[sw-l] Denmark and SignWriting...

[Shane Gilchrist Ó hEorpa]

Lucyna,

Why would parents put their deaf kids in deaf schools if education there is
very poor - that is their excuse and I agree with them on this.

We have to give them high quality bilingual education - and to make PJM
education sustainable, you need to take in non-deaf kids etc etc.

Deaf education is already dead - no thanks to the CI people

Shane

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu [mailto:owner-sw-
> l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] On Behalf Of Lucyna Dlugolecka
> Sent: 08 May 2005 19:43
> To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> Subject: Re: [sw-l] Denmark and SignWriting...
>
>
> > What they stopped, was their bi-lingual Danish Sign Language program
> > for Deaf children in the Danish School System - The cochlear implant
> > was invented, and when it came to be, they thought that Deaf children
> > did not need any sign language any longer...so the Bi-lingual Deaf
> > Education program was dropped, or at least placed on hold...
> >
> > I recently wrote to one of the best bi-lingual teachers in Denmark, and
> > one of the most skilled Signwriters in our history. Bente Sparrevohn
> > wrote some of the most beautiful SignWriting on this earth...and you
> > can see her in this picture with me, while I was visiting one of her
> > bi-lingual classrooms back in 1984...but Bente today tells me that sign
> > language is not used much any longer in the school system because of
> > the cochlear implant, and it makes it hard for her...
> >
> > In this picture, that is me with the long hair (yes...I had hair
> > then!), and that is Bente to the left in the picture...and those lovely
> > Deaf Danish children were all fluent in SignWriting!!
>
> Oh, a sad story, indeed... Here in Poland, our government has limited
> resources, so few deaf children can get CIs. Unless their parents pay for
> it, and it costs 17.000 euro, whereas the average (monthly) salary is
> about
> 575 euro... But then, the professor (Henryk Skarzynski) who is one of
> several surgeons implanting CIs, demands that the child with CI attend a
> mainstream school. But I could see children with CIs also in schools for
> the
> Deaf, and such is the reality...
> I wish PJM was recognized and widely accepted in Poland but, on the other
> hand, in some 20-30 years most Deaf children of rich countries will not
> use
> any sign language... Because of the CIs and the technology, of course...
>
> Lucyna
>