Teaching...

I am finding that many people assume I want to become a teacher when they find out I am taking additional ASL classes. I also know the idea of a hearie teaching ASL is a very touchy point for many deafies. Let me clearly tell you now - I do NOT want to teach ASL!

I do know that some hearies are wonderful ASL teachers. They are near-fluent in their ASL skills or are CODAs. They demand a "no-voice" classroom and provide an optimum ASL learning environment. I have no problem with this at all.

What does strike me as odd is the hearing teacher who takes a handful of ASL classes and then professes to be an ASL instructor.

My first two classes were from a hearing teacher who was not a native user. It was a noisy classroom with instruction often in spoken English. I know enough now to know that there is no way you can learn ASL properly if you are hearing English at the same time.

I have a deaf friend who teaches ASL. She is a native user and is a wonderful teacher. My friend expressed a common feeling among her community about hearies teaching ASL:

Some deafies are curious why hearies are learning ASL. Some may be offended if you want to teach at deaf school because they feel that hearies take away jobs from deafies. Sometimes I get irritated when some hearing ASL teachers who are NOT native ASL. They teach at public school or community college. That is not right. Just because they completed a few semesters of ASL classes does not mean they are Fluent.

However, I know a few hearing ASL teachers who are near native and do follow the NO VOICE philopsophy but most don't. What's the point of teaching ASL if English is used in the classroom??

I completely agree with her assessment. From a hearie student perspective, I can tell you that learning ASL in a no-voice environnment is the only way to do it right. I would never dream of attempting to teach ASL. I am not qualified nor would I want to take a job that a native user could do so much better.

So if I am not going to teach (which I am not) then the question remains. Why am I so drawn to ASL and why does it get under my skin so much? What am I going to do with the language skills I am learning…?