system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Putting deaf and hard of hearing students through the main-stream education system does more harm than good.

First off, let me state that this view stems from personal experience as a student in a school in which deaf and hard of hearing students are put in the same classes as hearing students. My reasons are as follows:

1) Deaf students require an interpreter; this inherently slows down the class. I cannot tell you how many times a class has had to be paused because the interpreter can't keep up. This is doing a disservice to maybe 20-30 other students; the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

In addition (this may be on a case by case basis), deaf students may have other needs, such as a microphone the teacher must wear, that further slow down the class. When students are talking, the mic is passed around, and it simply does't make sense to me that this is really the fastest way for the class to progress.

2) Deaf students have a very hard time socializing with other students. A major caveat that many interpreters have made to me is that the deaf students are more "touchy" than the rest of us; they tend to tap, bump, or even slap those they are communicating with. In deaf culture, this is seen as normal, but when mixed with hearing students it ultimately causes the hearing students to look down upon the deaf students because they tend to almost slap their peers.

3) At least in my experience, deaf students tend to have a problem wherein they misjudge the volume at which they are speaking. Whereas others may nod in agreement, deaf students tend to let out short phrases of acknowledgment, a "Yes" or something like that. In doing this, they cut off the teacher.

4) Deaf speech is almost always incredibly hard to understand, which inadvertently causes the other students to look down on them. It's very easy to judge deaf students based on their difficulty speaking.

In summary, i think that keeping deaf students in all deaf classes would benefit both hearing and deaf students.

Change my view.
gpt
Schools exist not only to teach students the "3 Rs" and other coursework, but to prepare them to function in the world around them.  In the "real world", there are people who function differently than the mainstream.  Students will have to work with, or at least interact with, non mainstream individuals at some point in their lives beyond school.  By having deaf, and other non mainstream learners in the classroom, students learn valuable lessons in working with differently enabled people.  They might also learn valuable lessons in patience and compassion along the way.