Mrs. D, are you deaf?

On Monday afternoon a bubbly, third grader came bouncing up to me during hall duty.

"Jenna said, you are deaf, are you?" bubbly third grader said.

"Yes, I am." I stated back

WAIT

When did I become deaf? A year ago, I would have corrected the student by said no, I'm hard of hearing. I just use hearing aids, but I am just like you.

I am not sure when I started to develop my deaf identity, was it before surgery, after, or during 3 weeks of total silence. All I know is that I made that transition not kicking and screaming, but peacefully and happily. I cherish finding my identity. 

Now how do I move from deaf to Deaf?

***My whole hearing history has been challenged, I might have been born with a degree of hearing loss and not at age 3 from Rheumetic fever. As I try to explore the cause of my hearing loss, I will keep you informed.  It turns out my mom is a carrier of Ashkenazi Jews gene. My aunt has the dominate genes. So we are trying to find out it that has caused my hearing loss.  

Deaf Teacher???

How would you feel if your child had a teacher who was deaf? Okay, Okay let me make myself clear - How would you feel if your hearing child had a regular education teacher who was deaf?

Hmmm...This has been the debate I was part of today. Because what do teachers do on a day off, but talk about education and stress. I wondered what the parents of my past students felt the first time they met me. I wonder how they felt having their child in my class. How do people with a disability or impairment become their career title first and the disability second. I really wonder if I ever can be just the teacher, not the deaf teacher or the hard of hearing teacher.

When I decided to change from Pharmacy to Elementary Education, my mother was so angry. Why, why, why she said. I told her I wanted to make sure each child in my classroom would receive the best education. I wanted to make sure the children were first - a child-centered classroom. The majority of the teachers I had were fantastic, just the best. It was just this one teacher who tried to take my love of learning away. I wanted to be the one who caused students to fall in love with education - books, math, thinking, and learning. I hope I have been successful.

I have been so prosperous to be at the same elementary school for 14 years. I love the people I work with. I love the students and the parents. I love even the boxes that hold my mail and the lunchlady who feed me cucumbers when I was pregnant with Jenna. Teaching is not a job, it is my life. Hearing, hard of hearing, or deaf, I hope I taught others that being deaf is not a disability, it makes me, ME.

Now back to the orginal questions - do you care if your child's teacher is hard of hearing or deaf?