Single Story Assignment: Discovering the Stories of Diverse Learners

Nora Ellison
2/25/14


Show people as one thing over and over again and that is what they become,
Chimamanda Adichie explained in her Tedtalk entitled The Danger of a Single Story.
If someone is portrayed or described with one specific attribute, we run the risk of
limiting them to that one attribute. The movie The Sound and the Fury is about a little
girl named Heather Artinian who is deaf. But that one descriptive work, deaf, should not
overshadow all her other amazing attributes; She is adorable, bright, friendly, and
lovable. The Sound and the Fury explores the complex world of a child who cannot
hear and the hard decision of whether or not to give her cochlear implants. The movie
shows the struggles of a deaf child and her family, but it also shows that Heather is so
much more than her disability.
Although cognizant of the hardships that come with being deaf, I do not think that
I thought about all the difficulties that continuously occur for in a deaf persons life in a
world full of non-signers. Something as simple as communicating with someone in a
grocery store to ask where the baby formula is located can become a herculean feat. For
deaf people, its like constantly being in a foreign country.
It seems as though the only place for a deaf person to take refuge is amongst
his/her deaf community. The movie depicted the tremendous amount of deaf pride and
sense of belonging in the deaf world. One scene in the movie showed a group of
Heathers parents friends socializing at an exclusive farmers market for their deaf
community. Heathers mother and father told them that they were considering getting
Heather cochlear implants. Their deaf friends were in an uproar. They couldn't
understand why they wanted Heather to hear, and were concerned about Heather not
fitting in in any world; not the hearing world and not the deaf world. If they chose to get
Heather implants, she would be in another even more marginalized group of those with
cochlear implants.
I didn't realize that so many deaf people like Heathers father and his deaf friends
do not view deafness as a disability. He remarks several times throughout the movie that
he is happy to be deaf and he wouldnt give it up. I find it remarkable that a deaf person
would prefer to be deaf than to hear.
The movie also reminded me of a false assumption I made as a kid, that since deaf
people talked funny they must be stupid. As an adult I understand how utterly wrong this
assumption is, but I think many children are prone to jump to the same conclusion. This
assumption could affect a deaf childs social experiences at school. Therefore, teachers
should educate their students from an early age to prevent this misunderstanding.
Teachers must also be aware that hearing students may be hesitant to interact with
deaf students because of the difficulties presented when communicating. Teachers should
help to facilitate communication between deaf and hearing students until they can
become comfortable with one another.
I think fostering positive relationships between hearing and non-hearing students
would be the most challenging part of teaching deaf children in a mainstream classroom.
In order to achieve this goal I would read my students books about deaf culture. I would
also give my students the opportunity to ask a deaf adult and translator questions about
his/her life as a deaf person. I think both experiences will educate children about deaf
people as a culture rather than a disability.
Furthermore, I would put up sign language in my classroom in a visible place and
encourage the other children to learn sign language. (However, I would not make it
mandatory.) This will not only help the deaf child socialize with hearing children, but it
will teach the hearing children empathy, patience, and the importance of accommodating
others when possible.
Despite all these efforts on the part of the teacher, there are numerous challenges
in a school setting at any given grade level for a deaf child. For example, reading lips
when two people are talking at a time and class participation if he/she cannot speak well.
For a child with cochlear implants the challenges are similar but a little different. A child
with a cochlear implant would need to sit near the teacher so they could hear better, the
teacher would have to speak more loudly than usual, and try to keep the noise level in the
classroom down.
In The Sound and Fury a teacher asked the students if they wanted to feel the
other students cochlear implant. This experience created a more comfortable
environment for the deaf child in which his peers understood his condition and were
eager to learn about it and accept her.
Although it is the teachers job to aid the deaf student as much as possible, the
methods used at school need to be discussed with the students parents. Heathers parents
did not like that many children with cochlear implants did not know how to sign. Some
parents may want their kids to use speech as little as possible and be strong signers and
other parents may want their kids to try and speak as much as possible at school to
