What I’ve Learned at Gallaudet: Conservatives and Liberals Are Almost As Similar As They Are Different

Politics: Conservatives and Liberals Are Almost As Similar As They Are Different

Some things I learned at Gallaudet are the product of living in the nation’s political capitol, Washington, DC, and from attending a liberal-minded university. Before moving to DC, I had never been involved with politics. I knew we had three branches of government, two major political parties, and I knew that, at the time, George W. Bush was President, Dick Cheney was Vice President, and Condoleezza Rice was the Secretary of State. That was the extent of all my knowledge of politics. Seriously.

Thankfully, I had a friend in DC who was a political science major who was working for the White House. In order to keep up with his stories every weekend when we would get together for sight-seeing trips or for church, I had to learn more than who the top three political leaders were in the United States. I learned about several Senators and Congresspeople, who were some of the major foreign political leaders, who was on the White House staff, how politics is REALLY run, what policies were being considered or put into place, how elections are run, what each political party stood for, what each upcoming candidates stood for, and what these people who are running our government were really like in person.

It was a great opportunity for me. While I learned all of these facts, I was also learning something about myself: what I believed and stood for and what kind of persecution and oppression I was going to experience as a result of these beliefs.

Since I was learning all of this in DC, my first encounters with others of opposing (and similar) views obviously took place at GallaudetUniversity. I have said before that I am a Conservative Independent. Because of what I believe (both politically and about Jesus Christ), teachers, friends, and acquaintances have called me closed-minded, fanatic, discriminatory, egotistical, brain-washed, un-educated, and stupid.

“Why?” I ask. 

I have firm beliefs about who I am and what I stand for. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I believe what the Bible teaches is true and life-changing. My beliefs are my own. I make my own decisions. I have all kinds of friends of different races and walks of life who I love and care about, but who know that, because of what I believe in the Bible, I cannot approve of some of their actions. We spend time together and have fun anyway! I am not un-educated. I have a high school diploma, an Associate’s Degree, and I am working towards my BA Degree. I am not stupid. I had a 3.9 GPA in high school, a 3.89 GPA (4.0 in my major courses) in junior college, and I have a 3.96 GPA at my current four-year university. So why do people accuse me of and ridicule me for something that I am not?

What people do not realize is that most everyone is just like me. They are closed-minded fanatics who “don’t accept other’s ideas or points of view” and they have their own firm beliefs. They may not believe the same things I do and they may have a different view on how to handle an issue, but just as I firmly believe what I believe, so do liberals and moderates believe what they believe. They are not going to easily change their minds about what they are passionate about and believe is true and neither am I. They say that I do not accept their point of view and that I am discriminating against others because of it. Just look at what they are saying! Neither are they accepting my point of view. Does that mean that they are discriminating against me?

I think that we have lost sight of the fact that we live in a free country–a democracy–where we can hold any point of view and not be persecuted for it by others or by our government. We are all as similar as we are different. We all have a faith and certain beliefs that we hold dear. It just may not be the same as someone else’s. You may be a Christian, an Atheist, an Agnostic, a Muslim, a Hindu, or from any other religion. You may be democratic, republican, independent, green, constitutionalist, libertarian, or of any other political party.  We can still respect each other no matter what.

Now, respecting one another and compromising are two different things. You can still keep your beliefs and faith without disrespecting someone else and compromising yourself. For example, I wrote in a History paper that Christians (and consequently, myself) believe that there is one way to heaven and that way is through Jesus Christ. My professor then told me that, by saying that, I was being egotistical. He said that there is no such thing as absolutes and I had no right to say that there is one way to heaven.

I almost wanted to ask him if he was absolutely sure about that.

Instead, I told him that for me to say that I did not believe that Jesus was the only way, I would be denying a foundational belief of mine and could not be a Follower of Jesus Christ as a result. Why would anyone tell me to deny my faith and never say that Jesus is the only way? Would he have told a Muslim that Allah and Muhammad could not be the only way?  Would he have said something similar to someone of another religion? No, I do not believe that he would have. 

