My first post that irritates locals and confuses everyone else –
Tennessee School for the Deaf should be closed. There was a time when it was full of activity and served a specific population. Now, most of the students have more labels than Deaf on their records. Most Deaf students in TN are mainstreamed into schools near their home and not sent away to live at TSD. I can’t be specific about the IEPs and M-teams I’ve attended at TSD but I can say that neither I nor the children’s parents left those meetings happy. IF TSD stopped trying to teach the students to speak and allowed ASL instead of signed English I might feel differently, but I doubt it. If you want your child to function in the hearing world they should go to school with their hearing neighbors. If you want your child to be a part of the Deaf community, let them use ASL and skip the painful efforts to use their voices.
I’ve always wondered why they do signed English instead of ASL. To me it’s kind of like teaching them Olde English instead of modern English, you know? Antiquated.
But you make a point with mainstreaming. What *is* the point of TSD in light of that? Aside from giving ASL students at Maryville College deaf sports events to attend 🙂