become strong speakers. If this is not discussed it may be a potential point of contention
between parents and teachers.
There are specific challenges for deafs in the Jewish community. For example, a
bar/ bat mitzvah poses challenges for a deaf child, because many aspects of the ceremony
requires high level speaking. A deaf child most likely would not be able to get an aliyah,
read from the Torah, or give a speech at his/her Bat Mitzvah. A deaf child would
probably never have the privilege of reading from the Torah in a shul setting.
Furthermore, there are also many opinions in halacha that a deaf person can not
perform certain acts because they are deaf, like blowing the shofar. I think deaf Jewish
children need to be constantly reminded by their parents and educators that although they
can not participate in parts of Jewish ceremonial life, they are nonetheless just as special
and important in G-ds eyes.
Summer camp could also pose an issue for a child who cannot hear. I think sleep
away camps would be reluctant to admit a non-hearing child, because they would not feel
equipped to deal with the challenges that might arise.
Another challenge that a deaf child, or any person with a disability in the Jewish
community is stigmatization when dating. Those who date through shidduchim are not
meeting potential mates organically and they are judged by a resume rather than their
personality at first. Therefore, people may be even more reluctant to date someone who is
deaf or has any other disability then if they had met by chance. If they met organically,
then they are more likely to be judged based upon their personality rather than their
disability. Those with disabilities should be afforded a chance in the realm of
shidduchim, and their resumes should not be tossed aside by judgmental mothers
searching for a spouse for their child.
Golos., D, Moses., A, and Wolbers., K, examined childrens books that depicted
deaf characters. They wanted to know how are deaf people depicted; Are they depicted as
a culture or a disability? This article seemed particularly interesting to me because the
movie exposed me to the richness and pride that exists within Deaf culture. In this article,
researchers examine how society views the Deaf. This is an important study because it
can have far reaching consequences. It can influence deaf childrens perception of
themselves and form hearing childrens perception of deaf children.
Golos et al. discovered that out of 20 childrens books depicting deaf characters
seventeen of them depicted them as disabled rather than portraying deaf culture. Deaf
characters were depicted in a dangerous situation, unable to communicate, scared, or
wearing hearing aids. These children books send the message to the kids that deaf people
are handicaps prone to a disadvantaged life marked by isolation. Portraying the deaf
characters with some kind of hearing aide, suggests that deafness is a disability that needs
to be fixed. These books portray the deaf as people lacking something not as people with
a rich culture to offer. I think these books would enrage someone like Heathers father
and mother who believe that the deaf culture is extremely valuable and deafness is not a
disability.
Another article discussed the challenges that deaf children face with identifying
emotions. Studies suggest that deaf children have difficulty identifying emotions. I
thought that this study was interesting, because this was not addressed in the movie. The
movie depicted the hardships inherent in communicating, but I didn't realize that being
deaf might delay cognitive abilities in other areas unrelated to speech.
I think that as a Jewish community we have the responsibility to help those with
challenges. Any person with a disability deserves our support and the services they need
to succeed. But perhaps even more important- they deserve our sensitivity and
reservation of judgment.
We should be sensitive and empathetic and that mean inclusive in anyway
possible, whether it is in a school setting, camp setting, or in the dating scene. If we can
make them feel included then we should. Deaf people already have a hard choice in
balancing the hearing and deaf world. I cannot imagine how complicated it could be to
also be part of the Jewish world. It is integral that as a community we welcome them with
open arms. It is also important to keep in mind when interacting with deaf people that
they might not view their condition as a disability, lest we offend them.
We all have our differences and challenges, but that is what makes us all uniquely
human. Just as we are more than our weaknesses or challenges, so too people with a
disability are more than their disability. Realizing this will hopefully prevent us from
falling prey to any single story about a person.








References
Wierfferink, C., Rieffe, C., Ketelaar, L., Raeve, L., &Frijns, J. (2012). Emotion
understanding in deaf children with a cochlear implant. Journal of Deaf Studies
and Deaf Education. Retrieved from http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/
Golos. B., Moses, A., & Wolbers., K. Culture or disability? Examining deaf characters
in childrens book illustrations. (2012) Early Childhood Education Journal, 40:
239-249.