Is it better for a deaf student to attend a school for the deaf or mainstream school?

Question

Why?

Answer 1

I happen to be an interpreter for the Deaf in a public school.  I think you can see it both ways.  The down fall to going to a school for the Deaf is that each state only has one.  In going to a school for the Deaf you would probably be away from family for long periods of time.  Some children start school there at 3 years old and grow up there only going home on holidays and summers.  The positive would be that you are educated with those that communicate best with you.  You would have teachers and all classmates who are skilled in signing...almost cutting out the interpreter. :(

As an interpreter in a public school, I see alot of positives to going to a public school.  Sometimes you are in your Deaf Ed class and sometimes you are mainstreamed with an interpreter.  As you learn to communicate with the hearing they also learn to communicate for you.  I know the mainstream classes I am in are so excited to have a Deaf student in class and so thrilled to learn some sign.

It all comes down to what is best for you as an individual.  I have seem many positives to both.

Answer 2

a child who is deaf shopuld NOT be sent to a special ed class just because they can't hear-if that is their only disability-they should not have an IEP-they should have a 504 plan and a sign language interpreter-

It is a personal choice-one school is best for one child-the other for a different child

Answer 3

My public school schooled several deaf children, from knowing a couple of them I think it was a better environment for them than a school for the deaf because it introduced them to real life outside of their home. One girl I knew had parents who wanted her to go to a school for the deaf and she said - she could speak some that she couldn't imagine being thrown into the real world if all she had known was a world of signing. She went on through community college just fine and lives a very productive life in a hearing society. I think it made her not feel as limited in what she could do having been brought up around eveyone else.

Answer 4

I believe most prefer to be with people like themselves. One of my students attended our state school for several years in order to learn to communicate in the mainstream. he benefited from a lot of practice; and after an adjustment period upon his return, he did much better than when he left us in kindergarten. The school is only one and a half-hours from our town, so not so far for him. He boarded through the week and came home on weekends.

The odd thing is no one had noticed he was deaf until he came to us in kindergarten at the age of five.

Answer 5

I think they would be better off attending a school for the deaf.  As I get older, I see and hear how society in general and members of my own family do not like being in my presence because I am hard of hearing.

Answer 6

School for the deaf until they learn tools to be mainstreamed

Answer 7

People with Deafness should be mainstreamed into Public School due to the fact that they need to learn to deal with Hearing People and Mainstream Society in every day life. It will better prepare them to deal with the Hearing Community and Mainstream Society when they graduate from Mainstreamed Public High School.

Being in Deaf School isolates People with Deafness to a large certain degree from the Hearing Community and Mainstream Society and will hamper People With Deafness in learning how to deal with the Hearing Community and Mainstream Society in everyday life while being in Deaf School.

Answer 8

WHAT?

Answer 9

I wnet to both the state school and the mainstream school.  I preferred the mainstream school since it was much closer to home and I could relate to the other deaf students.

Answer 10

Deaf School would be best. The child would be sent to special classes in a mainstream school if they could not hear. Might as well have them around their own peers and feel 100% comfortable in their surroundings.