Challenges and Changes in Deaf Education

“Stop Global Warming!,” “Water Discovered on Mars!,” “Is Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber Dating Again?,” these and similar headlines are very common for us to see in the news but there is a particular topic I want to talk about that you do not normally, that is Deaf education. For years the deaf have been oppressed by those that are hearing until recently, within the last twenty years, they have been able to find their voice to speak about education, work, medical, and other concerns for the deaf. One of the biggest issues regarding the Deaf is the education and the mandatory use of oralism- the theory, practice, or advocacy of education for the deaf chiefly or exclusively through lipreading, training in speech production, and training of residual hearing (Dictionary.com). Basically,oralism is teaching lipreading and speaking with your voice. Not only can using oralism inhibit the student in a classroom setting by taking away from class time in order to attend speech class, it also can create a miscommunication between a deaf student and a hearing teacher, parent, or other student. Deaf students should not be forced by school

Within the United States, there are roughly sixty-one deaf schools in with an estimate of only a couple hundred students attending each school. Three-fourths of the Deaf population are sent through mainstream schools where they are working alongside other hearing students. During class days, many Deaf students are sent to an oralism class or an interpretation class. Not only does this disrupt the student’s studies but also it puts the student behind because they miss class time every time they have to attend oralism class. If this class is removed from the school system, I believe this will assist the Deaf in being able to focus more on their school work instead of trying to perform oral