I know that I would never tell a person to deny what they believe. I may try to show a person the love of Christ. I may try to convince them that their only Savior is Jesus Christ. However, it is up to that person (not me) to either continue believing what they believe or to allow the Holy Spirit to change their lives. Personally, I believe that people of other faiths are lost. I disagree with them on what is true because my standard for truth is the Bible. But, in the same way, they think that I am just as lost as I believe that they are! I may try to “convert” them out of love and fear for what I believe will happen to them if they do not trust Jesus as their only Savior, but they are going to try just as hard to “convert” me!

Am I wrong for doing the same thing as everyone else? My teacher tried to convert me into believing that there are no absolutes. Does this mean that others can try to convert each other (and me) and use arguments from their perspectives and beliefs, but I cannot? It is just something to think about.

We are all more similar than we are different. We just go around magnifying and celebrating our differences and uniqueness when we should be focusing on what makes us the most alike, and consequently, what brings us together. We all have a void inside of us that we need and try to fill. Some turn to God to fill their hearts and lives, others try to fill their lives with good works, money, power, Buddha, Muhammad, or any other number of entities and things.

As a result, people make decisions and take stances on political agendas that support their beliefs and treasures. So, while we all have differing political views and religious beliefs, we should focus on the fact that we all have political views and religious beliefs period. It does not matter that they are different. We can hold onto our beliefs and still respect each other. Conservative or Liberal, it does not matter. We are almost as similar as we are different and that is all that matters.

What I’ve Learned at Gallaudet: Language Emergence

Some Questions on Language Emergence: How did Sign Languages Originate?

In the ASL 403: Communication in Gestures course I took under Dr. Mike Kemp, I had the opportunity to learn about language emergence. I had never studied the topic before and, through our Discussion Board conversations with Dr. Kemp and the other students, I was able to discover a whole new controversial realm of language that I had no idea existed.

I suppose that language is one of the many everyday things that we take for granted. I mean, how many times have you been talking then suddenly stopped and thought, “Wow, I am using language. I have the God-given ability to communicate my thoughts and ideas to others. How am I able to do that?” 

Let’s just go ahead and say “never.”

I had never thought about what communication is or how we do it. However, it is fascinating when you start to think about it.

Being a Christian, I believe in subjecting science to the Bible instead of subjecting the Bible to science because, no matter how smart we think we are or how much much research we do, we always can make mistakes and we later find out that we were wrong and the Bible was right all along. I am telling you this ahead of time so that you understand how I am going to lead this discussion. If you do not like reading things from a Biblical worldview, then please do not feel like you have to subject yourself to reading this. However, if you are open to asking questions and thinking of language in a whole new way by analyzing some of these ideas and thoughts on your own, then read on!

Dr. Kemp said that, in our Gestures class, ”we [were] observing a ‘new language’ emerging from our participation.” That got me to thinking. Can people create their own language? I had always believed that language is God-created. I still believe that. But now I had to think about how language develops, emerges, changes, is learned, and how it is passed on from generation to generation. I know that God gives us the innateability to acquire language and use language. It is how we communicate. Without it, we could not have relationships witheach other, or more importantly, with God.

What made this subject more difficult to tackle, however, was that I already knew how spoken language(s) originated, but I knew nothing about how sign languages are created. So, to figure out how sign language(s) emerge, I had to go back to the beginning–the very beginning.

I knew that, in the beginning of time, there was one common (spoken) language. I was not sure how sign language fit into that, but I knew that there had to be Deaf people around during that time, so I assumed that there was one sign language as well. The Bible says in Genesis 11:1, “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.”

