Day 25 — Will I Always Be Deaf?

Today during math, Russ  suddenly said, “Ms. Education, when you were a little girl, were you deaf?” I hadn’t had this question from a student in a long time, but it’s not uncommon in deaf education.

Some D/HH children never see deaf adults. The only deaf people they see are kids like them. It makes sense, therefore, that they might think that children are born deaf, but then grow out of it as adults. I told Russ that no, I have never been deaf. I’ve always been a hearing person. I told him that he was deaf, and that he would always be deaf. Deafness isn’t something you outgrow, like old shoes. These conversations are never easy, but are so important for my kids. They don’t know some of the most fundamental things about themselves. Part of my job is to teach them about their hearing loss and how to manage it.

I did tell Russ that when I become a little old lady, maybe then I’d wear hearing aids too, because my hearing would decrease as I get older. Apparently, the mental image of Ms. Education as a little old lady with hearing aids was too funny for words. They all giggled uncontrollably for a couple of minutes and then we went back to our math.