A Puzzling Fall on Deaf Ears: School is In, Education is TBD?

“Deaf culture is so blunt. How did you navigate between hearing culture and deaf culture as a child.” What seemed like a casual comment to me was an aha moment for my friend. I have a former classmate who studied sign language to be an interpreter. He told me it was difficult for him to interpret because the culture is so blunt. It takes a lot of energy to sign so there isn’t much “small talk.” For instance, if you see someone and you “heard” they were sick, you  ease into the conversation versus deaf culture and  just ask, “are you sick.” And that is how that one question I shifted his perspective on history. 

Through the rest of lunch my friend oscillated back and forth between now and then in review of his childhood. After years of therapy, with my comment he realized, his parents weren’t mean or harsh, they were deaf. He was a hearing child in a deaf  environment. He’d never been aware of the nuance of culture. Our conversation did not change history, it gave a full picture, it provided context. This is simply adds culture and context to history.

Since the beginning of 2022, at least eight laws were passed restricting what teachers can say about gender, race, sexuality, American history, or inequality in K-12 schools and in some colleges/universities.

Which states passed laws restricting school curriculum?

Schools are back in session, but what is taught? In a country where the ancestors of African Americans were enslaved for over 400 years, how can race be banned from education? The US was under British rule for 176 years, less than half that time by comparison and yet, we celebrate, have holidays, historical tours of the founding fathers and an endless list of acknowledgements.  Oh, but this requires critical thinking and math and the US is #11 in math scores worldwide. For reference, this is not good. Various statistics on the percentage of US youth who aspire to be you tubes stars and influencers ranges from 30% to more than 50%.  Sound the alarm! Politically, focus on the improvement of math and science scores rather than co-ordinated efforts to suffocate civics and history. It’s not indoctrination, it’s education

This week, consider the James Baldwin quote from his essay, No Name in the Street.

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

Bans on book, falling test scores and restrictions on curriculums, Does this position US to be a Confederacy of Dunces?