This verse is supported by biological, Biblical, and linguistic evidence. Biologically speaking, humans emerged from one location: somewhere around the Ethiopia/northern Africa region. Scientists say that the oldest human fossils were found in Ethiopia. They say that these fossils support DNA and molecular evidence. In my Biology class’ textbook, I read that studies of mitochondrial DNA (maternally inherited) show that ”all living humans inherited their mitochondrial DNA from a common ancestral woman” (pg. 405, Biology: Concepts and Connections, 5th Ed., Campbell, Reece, Taylor, and Simon, 2008). Tracing the mutations of the Y Chromosome (paternally inherited) and comparing them from “males of various geographic regions, researchers were able to infer divergence from a common African ancestor” (pg. 405, Biology: Concepts and Connections, 5th Ed., 2008).

I would agree withscientists on the point that mitochondrial DNA came from one woman and that the Y Chromosome points to one common ancestor. I believe those ancestors to be Adam and Eve. The only thing that I disagree with is that I think they may be a few miles off of the exact starting place.  The Bible pinpoints it as being “a garden in the east, in Eden” (Gen. 2:8) where “A river…flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The…Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah….The Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The…Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the…Euphrates” (Gen. 2:10-14). Of course, no one died in the Garden of Eden because Adam and Eve were kicked out after they ate the fruit, so there would not be any “oldest human fossils” there, which still does not disprove what the Bible says.

Linguistically speaking, I learned in Linguistics 263 taught by Dr. Susan Mather, that languages begin with complex rules and syntax and, as time passes, that languages become more simple (or efficient may be a better word). This makes sense if you believe that God created language (since He is a Higher Being, He can create complex languages out of nothing). Then, over time, we would simplify the language (since that’s a trademark of a healthy language–one that is constantly changing and becoming more efficient over time). From an evolutionary perspective however, this is contrary and detrimental to the idea of the cave-man-to-intelligent-man theory since Evolutionists believe that we started out with grunts and groans and slowly created a more complex language.

All of these studies show that language originated from one place, one time, and one couple–one man and one woman. It would make sense to assume that two people would only need one language to communicate with one another. They would have passed this one language to their children and so on. There would have been no need for other languages (though there could have been other dialects of the same language, but they would have been able to understand each other anyways). With that in mind, I came to the part where this one language multiplied into many languages.

I also know that at the Tower of Babel, “the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth (Genesis 11:9).” At this point, God created several/many different languages and their complexity. The people could not have been working on the Tower of Babel and then suddenly, at the same time, created their own languages. God did it. Then, not only did He create different languages and cause the people to be unable to communicate with each other, but He also “scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” If there were not dialects before this point, there would be now. As people moved to distant regions, they would encounter different climates and environments, which would call for more specialized vocabulary, making their languages more unique, differentiated, and unintelligible to others of other dialects and languages.

Now, I am getting to the part that has left me perplexed. Since the Bible does not mention sign language, I am left to wonder whether God confused the languages of the Deaf people, too. I am sure that He did. However, even if God did create different signed languages to prevent the Deaf people from working together to build the Tower, just as He had done with the hearing people and their spoken language, then I am faced with another issue.

After the Tower of Babel, people moved to other parts of the world instead of congregating in one common location. This would have possibly isolated some Deaf people, who, if they had no Deaf children to pass on their language, would have been the first and last to use such a God-given, complex language. Then, suppose a few generations later, another Deaf child is born in that community and there are no other Deaf people to teach him/her sign language. How will that child communicate? Could they ever develop their own communication system or language to use to interact with those around them?

That was and is my dilemma. In my Communication in Gestures course, I was beginning to see that, out of need and through the community of our classmates and professor, we were slowly developing a communication system that may very well have evolved into a language all its own just as this lone Deafchild may have been able develop a communication system and possibly a language with his/her family and neighbors. One of the major hindrancesI have with believing that a complex sign language (or spoken language for that matter) can be created by humans alone is that, for example, in my class, everyone already knew at least two languages (ASL and English) and some even knew a third and fourth language (Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese Sign Language, and Mandarin Chinese were some of them).

