28
Amy
I have many fond memories of my classmates and teachers from the primary years. As I look back I remember the joy I had from being able to learn and receive an education.
When I was in Prep II, which is similar to kindergarten, I had the sweetest teacher named Mrs. Kathleen. She was so caring and taught my class many funny and interesting things. She used total communication, a teaching method that uses signing and speaking at the same time. Many of the students, including me, wore body hearing aids. I heard Mrs. Kathleen’s voice but could not understand every word she spoke. Still, I was required to use my body aids.
In class, Mrs. Kathleen taught us well by providing plenty of visual aids, since Deaf students learn visually rather than by auditory instruction. She put many posters and pictures with text on them in the classroom, which made it easier for me and the six other students in my class to understand what she was teaching us. At NSD there were never more than eight students in a classroom so we all could have eye contact with the teacher.
Every Friday, we always had snack time before we went home for the weekend. Sometimes, we had peanut butter on crackers, other times graham crackers and milk, or juice and cookies. On Friday afternoon we always took our little chair from our desk to the corner of the room where there was a sink and mini-refrigerator. We set our chairs in a semicircle facing Mrs. Kathleen; again so we could all see her.
“What will we eat for a snack today?’ Mrs. Kathleen asked.
We looked at a calendar chart and signed, “Today—popcorn—Hawaiian punch.”
She asked us several questions about the process of making popcorn.
We signed, “Pour oil—popcorn seeds. Not touch—popcorn machine—hot.”
She always asked us those questions to be sure we knew the safety of cooking. Before she put the lid on the popcorn machine, a teacher from another classroom needed to talk to Mrs. Kathleen. “You children stay in your chairs, and be quiet,” she said. She went to the hall outside our room.
We sat quietly and stared at the popcorn machine without a lid for a minute. All of a sudden one or two kernels popped out and lay on the floor. Then two or three more popped. We started to giggle.
Mrs. Kathleen heard us and flicked the lights off and on to get our attention. We turned toward her. “I told you all to be quiet,” she said.
We said nothing, but more and more corn was popping all over the floor. We could not stop giggling.
She flicked the light again and signed with an angry face, “Stop it.” And then she saw the popcorn all over the floor. She laughed so hard and signed and said, “Why didn’t you put the lid on it?”
“You say stay chair,” I said.
“Machine hot,” said Kelli.
She signed, “You are all good children.”
Of course, we thought we were angelic Prep II students, even when the corn was all over the floor.
Three years later, we learned how candles were made in the old days. Sure enough, I had to make a candle starting with a string. It took forever. I dipped the string three times into a bucket of wax. Next I walked around the classroom to let the wax dry, and then I dipped it and walked again. I did this over and over. Finally, it formed into a skinny candle. I also made a doll out of dried corn leaves one year when we learned about pioneers. Mother kept that doll and still uses it as an ornament on her Christmas tree. I loved the hands-on activities; they were very visual for me and other Deaf students. It was fun, and at same time I was getting an education.
In primary school we did an annual school play either at Christmas or Easter. I remember my first play, The Night Before Christmas. I was dressed as a mouse and was so cute. All my classmates were mice. On the stage, there were many props and decorations. The backgrounds on the stage were usually made by students and art teachers. NSD provided the props and made the costumes, or sometime they rented costumes. In third grade, I had a leading role in the Christmas play, which was about Toyland. I was a winter wonderland fairy. I wore a silver sparkling outfit and carried a snowflake wand. I signed and acted in the play. At the end of the Christmas play, every student came on the stage and signed various Christmas songs, such as I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, Silent Night, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Yes, Deaf people can sing in sign. During speech class, my classmates and I all sang many different songs or short poems at the same time. We spent fifty minutes once or twice a week in speech class. All primary students participated in a speech training to learn how to pronounce words accurately. The school also provided individual speech training for students, but I never did that. Mrs. Jill Ramsey worked to correct our speech and trained us to make new sounds. It seems funny to think that a deaf person can sing, but we did. I really enjoyed learning many songs, but not the speech skills.
