Deaf Again

Rating:
Summary: A great book for beginnning ASL students!
Review: After reading this book I must say that it is a great introductory piece for ASL students. Hard facts about the loss of identity many deaf children face when discouraged to sign (essentially, to effectively communicate) are wonderfully brought to light. Those who wish to understand what Oral Schools are about and the detrimant they cause I encourage to read this book. Those interested in teaching in Residential Schools for the Deaf are also urged. This book gives one a feel for the isolation felt by many deaf people. An easy read and an interesting one.

Rating:
Summary: A great book for beginnning ASL students!
Review: After reading this book I must say that it is a great introductory piece for ASL students. Hard facts about the loss of identity many deaf children face when discouraged to sign (essentially, to effectively communicate) are wonderfully brought to light. Those who wish to understand what Oral Schools are about and the detrimant they cause I encourage to read this book. Those interested in teaching in Residential Schools for the Deaf are also urged. This book gives one a feel for the isolation felt by many deaf people. An easy read and an interesting one.

Rating:
Summary: One hard-of-hearing boy's experience in the regular schools
Review: Despite the wishes of two sophisticated Deaf parents that their hard-of-hearing son be educated in all-hearing schools, he learns their happy secret anyway -- that there's a whole lot more to life and doing well in a world prejudiced against the deaf than pretending to hear when you can't. With humor and gentle self-deprecation, Mark Drolsbaugh, a Deaf guidance counselor at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, exposes the isolation and relentless humiliations that plague a lone hard-of-hearing child in the regular schools. Once he embraces the Deaf culture of his parents, he then returns to the "hearing side" of his mother's family with the ability to help them understand and accept deafness with a love and pride that was not possible before.

This book is a must for anyone who either knows or has a hard-of-hearing child in the regular schools, but is a fun read for anyone, whether conversant about the Deaf community or not.

Rating:
Summary: Deaf Again
Review: I have read many books written by the Deaf or parents of the Deaf. This book is outstanding! All parents of Deaf or Hard of Hearing children must read this book. Mark Drolsbaugh shares his experiences being forced into the hearing world by well intended but misguided professionals and his hearing grandparents. He was even denied the Deaf culture of his own Deaf parents. He honestly explains the advantages and disadvantages of being educated in an auditory/oral environment. As an adult, he experiences joy and relief in finding his true idenity. No one but those who possess the personal insight of being Deaf or Hard of Hearing can related to these sensitive and complicated issues that require in depth understanding. The cochlear implant is not a quick fix, one-way ticket to the hearing world.

Rating:
Summary: One hard-of-hearing boy's experience in the regular schools
Review: Mark Drolsbaugh tells a fascinating true story that demonstrates how a person's minority culture can be almost obliterated with the best of intentions by those in the majority. His story demonstrates that society today still will not believe the needs of a minority group, even when they express their needs in quite understandable words (signs). The beauty of this work, however, is that it is a happy story with no animosity toward those who would have Mark be someone other than who he really is. Mark's revelations about discovering his true culture, his successes which have followed his discovery, and his fulfillment as a Deaf person could be the story of so many other Deaf individuals. This book should be a MUST read for any hearing parent whose child has been identified with a hearing loss. The professional working with children who are Deaf or hard of hearing (especially those with prelingual hearing loss) should read this. It will provide them with a valuable insight into the life of a Deaf or hard of hearing child.