Could a person with no linguistic background create a language complete with complex grammar and syntax? We had a starting place. We adopted a grammar similar to ASL and English. We used many of the same classifiers as is in ASL. If we did not already have that lexicon (limited and defined constraints for handshapesand movements, etc. that were acceptable within our community) to begin with, could we have still gestured with each other to the point of creating a language?

Studies show that babies are born with the capacity to learn language. Obviously, humans are also born with a need to communicate. However, that does not mean that humans can create language out of that need. This just shows that we can learn and use whatever language we are exposed to.

Before this class, I thought a man-made language was impossible. I do still believe that God created all spoken languages. But the Bible never mentions sign language, so I am left to contemplate whether it is truly possible for us to develop language within our small community apart from God’s work. Even if it is possible, it would not be completely apart from God’s handiwork because God created our minds to be able to learn language and use it.

 *In honor of the late Dr. Mike Kemp*

What I’ve Learned at Gallaudet: Mime and Gesture Vs. Sign

Mime and Gesture Verses Sign

I learned about the differences between mime, gesture, and sign in my ASL 403: Communication in Gestures course taught by Dr. Mike Kemp. It was quite possibly the best class I have had at Gallaudet. Dr. Kemp had a unique way of teaching. One test. One paper. Complete immersion.

I learned things in his class that I do not think that I would have ever learned in any other course. If I had been in any other class, I would have read about the subject, written about the subject, and discussed the subject, but I would never have learned the subject as well as I did without those things.

Dr. Kemp had three rules in his classroom, no mouthing, no signing, and no fingerspelling. Everything had to be gestured or, as a last resort, written on the marker board with as few words as possible. We started out with easy gestures: how to introduce ourselves, describe people and things, and give simple directions. Then, we moved on to harder, more complex gestures where we discussed abstract ideas, politics, religion, and many other topics without ever using a single sign.

It is not as easy as it seems, but it is well worth learning. I encourage anyone learning ASL to take a Visual Gestural Communication course. It helps you to feel more comfortable moving your face and body and helps you to learn how to acquire new vocabulary through contextualization. It also helps you to learn how to adapt to those you meet who do not use the same signs or sign language that you do.

One day, he asked us about mime and gesture. How were they different? None of us really knew, so he proceeded to show us. He never lectured on the subject or gave us a definition. He simply gave us an example. This example has stuck with me and helped me better understand what mime, gesture, and sign really are and how and when they should be used.

He made up a story about a flat tire and a man changing it on the side of the road. For the first example, he moved around the room, stepping to the side as he got out of the car, walking around the length of the invisible car to the trunk, putting his arms around the invisible spare, and kneeling down to remove the old tire. Everything was life-sized. The size of objects and his actions were all done as though he was actually changing a flat–you could have inserted a real car there and he would have actually changed a tire.

For his second example, he stood in one place. All he did was move his hands and body just enough to give us the picture of him changing a tire. He never used any signs. He only used classifier-like handshapes to show parts of the car and his actions. Everything was on a smaller scale. No real car could have been inserted there. This type of rendition was more like storytelling while the previous example had been more along the lines of an actor acting without props.

Then, he gestured, “The first example is mime. The second example is gesture.”

It made sense. It clicked. I finally realized how they were all different.

Mime is like acting. Everything is life-sized and real-world. Anyone can understand it. You can use mime for entertainment purposes or if gesturing is not enough to get your point across. You can walk around the room or stage. You can kneel, jump, walk, sit, or do any other action because it is just like acting. You can also use some props if you want.

Gesture is like storytelling. It does not use any signs from a specific language, so most anyone can understand it. It brings less attention to yourself if you are trying to communicate with someone who does not know ASL and it comes in handy for events where people from different countries will be present together. It is more time efficient than mime is. You stand in one place and your hand and body movements are “smaller.” You use classifiers (handshapes that resemble how objects look) instead of acting. You do not use props. It is the closest communication form to sign language.

