PARENTS OF THE DEAF

Parents are the most important players in the field of education.  The deaf are particularly grateful to those sociologically enlightened parents of Denmark and Sweden for leading the campaign to reform deaf education by adopting the Bilingual system [see appendixes (soon to follow)].  Research shows that the parents are the key people in all Early Childhood Education.  Education in the 0-6 level is very much a partnership between parents and teachers, and it is much more so if there is a deaf child in the family.  The importance of educating/training the parents for the task came through from several contributors at the National Forum.  This is a new departure in Ireland and we will have to seek the help of our ECE colleagues.

TEACHERS OF THE DEAF

Teachers of the deaf in the Bilingual system must be fluent in ISL [whether they are hearing or deaf].  Except for the few deaf assistant teachers, there are no teachers of the deaf in Ireland fluent in ISL.  Contributors at the National Forum on Early Childhood Education noted teachers inherent dislike of changes to their system of operation.  In Sweden and Denmark likewise, it was found that teachers were the last to accept the idea of changing from the oral to the Bilingual system.  We quite understand this in view of the enormous and lengthy amount of adjustments and reorganisation to be made to accommodate the Bilingual system.  For language fluency, teachers would have to copy those who have fluency in Irish by going to the Gaeltacht and become as near as possible to native speakers.  The present hearing teachers of the deaf would needs high commitment and total immersion in the deaf community for fluency in ISL.  Ideally, as, for example, in the case of teachers of foreign languages, a trainee teacher of the deaf, whether hearing or deaf, should come from the native culture, that is the Irish deaf community culture.

For those reasons, and also because deaf teachers have been found to have a special quality that has contributed to the success of the Bilingual system, we want deaf teachers for the critical 0-6 stage; the mainly language acquisition stage of the MSDP.  We are indebted to Bernadette Burns, the Principal of the Montessori Training College in Dun Laoghaire for taking on the task of training our first teachers, and if we get State co-operation and funding in time training will start this September.

The fact that entrants to the Primary trainee teachers colleges have the highest academic levels in Europe makes it particularly difficult for a deaf person to enter.  It is not surprising that no deaf person has reached that level.  However, with the possibility of ECE becoming a new profession and the State recognition of the Montessori Training College on the horizon we see an opportunity for deaf trainee teachers for the 0-6s opening up.  We expect it will take at least twenty years before deaf trainees will be academically eligible for entry to the Primary training colleges.  In the meantime, as Dept. of Education figures reveal that 40% of substitute Primary teachers are unqualified, a request for a waiver for deaf primary teachers, when the time comes, should not be an unreasonable request.  Hopefully, some eligible hearing trainees from the many families with a deaf member may take up the challenge of becoming an ISL teacher of the deaf.

All going well, with a partly trained deaf teacher [who would in the meantime continue her training] we would then be able to take our first toddlers--under the supervision of a qualified Montessori teacher- in September 1999.

 

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