Cutting An Arch Through The Panorama: An Idem-ipse Critique

The word education means "leading out of" (educere in ancient Greek meaning leading out of), exactly as if we the Deaf have to be drawn from the perils of ignorance that our being deaf seems to impose.  In today's education of the Deaf, the deaf children are taught to become themselves as another by learning "how to listen and speak" like their counterparts who can hear.  Their amplification and cochlear implants serve to reinforce this type of education, learning to become another from the nature of being deaf.

Most of the mainstreamed deaf children today are not taught American Sign Language (ASL) so that they could never become themselves as an independent idem-impse, in Latin idem meaning "same" and ipse meaning "self." If the children, for example, have handed in their assignment on time, they haven't merely made a mistake--which would be an idem behavior--however, how they have done their homework is an ipse action that they render themselves accountable.

Idem-ipse is all we the Deaf really are!  As tokens we the Deaf are counted in and out; such is the emphasis on our being present to justify a signed language interpreters and the rigor with which our absence gets cataloged and even evaluated.  No doubt this conflicts with ipseity: on the one hand, we are asked to take our ipse responsibility; on the other hand, we are just an idem number.

Many deaf children, especially in mainstreaming situations, lose their sense of individuality.  They also suffer a loss of privacy.  They are also being grouped, managed, and observed often in a self-contained classroom.  They've become stigmatized with limited communication, limited educational choices, and limited personalization that help them navigate the school system in a way that reduces its scariness.

ASL Education, "work in progress," would be like learning to ride a bicycle.  As Albert Einstein put it, when talking about riding a bicycle, "to keep your balance you have to keep moving!"

When I was young and learning to ride my bicycle in the country of my birth, The Netherlands, I apprehended the wide horizon in front of me, explored possibilities to cut an arch through the panorama, and became more purposeful in my life. When I came back home, I told many stories.

Analogically and philosophically speaking of the revolution in ASL Education, believe that deaf children need to acquire and master ASL in order to cut an arch through the panrama and to become idem-ipse individuals.