Sign Language uses some of the same rules as gesture. You typically stand in one place and almost nothing is referred to in life-size, real-world ways. It will have more abstract signs than gesture and not everyone will understand it–it will only be understood by its own community. It will have a complete and complex grammar. It can introduce new vocabulary and discuss difficult topics more easily because it is even more time efficient than gesture is. Signs can have more than one meaning whereas most gestures have only one meaning. Sign Language also changes over time as people use or don’t use certain signs.

This was probably the most fascinating thing that I learned in Dr. Kemp’s class. I can now see mime, gesture, and sign and know the difference. He taught me that and it has stuck with me. I will never forget the valuable lessons he gave us in his Gestures in Communication class.

*In honor of the late Dr. Mike Kemp*

What I’ve Learned at Gallaudet: Crab Theory

Crab Theory

This is an interesting topic. Being a hearing person though, I will not get into it with too much detail. Instead, I will let you read a blog by one of my favorite authors, Christopher Jon Heuer.

In summary, the crab theory is based on the metaphor of what happens when you put several crabs together in a bucket. The crabs crawl over each other, trying to get out of the bucket, and in the process, none of them escape because they keep pulling each other back down.

This is something that many communities struggle with, including the Deaf community. For a long time, Deafpeople have provided each other with a network of support and mutual understanding and commitment. They still do. However, back when it was more difficult for Deaf people to become successful due to discrimination, an invisible standard–a status quo–was established. Anyone who then stepped outside of the status quo immediately became a product of  ”the crab theory.”

So, for example, if someone decided that they wanted to work somewhere other than in printing or for the post office, they were then labeled “HEARING-MINDED.” HEARING-MINDED is a sign that means “think like a person who is not like us.” That is how the crab theory goes.

So, with this in mind, read Heuer’s blog here to get a better idea of what the crab theory is and how we can overcome it: http://www.deafdc.com/blog/chris-heuer/2007-05-09/overcoming-crab-theory/  (just as a heads up for those of you who are more literally-minded, he is not being serious when he is giving these tips. These “maneuvers” are generalizations made about the Deaf community that are meant to be funny). Enjoy!

What I’ve Learned at Gallaudet: Audism

I know that I have talked about this term before in my writings. It is becoming a more and more popular subject. I recommend using caution though when getting into issues of discrimination. Discrimination is a two-way street, but oftentimes, you will find that fewer and fewer people are believing in the existence of reverse discrimination.

That warning out of the way, here is a simple definition of audism:

Audism is the act of someone discriminating based on a person’s hearing status.

Think about it. This could go either way. A hearing person can discriminate against a Deaf person because they are deaf and a Deaf person can discriminate against a hearing person because they can hear.

All discrimination is bad. Discriminating because of a person’s hearing status is no different. However, you will find that most people only look at this definition one way. I encourage you not to do that. I encourage you to view each other as equals. We are all made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). We are all made alike. Learn from each other: learn about other languages, cultures, and communities. Deaf people and hearing people alike have a lot to offer one another. Do not let audism get in the way of that.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” Genesis 1:27-28, NIV

What I’ve Learned at Gallaudet: “deaf” Verses “Deaf”

For my second series of blogs, I want to share some of the things I have learned while attending Gallaudet University.

So, what have I learned at Gallaudet?

Well, I have learned many things, so to narrow such a broad topic, I want to focus on the things that I have learned that I would have never learned anywhere else–things that have enlightened my views about the world, culture, and identity, especially concerning the Deaf community. So, here goes!

“d”eaf Verses “D”eaf

Okay, so this one I learned both at Gallaudet and from reading books about Deaf Culture, but it is nevertheless an important concept to grasp. I do not want to get into the whole who-is-”D”eaf-and-who-is-”d”eaf controversy, but I do want to give you a general idea of what these two terms mean.

