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Right to Be Deaf Series
Painting No. 5 Identity Gone

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Identity Gone 11 inch by 14 inch oil on stretched canvas SOLD click on image.

Description about the painting:
This goes to the Right to Be Deaf Series Painting No. 5 and this is part of the Stop Bullying Deaf Children campaign.

This painting is about the two Deaf students in a hearing class (mainstream). There is a hearing teacher and an interpreter. A hearing teacher points at a blackboard and talks about history. Words on a blackboard are smeared and hard to follow. The interpreter uses a SEE (Signed Exact English) tool, which makes education quite dull. The Deaf students feel isolated and left alone. 

As second/third wave of oralism arrived, many Schools for the Deaf are closing lately all over the country. Listening and Spoken “Language” (LSL) ideology and audism is taking over. When Deaf children went to mainstreaming schools, they discovered there is a very limited or no ASL/Deaf education, exposure and resource. Many interpreters at most mainstreaming schools are not qualified or very limited. The Deaf Children feel trapped, appalled, speechless and hopeless where ASL sign "dropping hands down" is shown in this painting. They often are afraid to stand up since there are very few or even nobody around to support the ASL education, even not teachers or parents. Many are often forced to give up a joy of connecting with other Deaf people and accept with a very limited Deaf education opportunity, facing a lifetime struggle. Many people feel that parents’ rights to choose for their Deaf Children's education are too important, and should not be touched at all, often ignoring what’s best for Deaf Children.

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Nancy Rourke paintings copyright. 2012
Last updated October 12, 2012