Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Making money over deafness

Teachers of deaf children dont make money but in other hand, Cochlear Implant companies do! I have seen it myself here in my city. The auditory/oral preschool recently established (will start their first class this fall, 2007) is established thank to one Cochlear Implant foundation name Oberkotter Foundation. Oberkotter Foundation GAVE the university $3.5 million to set up preschool for next 3 to 5 years with new degree for SLP (Speech Language Pathology) to be able to TEACH deaf children auditory/oral approach, discouraged, or should I say ban, sign language to be used in classroom. They are attached to already established BI-BI Deaf Education Program and called it a new version of deaf education!

Trust me, professors at Bi-Bi Deaf Education program and those in Communication Disorder (COMD) Department who support sign language (not many) fought a hell fight with new committee in COMD but they couldnt win as they did five years ago. Those professors couldnt confront the new committee because the new committee prevented them from talk to them or involve with their meetings or minutes.

So its up to parents of our city to fight but we are small, only 14 parents from 60 miles radius, mostly rural areas. I use "parent" rights to fight this as I am also parent so now I am using this to my advantage to fight and extend the power to deaf community as more people involved, the better, more powerful and stronger the effort will be.

Preschool doesnt and will not make money but they got money from those who make money from deaf children. If the foundation didnt involved then there will be no preschool established in my city.

You might wonder what university and city this happened. There are over 50 typical preschool all over the United States and the newest is in Logan, Utah with assistance from Utah State University, in fact the preschool are housed IN the campus.

Utah State University is known for one of the best Bi-Bi program in the country with Dr. Freeman King as head of the Deaf Education. Dr. Freeman King graduated from Deaf Education Program in Lamar University in east Texas and associated with Dr. Angel Ramos, Dr. Sam Silke, Dr. John Luakner, Dr. Tony Martin, and many others well known figures in Deaf Education.

Maybe you should look around to get idea of what is actually going on out there; you might be surprised!