how dare they . . . ? the hearing people think they can make descisions for our education? either at the milan conference in 1893? or hundred years later? or even now?

in my school days i could have learnt much more... true the dept of education sent dedicated teachers but i believe they were taught wrong! they taught us to lipread and talk - not using our sign language as a basis for our education.

many children at deaf schools wasted alot of time trying to talk when they could have learnt more stuff... yet some teachers think we are not very clever...

dept of education have lots of responsibilities but they dont know fully about our needs - no not the hearing teachers... please do listen to teachers of the Deaf children who are deaf themselves who have empathy with deaf children and vice versa.

parents of Deaf children have won the fight to have their deaf children educated near or close to their homes - but are they getting the needed education? do they have the company of deaf peers/friends? i have often wondered which was really the best... i hated being a boarder at school for deaf ... but loved the school classrooms yet i didnt get enough education.

if i had stayed at home and go to a school nearby - would i mix with other children? i dont think so.... many deaf children are being main-streamed... i have no idea at all how they are coping... what am i doing here then?

i am saddened to see the deaf schools not being fully used as they used to be... maybe they say times are changing? should we let those schools go when they had had been raised and fought for to be built in the first place? the villages idea in the the van asch and kelston is really a very good idea creating home like surroundings...

yet we need to listen to see what those children thought ... who went thru this villages phase?

maybe i sound so simple - out of date - yet i would love to read a thesis written by eileen smith the former principal of kelston deaf education centre (from 1988? till 1996?) who gained M.A degree? eileen smith uses and fully understands our sign language as her second language but very skillfully.

i would love to listen to the deaf people who went thru this system and those who worked there too.

there is alot of history where our NZ sign language is concerned but is there a book written on this? true there is a history of old sign language and a dictionary of NZ sign language has been printed with many of the Deaf people involved in both.

this is off the cuff - un-researched - just what i know or remembered....

today my two old friend came to see if i am coming to do food shopping at waimauku today - after a cuppa or juice we went to the cafe there. one had sausage roll - one had eggy quiche i think with a bit of green salad and i had a spiced tomato soup - being lunch time then. we yakked in sign language for couple of hours. i did the food shopping after hugging them as she has to go and pick up her hubby after dropping the other off.

when i got home - halfway thru putting groceries away barbara our neighbour came round and tried her vodafone plug-in stick to see if i could get broadband and it didnt work. when she went i fed the chooks as soon as i can since the air was getting very cold - not good for my chest infection!

i am in despair as the backyard is a mess after all the wet weather and my chest infection. hopefully it will be fine and dry tomorrow so i can burn off some branches tom said he will cut into pieces tomorrow morning. weeds yet to be pulled in veg gardens and maybe hoed into ridges to dry off - so wet and soggy there. chooks having eated all the cox lettuce and silver beet i plent there...

gotta go to bed its now 12.42 am. nite nite