To begin with, anyone can be “d”eaf: your grandmother, a neighbor, a person who signs, a person who does not sign, Helen Keller, Thomas Edison, and Bill Clinton. These people are characterized as being deaf because they have a hearing loss. They may or may not have a hearing aid or cochlear implant and they may or may not sign, fingerspell, or lipread. They do not have their own culture, language, or community based on their hearing loss. In most cases, these people see themselves as handicapped and wish that they were hearing (able to hear) and so they try to “fix” themselves with technology.

Being “D”eaf is different. “Deaf” means that someone is a specific kind of person with a hearing loss. They use sign language (ASL in the United States) as their primary means of communication, they are actively involved with the Deaf community, they pass on their native language to others, they participate in Deaf culture, and they are proud of their deafness. They do not see  themselves as handicapped or disabled, and in most cases, they do not wish to be hearing (though some might just so that they can avoid all the discrimmination they get sometimes).

They have no desire to be “fixed” though, I believe, that there is more of a movement of acceptance for those who do want a hearing aid or CI if it benefits them somewhat. Notice that I said “benefit.” Hearing aids and cochlear implants continue to be a sensitive issue because they are seen as both beneficial (not corrective) and also as an attempt to “fix” something that is not broken.

So, without getting into too much controversy, that is the difference between “deaf” and “Deaf.” And, that is what I’ve learned at Gallaudet.

I just wanted to tune you guys in for a halftime report. I cannot believe that its July already. It is only a month away before I go back to Gallaudet early to start working again and begin another academic year. So far, the summer is treating me wonderfully. I visited Alaska and Colorado, but guess what? I’m back in Alaska. It’s lovely here and visiting for two weeks was a big mistake, Alaska is HUGE and you’ll need a month or more to enjoy Alaska. The only thing I am still trying to integrate on Alaskan lifestyle is sleeping soundly at nights. Their sun schedule are way different than the schedule we have here! Their sun goes up until like 3 am! Other than this, it’s all good in Alaska! Lately I’ve been visiting places and places, this weekend I’ll camp out in Homer for the Forth of July!

 

On July 7^th, I’ll go back home and pack for Indiana & New York. I plan to visit my family in Indiana and go straight to New York for Camp Mark Seven. After the camp, I’ll go straight to District of Columbia. This summer is very different for me, often I stay in home a lot and spend a lot of time with my family. But this time the summer is so just busy and it cuts down the time I have with my family. It really helps me see how important my family is to me, because often I would wander in those reflecting moment while being away from home; I would think how much I miss the serenity I have around home. The family I have are people who allows me to be completely who I want to be, where I feel it is okay to be a temporary couch potato! I miss the serenity, the calmness, and the joy of being home.

 

Anyways, here are some pictures!

1) The view of Denali which is 6 hours away from where I took the picture! 

2) I held the gun and it was heavy, but nope- I don’t hunt. 

3) This is something I enjoy daily at Alaska- COFFEE!

4) Democracy isn’t something you see too often in Alaska since their gov. is Palin. 

5) Me posing in front of The Sleeping Lady Mountain.

Walking Class

Today was the last day of my walking class. I needed it to get my phys ed credit; I transferred from a school that used half credits for PE, and Gallaudet uses whole credits. So I took walking as a summer class; it met 2 hours/day, 5 days/week, for three weeks.

I picked walking because it was something I knew I could do. I’ve been walking almost my whole life, so I wouldn’t need to learn anything new for this class! I’m also really out of shape, so walking would be something I could do without overtaxing my body. Most of the time in class was spent walking, of course, but most days the teacher also told us a little bit about walking techniques and fitness. Fitness was emphasized throughout the three weeks of the course; we learned about safe exercising, what exercise can do for your body, and so forth. We also had our body composition tested – mine confirmed what I already knew: I am extremely overweight, have virtually no muscle tone, and am not flexible at all. Nothing was a big surprise, but it is kind of disappointing.

