If we could teach American Sign Language to all students, including hearing students, from kindergarten to 12th grade, the benefits would be extraordinary. It would not only eradicate the biggest problems and heartaches for the Deaf community, it would also give a significant, far-reaching gift to hearing people.

Many hearing people seem to crave ASL. I meet people daily who have either a personal connection to sign, or a strong desire to learn it. Ruefully they say, “I know a little ASL; I love it!” or “I’ve always wanted to learn ASL!” while hard-of-hearing and deaf adults lament, “I wish I’d learned it in school.”

There are many realistic ways it could be implemented if only we would change our monolingual, ableist mindset. Some will say things like:

  • Schools don’t have the capacity/budget/resources to add a subject.
  • ASL for language credit, OK. But we can’t require it.
  • Teaching ASL to all deaf kids, fine. But to hearing kids, that’s not practical.

But 48.3 million Americans have significant hearing loss. And our biggest problems are rooted in communication.

Look at the most insidious issues of the Deaf world, not only in the U.S. but worldwide.

Ninety percent of deaf children are born into hearing families. Their parents, well-intentioned, frequently get bad advice from medical and educational specialists. They’re told to repair their child’s hearing by any means possible — especially cochlear implantation — to teach their kid speech, and consider ASL only if the technology “fails.” Parents are uniquely primed to follow that advice because it syncs with their fears, wishful thinking and lack of information.

Read the full article about teaching American Sign Language by Rachel Zemach at EdSource.