Gwen's story, here is a brief recap: Gwen Araujo was a young transgender girl who was brutally murdered at 17 years old by four men in Newark, CA. At a party, they asked her if she was a boy or a girl, held her down, removed her clothes, and upon discovering that she was transgender, beat her and strangled her to death. (See links at end of blog for more information)

The speaker was Sylvia Guerrero, the mother of Gwen Araujo. Hearing her speak about the murder of her daughter was really emotional and unbelievable. She told us of her life after Gwen's death: how she has coped, that she has been telling her story all over the country and working so hard as an advocate for the LGBT community. She said that she has been changing laws in California to protect and support members of the LGBT community. I was amazed at the strength of this woman, being able to speak so openly about the unjust death of her daughter. 

Before attending this event, I did not really know much or understand what I did know about transgender people. Seeing the videos and listening to the speaker, though, I feel so much more knowledgeable and comfortable with people who identify themselves as transgender. I could see just through the video clips and by listening to Sylvia Guerrero that Gwen was a young girl just like me, living her life, expressing herself in her own personal way. There is no reason in the entire world that someone else should have even judged her, let alone taken her life into their own hands. I was appalled when listening to the accounts of Gwen's death and I felt inspired by this event to be more proactive in my community about issues involving diversity. I really would like to continue to attend events, meetings, rallies, etc. about LGBT and other issues that we have covered in this class. 

Informational links:

- www.transgenderlawcenter.org/gwen/

- www.gwenaraujo.blogspot.com

- www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/girl-me-gwen-araujo-story