In speech class, there was a piano and we stood behind it while Mrs. Ramsey played the piano and lip-synched the song. That way, we could follow the song at the same time as singing in ASL. How did we learn the song? Mrs. Ramsey either handed out the song sheets or wrote the words on posters. She spoke the songs and signed them in ASL at the same time. We spoke the words, but the main focus was on learning the words to the songs, not accurate speech.
When Jill taught songs, she showed us signs for the songs, but sometimes my classmates and I would suggest a better way to sign the words for the song. In the song, Kum Ba Ya there is a verse saying, “Someone’s praying, Lord.” We suggested that we sign “pray” and bend down our head instead of just signing “pray” and facing straight into the audience.
In the song, America the Beautiful, the last line includes, “from sea to shining sea.” We signed to Jill, “Why not sign ‘sea’ at one side of our body and other ‘sea’ on other side of our body to symbolize two seas on either side of United States?” Jill was open to our suggestions about expressing ASL in songs. That’s why I enjoyed learning songs because my classmates and I could create signs for some of the lines so our signs looked accurate in ASL.
Jill took our choir to government meetings or nursing homes to sign our songs to them. We were the Deaf Choir Signers. If it were not for Jill Ramsey, I would never know any songs.
When I entered the seventh grade, I was no longer part of Deaf Choir Signers, because I moved to a different schoolhouse. But I still sang to myself for fun, and I remember the songs I learned.
After school during my primary years, I was in a Deaf Brownie troop. Teachers from the school were our leaders. We did some crafts and took a few field trips to earn badges. I enjoyed earning badges.
I rarely stayed at NSD over the weekend when in primary school, but when I did, I went to Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Sunday, a Deaf church. Also, I attended classes there on Wednesday afternoons to learn about God and stories from the Bible. I learned from either Deaf or hearing church members who explained the words and meanings from the Bible by signing to me and other students.
My best experience in primary school was having Patti Reitz for my third grade teacher. Why? Patti Reitz was my first Deaf teacher. She was a great role model. In her class, when I was just eight years old, I realized a Deaf person can be whatever a Deaf person wants to be in life.
In third grade I still wore my body hearing aids, but I soon realized they were no longer useful in the classroom, because my teacher SIGNED! Really signed. ASL was her first language, not English like my other teachers. The only noises I heard in class were kids banging on the table or dragging the chairs. From Prep I through second grade, I heard the voice of my teachers, but I didn’t understand them. In third grade, with a Deaf teacher who only used ASL, I stopped wearing my hearing aids. It was the best feeling in the world not to wear my body hearing aids for a full day then or ever again.
I wanted a reason to stop wearing the aids because of the bothersome noise, and now I could since I had a Deaf teacher. Oh yeah, it was completely different having a Deaf teacher rather than a hearing teacher. With a Deaf teacher, I was able to communicate and express myself better. Not only that, Patti could understand what my classmates and I were signing. She could catch our conversations and be part of it.
When I had hearing teachers, sometimes when I signed a sentence or question, the teacher could not understand and the teacher had to ask me more questions to clarify what I was signing. Why? Because ASL not only involves signs but body language and facial expressions. Deaf people can easily understand what these movements mean, but hearing people often don’t, because hearing people are used to hearing emotions in the voice.
Having Patti Reitz for a teacher showed me that Deaf people can have the same jobs as hearing people, not just be a cook or janitor or houseparent, which were the only Deaf adults I had seen at NSD. I did not have many Deaf teachers during my years at NSD, so it was a nice feeling to have a teacher with my same background, one who could understand me: a Deaf person.
After third grade, I had hearing teachers again, but I never wore my hearing aids anymore. I heard no sound for the rest of my school years. Silence. It’s a beautiful sound, really!