At first I was shocked by such a laxity in dormitory life. Horse play that went awry in a dormitory was both unacceptable and inexcusable. It was clear that a group of teenage boys were up very late at night, fooling around unattended and unsupervised. As the result, these boys went so lunatic they were applying a mob rule, using hate symbols to write on the victim. Seven boys were sent home immediately, and the investigation kept on getting confusing, confusing, and confusing.
By and large, dormitory life in Deaf Education is mostly unexamined. There is no professional organization specializing in dormitory life in Deaf Education. There is no licensed association that promotes and professes dormitory personnel. There is no graduate course focusing on dormitory curriculum. There is no working relationship between school teachers and dormitory counselors.
Before MSSD opened its doors in 1970, I had an opportunity to participate in a group discussion with the administrators, teachers, counselors, parents and prospective students. We agreed that dormitory houseparents should be college educated so that they could help the students with their education. I spoke out from my own experience because none of my dormitory houseparents could help me with what I learned in school. We also discussed that dormitory houseparents should be proficient in American Sign Language (ASL). Again I spoke out from my experience with a hearing houseparent who was completely clueless of jokes, insults, and bad signs we made in the dormitory. Since MSSD is a demonstration school with certain mandates to develop and disseminate educational projects, I have yet to see efforts in promoting and distributing exemplary dormitory programs for other Deaf schools to model on.
The philosophy for dormitory life at MSSD needs to circumscribe social habits and activities that are prototypical to other Deaf schools that have dormitories. Dormitory is home away from home where safety, sentiment, and sensibility are.
The unexamined dormitory life is not worth demanding Provost Stephen Weiner's lifetime in explaining away the soul why this horseplay was merely stupid.
With aloha always from Kalalau
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®
6 comments:
Great post, Carl. If MSSD is a "demonstrative school", then why can't they lead in other categories too? We can make MSSD the role model of all residential schools and create a precipitant right there for all deaf residential schools to follow.
Lantana
Lantana's Latitude
I totally agreed with your points!!
Yes right on about dormitory houseparents should be proficient in American Sign Language (ASL). What's wrong with the confusing communication?? That's so EMBARRASSING!!!
Good post and worth discussing. I want to share with you of my experience. I work in middle school dormitory. I've always made it my point to always keep an eye on the children as to what they are doing. It is obvious that the boys from MSSD were not supervised.
I do not know if it's because it's "weekend" that staff are more lax with students.
I know for a fact that some staff will, sometimes, keep themselves busy with reading books, newspapers, going online, talking on telephones, watching tv or paging with people on the outside which shouldn't be permitted unless it's related to the dorm or the children, not for our own pleasure. My boss has always emphasized this which I agree wholeheartedly. We're lucky to have a great boss!
About education, these children aren't getting any help from their parents (most of them don't) but a few do. They do better at dorms than at home. We have some certified teachers that come to help our children during homework hours and we help them, too, even tho we may not have college education but we got brains and can help them, too.
I agree that these people who are clueless or "illiterate" in ASL are of no use to these children with homework...It is imperative that ALL staff are knowledgable with ASL in order to communicate smoothly with the children. They are our future and we strive to help them as much as we can, especially with spelling, new words to learn, how to sign these new words. They LOVE it when we do that.
I hope the staff at MSSD woke up and realize that it's truly necessary to always keep an eye on these children, at all times!
Our children are our future and we need to empower them with everything we have, in a positive way!
Good topic. The issue I have with dormitories is the minimum custodial care which unfortunately doesnt' include adequate communication skills. This current practice of not emphasizing communication qualities should be condemned as these should be mandatory for those working with deaf kids. Unfortunately this reflects the hearing society's attitude toward Deaf people in general.
I have a mixed feelings about the mandatory requirements for hiring college-educated deaf individiuals to be the residential advisors of deaf educational facilities of the deaf.
I had a great memories of non-college educated deaf female and male houseparents whose were decent individuals as compared to some college-educated individuals, who were very lazy and untrustworthy. Not all of college-educated deaf individuals in that manner!!!
Herman Shawver, deaf grassroot individual and Christy Sevigny, very intelligent and warming and compassionate female deaf houseparent at the WV School for the Deaf (Romney, WV), Seaton Hall for many years. Those individuals brought countless love and widsom. Same thing with Mary Patton, another deaf grassroot for her intellects and shares of information wealth about deaf issues. All of them were non-college educated deaf individuals.
I absolutely AGREE that the residential schools of the deaf ought to hire hearing college individuals as houseparents, instead of "out of work" hearing individuals. That's why I called hearing houseparents "hicks" on Misha Zena's blog last spring 2007.
Worthy blog posting on the issue of hiring qualified individuals to be houseparents/residential advisors of the residential schools of the deaf!
Worst of all, WV School for the Deaf apply the term to describe houseparents as child care workers for past 12 years. Somewhat clinical and impersonal description of the job postiton!
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Hello Carl,
Thanks for a very timely blog. Good points!! I agree that dormitory staff should have specific training, perhaps a combination of psychology and child development, with a focus on group dynamics. It's a huge responsibility to
ensure the safety and well-being of the residents. I am still amazed that some dorms still practice group punishment. Some things about dormitory living have changed for the better over the years, but other things, unfortunately have not. I hope the MSSD incident leads to are vamping of how dormitories are structured and run.
Candace
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