Professor Nathanson September 19, 2014
Video Reaction #1
The movie “Lives of Deaf Mexicans: Struggle and Success focuses on the issues of the Deaf Community. Specifically the lack of government funding for education, difference in opinions regarding language, and acceptance into the hearing community. It also showed how in spite of these problems many of the people in the film had “good lives” The differences in opinion regarding the language I found particularly interesting. The National School for the Deaf taught LSM and was a residential school. Once it closed, the educational standard changed and deaf students were taught using the “Oral Method”, which consists of speaking Spanish and lip reading in day school. It was not expressed as such, but it seemed to me that those advocating teaching the oral method are thinking more in terms of assimilation into mainstream society, and that using LSM would accomplish the opposite. The film touched briefly on those living outside of Mexico City, and their lack of access to any type of school at all. However, it really did not address how to solve this problem, other than the creation of residential schools. Nor did it explain why the National school closed or why the government for a period of 15+ years stop funding education for the Deaf. Many of the schools in the film were day schools run by various churches.
On the whole, the movie did a good job of introducing someone such as myself to the problems faced by the Deaf in Mexico, and it is easy to assume that to some degree the Deaf in America also have some of the same issues. However, in this country there is better access to education, and being Deaf is not synonymous with having mental deficiencies. Mexico is making steps toward improving the lives of its deaf citizens, but clearly there is more work to be done.
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