Apparently, at North Central High school, sex is a bad word. Not only is it whispered, in class, by the teacher, but it is also expressed in a very crude way and there seems to be a strong preference for a specific position.
On the other hand, this could just be the interpreter.
Sarah thinks it is the interpreter.
She thinks that the teacher might have actually said the word “sex” or “sexual activity” or something like that, and the interpreter just decided to use some crude 4-letter word references to specific activities instead.
The first time, Sarah’s eyebrows went up.
It took her a moment to regain her composure.
The second time….
And, remember, this was being done in whispers.
You see, the interpreter was signing things like, :
”Some viruses are transmitted through
(tiny signing)........
And other viruses are…..”
In case you didn’t know it, watching an entire lesson being presented this way is rather annoying. It is also questionable if you could describe it as making the information “accessible” to the deaf student. Unless, the teacher really was whispering each of those words.
But back to the “educational “ terms being used.
Sarah bit back the impulse to ask the teacher or to correct the interpreter, if, in fact, the interpreter was simply mis-using some incorrectly learnt vocabulary.
Sarah knows better than to try to do this.
This interpreter is unable to understand even when Sarah dumbs down her signing and signs as if she were speaking to an 8 year old.
And then ,after Sarah has slowed her signing down and carefully arranged her words into English grammatical order and limited her vocabulary selections to ones an 8 year old should know, the interpreter might very well say, out loud, in spoken English, something that would imply that Sarah was trying to use those words to refer to something- and not trying to correct the interpreter’s vocabulary usage or ask if that is , indeed, what the teacher said.
And, because of her experiences with the other interpreter, Sarah knows not to trust the interpreters to correct any interpreting mistakes that they make.
So, Sarah simply came home and shared this with me. Shared what she had learned in Health Class , today.
This lesson that your tax dollars support.
Addendum: I will have to ask the teacher if Sarah will receive full credit for using these vocabulary words on the chapter test.
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2 comments:
3 years old. 8 woudl be too hard for her to understand.
And Sarah knew it was NOT the teacher saying those words.
Okay- I do not know why it didn't post teh full thing- I will try again.
SARAH's CORRECTIONS:
She could not sign to the terp as if the terp was 8 years old- that would be beyond the terp's understanding. 3 years old- she had to sign to the terp as if the terp was 3 years old in order to be understiood.
Also, Sarah KNEW the teacher had not said that!
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