child lost
Parents of deaf children are often provided with a suggested reading list of works in an attempt to assist them in making choices in educating their deaf child. ... The most commonly suggested works on reading lists offered by universities, disability organizations and medical professionals are: “The Silent Garden”, “A Child Sacrificed”, “Teaching and Talking with Deaf Children” and “Deaf Like Me”. ... Bertling’s “A Child Sacrificed” is a poor example of the deaf education experience and should be removed from such lists. ... What is appropriate educationally for a child who is hard of hearing that benefits from the use of hearing aids, and what is suitable for a profoundly deaf individual is distinctly different. ... This is a day school in which the child still resides with his/her family. ... Here the child is mainstreamed into the classroom with his/her hearing peers, receives individualized instruction in English and American Sign Language (ASL), and has an interpreter or note-taker in class. ... The child lives in a dormitory at the school full-time. ... “A Child Sacrificed” is his scathing personal account of life in a state residential school. In “A Child Sacrificed”, the author displays a peculiar resentment toward the deaf community in general. ... ASL allows for communication that is “100% free-flowing…there is no possibility that a deaf child will be left out or misunderstood because of being deaf”(Ogden p. ... This commentary rings of self-pity and blame should be placed by the author, not on the state residential school, but on the parents who in their naiveté failed to realize that residential schools are geared for the profoundly deaf child, not the child who functions on a level with hearing children.