maxmovinghands:

arfism:

thatdeafdude:

It’s hard to believe that I am the only person to hold BA and MA degrees. It’s also hard to believe that most of my Deaf and HOH friends in my Class don’t have at least AA or AS degrees. 

It pains me to see them live with benefits from the Government. It just…breaks my heart.

I really appreciate all the hard work you do on tumblr for everything Deaf-related. You’re quite inspirational in that way. So I find myself a little bit hesitant to bring this up as I definitely don’t want to offend at all, but reading this post by you left a bad taste in my mouth. Saying it breaks your heart… how is it any different from hearing people saying seeing people be deaf breaks their heart. Pity sucks, no matter what form.

I’m a Deaf high school drop-out and the last thing I want someone to feel when they find out about that is to think how it breaks their heart to hear that. Or for people to judge me based on that one thing and/or think it’s sad that I don’t even at least have my high school graduation diploma. School isn’t everything. It doesn’t define how successful, or happy, or content you are. I’ve worked extremely hard to get where I am, and I’m proud.

I definitely recognize the issue how a lot of d/Deaf people are raised in a way where they are not encouraged, stimulated, and motivated in school (and outside of school even) and that can lead to many problems later on in life. That’s definitely something that needs to be addressed for sure… and I imagine that’s probably what you’re thinking about while you wrote the post.

There are just so many circumstances to everything though. It’s best to not judge and understand that everyone has very different experiences and something that might work really well for you, might not work for them. I’ve even been on disability welfare at one point in my life and it was 100% necessary. I’m thankful I had access to that when I needed it… and I know people who depend on welfare and the last thing I’m going to do is feel bad for them. Seriously, who wants or needs that?

Again, I am grateful for all your hard work and am so glad you’re on tumblr! Hopefully you can understand where I’m coming from with my response.

Yeah I have to be careful about this, personally - I want to be a college professor, but not all of my students will be there for the same reasons. And I don’t want to lose touch with the world outside of school, because there’s way more to life than school. Even though I personally find meaning and solace and pleasure in school and want to inspire others to do so too, it’s not for everyone…

Also I was thinking about the issue of deaf children & education recently. One of the most central facets of a lot of deaf people’s childhoods is being told, “We’re not talking about anything important.” Does that do something that deeply, fundamentally discourages the child from inquiry in any form?

I don’t know. I mean, personally, I was that super-stubborn child who climbed up the bookshelf to grab a book when my parents said, “Use your words” instead of accepting my non-sign language gestures that said, “Please get me that book.” But if somebody has a personality that is more “go with the flow…” well, what does it do to them to constantly be told, “Don’t ask us questions”?

I mean, hearing people think that a conversation about paying for laundry is mundane - but that’s how children soak up knowledge, isn’t it? They listen to people talk about the world around them. Adults may think it’s boring, but to kids, it’s another piece in the puzzle that helps them make sense of the world…

I’ll stop rambling now because I kind of got off track. But yeah does anybody have thoughts about this?

Yeah it’s definitely an issue for sure. I grew up in a hearing family and was at times told that but I also was very fortunate to have a mom who was obsessed with signing everything, even though it was Signed English. She still was always telling my sister to sign when she talks and not leave me out. It was just mostly other people that would do that and I think I really missed out on a lot. My younger sister knew a WHOLE hell lot more about the world, how things worked, and so on, than I did as a kid. I think if I had the internet when I was a kid though, things would’ve been different to a point. I’d at least have access to all sorts of information via the internet. Back in the day, I just had books and boy did I ever read but that was all I really had.

Anyway, I do feel that if you’re told over and over that it’s not important or I’ll tell you later and so on. It’s almost like they’re saying you don’t matter enough for me to take the time to explain this to you. It has to affect you psychologically somehow. Especially if you’re told that over and over from freaking day one pretty much.