Study Away Final Reflection

Sabryna McMillan

Clemson University

June 9th, 2018

 This summer, I was granted the opportunity to study away at the South Carolina School

for the Deaf and Blind (SCSDB). It was here that I was able to observe both Deaf adults and

Deaf children in a natural setting, so that I may have a better understanding of Deaf culture as

well as improving my American Sign Language (ASL) skills. This experience is juxtaposed

against my typical Deaf community interactions through Clemson ASL socials, where younger

Deaf people are rarely present. Over the course of three weeks, I was able to compare and

contrast what I had learned in the classroom to the actual experience, learn more about the newer

generation of Deaf, and learn some new signs and expressions.

The first thing I would like to discuss was the environment I was placed in during my

study away experience. On my first day, I was informed that I would be placed with a Deaf

teacher of an ASL class, in order to insure full immersion. Though this was my primary

placement, I also ended up with a middle school class for four days, due to state testing. The

teachers I was placed with were also Deaf, and the testing was administered in Sign Language in

these rooms as well. Because my primary placement was with a high school teacher, and my

testing placement with a middle school teacher, I was able to observe a wide range of ages of the

Deaf students.

One of the primary lessons I learned during my study away trip was just how different the

older generation of Deaf people and the younger generation of Deaf people is. One of the most

noticeable differences between the two would be opinions on cochlear implants/hearing aids. In

class I learned that the Deaf community frowns upon the use of cochlear implants – due to the

invasive nature of the surgery, the common occurrence of doctors telling parents not to teach

their children ASL if they receive one, as well as the idea that cochlears imply that deafness is

something to fix. This lesson was then supported by my interactions with the older generation of
the Deaf community, both in person and online. However, at SCSDB, I noticed that virtually all

of the students had either a cochlear implant or a hearing aid. I believe that over the course of 3

weeks, and interacting with students from 6th-12th grade, there was only one student that I

encountered who had neither. However, this did not impair the children’s ability to sign. All of

the classes were taught fully in ASL (except 2, in which the teachers were hearing and did not

know any sign – these teachers had interpreters) and all of the children regularly communicated

in ASL as well.

Another difference that I noticed between the generations occurs in their reflection of

Deaf pride. With many of the older members of the Deaf community, Deaf pride is shown

through things such as the display of De’Via art in their classrooms and homes, the attendance of

Deaf socials, the support of Deaf universities such as Gallaudet, and by being part of the online

Deaf community. However, Deaf pride is displayed differently in the younger generation of the

Deaf community. For example, rather than having a picture by Chuck Baird on their binder,

they’ll wear a shirt where the word is fingerspelled. Instead of attending Deaf socials, they stay

in contact with their Deaf friends strictly through social media. However, the younger generation

of the Deaf community is still prideful of and in support of Deaf universities such as Gallaudet,

with a majority of students wanting to attend this school.

While placed with the middle school classroom, I was able to make several other

observations as well. Firstly, I witnessed the occurrence of behavioral issues with one student.

During one day of testing, she simply left the classroom half way through testing. On a different

day, she completed her testing, but after testing began screaming and throwing things across the

room. When I asked the teachers why this student was lashing out, I learned that she had just

recently become deaf and was unable to cope with the change. This was also paired with a bad
home life, and a family unable to accept the change as well. All of this combined into a history

of bad behavior and lashing out with the student, that the staff was unable to handle.

Unfortunately, this was not the only heartbreaking occurrence that I witnessed during my

placement in the middle school classroom. Though I have taken several classes (both ASL

classes and education classes) that have taught about the inequality of state testing, I was still

wholly unprepared to observe standardized state testing. For the English Language Arts testing,

the test was not allowed to be translated into ASL, due to the fact that it was testing their English

ability. This means that several students were unable to understand the passages they were

reading, and understand the questions being asked even less so. This led to students crying,

students calling themselves “dumb” and “stupid”, and one student even rocked in his chair and

hit himself in the head because he could not understand the testing. These students were led to

believe that they were inadequate simply due to the fact that they were forced to take a test in a

language that is not their first language – and they had no resources to help. This observation has

continued to stay with me – even after my experience at SCSDB was completed – and I am at a

loss on how to help these students.

After state testing was completed for the day, the students were required to stay in the

room due to other classrooms continuing to test. However, students were able to play games,

watch videos, and draw as long as they stayed quiet. This allowed me to observe the middle

school students in a much more natural setting. It was here that I was able to make many more

observations about the younger generation of the Deaf community. Firstly, I noticed that the

students enjoyed watching music videos to songs that had dance moves coordinating with the

lyrics. For example; “Peel the Banana”. This allowed students to learn some English, while still

connecting it with something more similar to sign (the dance moves often reflected the use of
indicative classifiers). Secondly, I was able to observe that the students were not accustom to

having a hearing person in the room with them. Whenever the teacher would turn around, one or

two students would yell or make a loud noise, with the belief that they would not get caught for

it. However, due to my presence in the room, they were always caught. Nonetheless, when the

next testing day came, the students would try to get away with yelling again, and this continued

on every subsequent day. And lastly, I was able to observe that many of the attention getting

methods that the older members of the Deaf community use are used by the students as well. For

example, flipping on and off the lights, tapping on the shoulder, and even stomping on the floor

(in order to feel the vibrations).

I was also granted the opportunity to interact with and observe interactions between the

Deaf faculty and staff. This occurred during teacher meetings and periods in which the teachers

did not have students. It was during these periods that I learned about the concerns the teachers

had for the students at the school. For example, one teacher was concerned with the student’s

abilities to read and write English. Though all of the students could sign, many of the students

were unable to read or write above an 8th grade level (even if they were about to graduate). A

different teacher was concerned with the state of the science lab. Most of the lab equipment was

outdated, and the layout of the lab was not Deaf friendly (tables too close, no room to sign). And

another teacher was concerned with the continuation of the Deaf community and Deaf culture,

due to the rise in cochlear implants and hearing aids that the children had.

Overall, I feel that my study away experience was highly beneficial. I was able to learn

about the differences in the generations of the Deaf community, observe the transformation that

is occurring in the Deaf community, as well as improving my receptive skills and learning new

signs. Due to my placement changing for state testing, I was able to observe a wide age range of
students, and was also given the opportunity to interact with the teachers and staff as well. I am

eager to work with SCSDB in the future as part of their outreach program, and hope that I may

return soon enough to see some of the students that I formed connections with graduate.