As I mentioned, we did a lot of walking for class. We walked over 30 minutes every day, and most days it was more like 45 minutes or an hour. We walked around the Gallaudet “oval” and also around MSSD, and we took field trips to the National Arboretum and the Mall downtown. We learned to use walking sticks, which I thought were pretty cool, but it’s hard to have a conversation with your partner or use your pager when you’ve got sticks in both hands.

The class was basically great, but one thing did bother me. Today, after I finished the final exam, the teacher said he wanted to talk to me. He told me he had enjoyed having me in class and he hoped I’d keep walking. Then he told me about his adult daughter, who used to be very overweight and is now very skinny; he said she took all the weight off in 8 months using diet and exercise. I smiled and nodded when he told me, but inside I was thinking “hey, you’re calling me fat!” Come on, there is not a single fat person alive who doesn’t know they’re fat and doesn’t know exactly how to fix it. Trust me, every fat person is very aware of their weight. What confused me even more, though, was that he was telling me this after he spent three weeks emphasizing fitness! Over the past year or so, I’ve been trying to accept that losing weight is nice, but being physically fit is what’s really important – looking good is awesome, but being healthy is better! So to hear about his daughter kind of turned me off a little…I know he meant well, of course, but it was just kind of odd for that to be the last thing he said.

Anyway, he says our grades will be posted by Monday. I think I’ll get an A, because I showed up for every class (the other two people missed two classes each) and I did well on the tests and my walking. But even more important than the A is that I developed my muscles such that long walks don’t hurt anymore!

Spring Semester 2009: The Final Edit

 

Eagle River, AK

 

 

Greetings from the lovely Alaska! I am enjoying my little adventure at Eagle River and I am sad to say that it will end this Friday. Anyways, I cannot believe that the semester is over, I know that I’ve been inching closer to the ending. But it is finished. I remembered that I had a severe case of sophomore blues at the beginning of my epoch. There is something I would like to share about Gallaudet University. I looked back on how my courses were and the benefits of General Studies Requirements course, which consists two professors teaching an integrated course.

 

When I begun my freshmen year and I learned that our class will be the first to explore the new curriculum which has GSR courses in it. I didn’t understand what GSR was for until I got my schedule. For example, First Year Seminar is GSR 101. When you register for classes you’ll see the headline to be “GSR 101” and the topic will tell you what this GSR course will cover. I have taken seven GSR courses and I have had a quite interesting experience.

The pros of having an integrated teaching environment is that you do really get most out of the course itself. Because you have two different professors who have undergo an experience of a lifetime where they fully invest in their doctrine. You hold an option of talking to one of them, in certain situations. One time I recall myself being very uncomfortable about my paper’s thesis. I decided it was best for me to ask one of my professors for an opinion because I am comfortable with her. You will also be able to get am insight of your professors’ strengths and weakness where you will become familiar with situation tactics they use. Once there was a scramble between an enraged student and one of the professor. The professor who was dealing with the angry student couldn’t understand “fast” American Sign Language. The other professor who was also hearing but is a CODA herself quietly interpreted what the angry student was saying. It was wonderful watching an actual integrated team work in action.

The concept of having two professors can be difficult because when they disagree on something, the classroom environment can become awkward. Some of the professors have different learning outcomes which makes it much more frustrating for us. Some of the professors bring up an issue which other professor strongly disagrees on, which becomes a squabble inside the classroom. Sometimes the professors do not communicate with each other where the lesson plan is lost; it can be frustrating for students because it is a waste of time. One of the few guarantees about having a GSR course is that you will get a very strict professor and a sweet one. I remember my GSR 101 professors very clearly: one was a mother-like and another was just some kind of crazy aunt! The motherly one was all about making sure that we got our life under the table. However the crazy aunt really kicked our rear end with tons of academic workload.

Overall I am glad that I enrolled Gallaudet in time they invested in the GSR courses. I feel that I do get the most out of those courses and it is not like I have this attitude where I groan and say, “I have to take this course!” I do not think that GSR course needs a major facelift but they do need to polish up some area.

