Week I: Go Tigers!
My new years resolution this year was to do something "interesting" every week. I'll post them here so "Week #" blogs aren't like "real" blogs -- they are actual thoughts on specific things that I've done. hm.About 6 months ago - no, maybe more - the Nebraska
School for the Dea was mentioned in class and I wondered where it was. Plattmouth? Grand Island? Kearney? I assumed that if it were in Lincoln or Omaha I would have heard of it, somehow.Yup! I was wrong. There IS no Nebraska School for the Deaf because ... well wait. Here, I stole this from NAD.org -- read it yourself:
The Nebraska Legislature, with minimal input from parents of deaf children and deaf professionals, has decided not to provide continued funding for NSD, favoring instead a plan put forth by the Nebraska Department of Education. This plan, effective Fall 1998, will establish four regional/statewide programs for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Those four programs will cover 1) Omaha metropolitan area, 2) Lincoln and Southeast Nebraska, 3) Northeast Nebraska and 4) Central-Western Nebraska.
The NAD has been working with the NeAD to oppose this plan. The NAD believes that deaf and hearing children should be afforded with a full continuum of educational choices to choose from. With the closure of NSD, parents will be denied a vital option in determining the most appropriate educational setting for their children.
Legislative Bill (LB) 1276 was introduced by Senator Kiel in the Nebraska Unicameral Legislative Session on January 22, 1998. LB 1276 proposed standards of education for deaf and hard of hearing children and stated that NSD could not be closed until other programs that would meet those standards be established and fully functioning. Unfortunately, this bill died in the Education Committee.
The Governor of Nebraska convened a special one week session in May 1998 to revise and pass a previously vetoed bill for special education funding. There was a line in this voluminous bill that would repeal the statute requiring the [existence of the] Nebraska School for the Deaf. Parents and the deaf community attempted to amend this bill to adopt standards of deaf education, as outlined in the failed LB 1276. Legislators, however, turned a deaf ear to the needs of deaf and hard of hearing children.
Because the Nebraska Legislature has chosen to ignore the pleas of parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, educators, the deaf community and children themselves, favoring instead to adopt a supposedly cheaper plan proposed by the Nebraska Department of Education, the following events have taken place:
- The Nebraska School for the Deaf will close its doors on August 1998.
- No standards of education for deaf and hard of hearing children have been adopted, leaving such in the hands of those who are not fully aware of the full ramifications of the current plan.
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) deplores this situation and calls upon the Nebraska Legislature to put the future of quality education for deaf and hard of hearing children above the value of the current dime.
In the 1999 Nebraska state legislative session, there will be another attempt to introduce a bill establishing educational standards for deaf and hard of hearing children. The NAD will continue to work with the Nebraska Association of the Deaf and related individuals and groups within the state toward this goal.
Nice, huh?
So, I decided that I wanted to see the museum that the Alumni Association had established. The museum is within the property that once was NSD; now owned by Turning Point which includes the Omaha Street School.
I headed up there today. On the one hand it was amazing - there was pics and momentos -- but on the other I was so sad. This was a thriving, industrious, educational place to
members of the Deaf community to gather and socialize and ... now - what? They get mainstreamed with kids they can't communicate with, stuck in classes with interpreters that maybe aren't the greatest -- not a slam against 'terps, okay! just truths -- and why? I don't understand. SO, it made me sad.
THEN at the end there is a book for you to sign. Yeah, the last person that went was in - oh, October. How flippin' sad is that? I want to email the curator guy and say, "Hey! every three of four months you should have a new exhibit - " I'd freaking arrange it FOR HIM just to get people to be more involved. ugh.
anyway - I've been ... I'm not sure inspired is the right word. But not really enraged, either. hm. I'll think about it and get back to you.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
COMING NEXT WEEK: SCHOOL STARTS -- oh, wait. That doesn't count.
COMING NEXT WEEK: Going to go see "The Good Shepard" with my dad and grandpa. And school starts. whooo hoo.
posted by meg @ 4:13 PM
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