 

Ok, I need to go back to where I was in Alaska!

 

Till the next time I blog,

 

-C

Time to Conclude Year One

It’s all coming to a wrap and in ways that seem a blur each time I remind myself of where I was at with my life a year ago.

I am sitting at my desk at the moment, my Benson Hall dorm room with bare naked walls and just my bags on the floor with things for summer break, and I’m putting together this final blog for my first year at Gallaudet.  I can’t say I have one single regret for how it has all come together and how it has all played out.  I’m actually really, really satisfied with the decision I made to come here.  I have begun to draft, design, decorate, and don my life once again, and that is the outcome I feel one is given the opportunity to create when they find their identity removed from being in jeopardy of being lost.  I could feel that happening back in Arizona.  I could sense that I no longer knew who I was or where I was going; “tomorrow” became the most intimidating concept when it should be the most wonderful concern.  And the “present” had become something that felt more like a curse than a gift.  No one should allow themselves to live in a way that robs them of their gusto for living life.  When a life reaches that point it should be the call for action, and that is what I did in my case.  And now I’m getting ready for a summer break again at 27 years old.  This is awesome!  I have to give tremendous thanks to my Vocational Rehabilitation counselor, Sharon Schira-Layton, back in Arizona because after I transferred from my previous VR counselor (I qualified for VR support when I lost my hearing in the right ear at age 22) Sharon unselfishly took me under her wing to help provide me the tools I needed.  She is Deaf and a former graduate of Gallaudet so it was a good thing she was available to me when I lost my hearing.  She found me a Deaf ASL tutor after I indicated that I thought it would be good for me to learn the language.  Then she put the idea on the table for coming to Gallaudet, like I mentioned in a previous blog.  Had she not been so proactive and slightly aggressive in aiding me to act and get on with my life as a deafened person I am not sure I would be where I am right now.

The experiences out here have allowed me to see more clearly where I fit in the grand picture of things and to assert my presence.  Every day I am able to have conversations with people in which I’m not struggling to hear them and I can’t say enough for how incredibly relieving that is when your past involves sooo much expended energy to communicate this way.  After a while it led to a reaction on my part of backing off from conversations only because of how exhausted they made me.  Albeit my eyes were weary in the beginning when ASL assaulted them with its blur of hand and body movements but with enough time I grew to tolerate and then enjoy the language.  Making the choice to attend a university where a more user-friendly language for a person without reliable hearing is the common way of communicating is allowing me to turn my attention to other things rather than the constant berating concern “how am I going to talk with that person?”, etc.  It all has me excited for this next Fall semester when I already can see the package of things I want to be involved with.  Feels like I really started to gain my momentum here at around the time of the First Year Study Tour to Costa Rica over the Spring Break.  Sometimes things just happen when you are ready and you really don’t have much control over that.  Of course, you can force your way into and through things, and I have extensive experience in trying that.  But I think I’ve found that approach tends to only leave you feeling like you are repeatedly pushing against the wall of an inflated rubber jumping castle not actually getting anywhere in the process.  I’m planning to work with Green Gallaudet next Fall, as well as, write for a department on campus, work as an English and Biology tutor at TIP, put together a couple community service projects, and possibly play either or both soccer and baseball.  And my efforts so far garnered me some end of the semester gifts that are each completely unexpected:  a $25 gift certificate to the Bison Bookstore (perfect to use tomorrow to pick up things for the road trip West), a Purple Communications Netbook (their alpha phase mini notebook with their P3 technology that Honor’s Program and other well achieved students were referred to receive, and a Canon digital camera to use for when I continue to write for GBlog next Fall and can then add photos to support the stories.  Who’d have thought it all work out like this?!  Yet the best part of it all is the friends and contacts I have made since July 2008.  They all have me looking forward to another couple years here and getting to know a lot of people while learning a language from them and also stacking up those life experiences.

Let the summer begin!