Leaving Washington and Rochester School for the Deaf.

We waved goodbye to Gallaudet yesterday. Heading in a cab to the airport, it hit me how much I would miss this small university sectioned off from Washington's hustle and bustle. I would miss the open spaces, green campus and the rare sight of the students wandering the campus signing to each other. There is no place like Gallaudet in the world and after two weeks staying in the campus, I believe that it was an experience I will never forget and it is on my bucket list for the future.  Washington DC as a whole is firmly written on my bucket list for the future.

So with a few Gallaudet themed goodies, including shorts, hoodies and postcards, we left and headed to the state of New York, first stop: Rochester. There is absolutely nothing to do in Rochester apart from a museum of play and then a zoo. Oh, and Rochester School for the Deaf and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), one a school and one a major university. Today, we visited Rochester School for the Deaf and tomorrow we are visiting NTID, two contacts we were very happy to acquire. 

Rochester School for the Deaf or RSD is situated just out of the main town, right next to a long river running to Lake Ontario. nestled in a quiet suburban area. If ever there was a role model for what a good school should be, it was this. The four of us wandered round the leafy campus with our mouths grazing the floor as we struggled to take in the specialist run school. It made Britain look abysmal in comparison, there was no school I have ever heard of that has such a high level of teaching and support. It had a swimming pool, a polished enormous sports hall, a fully kitted out gym room with a small area for the little ones to play on mats with big brightly coloured blocks. There was so much care poured into the building, not a wall left bare or drab, with signs and words of inspiration everywhere. In the kindergarten section a small sign read 'Where is home? This is home.' and I was pleased to see in reception a large poster stating what would make a good signer. encouraging the students to throw themselves in. 

The first two people we met were hearing, including out tour guide Mr Kruppenbacher and the receptionist. Our tour guide first question was if we were hearing or deaf and then going on to say that it might be a little difficult as to which language method he would use to take the tour. He stated he wasn't strictly allowed to speak and sign at the same times and this made sense to me because you cant really mush two languages together without some confusion and loss of message. We told him that he could just sign and we would pick it up and learn but throughout the tour, he slipped into speech and sign as we went round looking at the different classrooms. Mr Kruppenbacher was the public relations officer for the school, working with the outside community, sorting out the social media for the school and of course, giving tours to people like us.

He walked us into Perkins Hall, past a maze of chintzy wallpaper, past reception and into the museum of sorts packed full of memorabilia from the Rochester School's sports teams, old hearing aids and examples of the clothing worn from the era the school was first set up in 1867. He gave us information on the school itself: it was set up by one family with a deaf daughter who wanted to give their child an education, they went to Maryland, picked up two teachers and then moved back to Rochester. The company of children grew from one to twenty and then the group bought proper land and became a school. I had read about different methods of communication that have developed over time for deaf education and I had vaguely heard of The Rochester Method but didn't know it came form RSD. In the late 1800s, the Superintendent of the school decided that the oral method was the way forward and that every word should be simultaneously finger spelt to aid communication. Those children must have finger spelled really fast by the time they graduated. There were three beautifully painted portraits of the first family, as the founders are called, hanging in the porch, and there are paintings of the previous Superintendents of the school. Only two Superintendents have been deaf, the one holding the position now and one before that.  

We were shown the dormitory that had airy lounges and solid wooden beds made of the old school building that was knocked down. The doors never closed and were always pegged open so each room could be looked into and checked by the staff members that were on duty and so the children could socialize and see who was in the room without having the barrier of a shut door or having to do the pointless motion of knocking. The library was a large open plan room with a story time corner for the young children and apple mac computers for the older ones and of course, books. The tour guide showed us the view of the valley that runs down to the river by the side of the school, trees stretching up outside the windows, very close to the birds flying a few metres above. Students went down to the river to learn about geology and nature taking paddle boats to sail in calm waters and playing by the waterfall in the summer. Yes, it sounds like something from The Famous Five but after having the wonderful view of the Adelphi Pub back in Preston  from my classroom, I felt like these students are living in a dream.  

Mr Kruppenbacher, our tour guide, stopped us next to a heaving cabinet stuffed full of sports trophies and told us that these were just a few of the trophies their sports teams have won. RSD compete against hearing and deaf teams in the state, doing very, very well it seemed. Walking into the main school building, all four of our mouths smacked to the floor. The walls were lined with the most stunning art, depicting hands signing different topics in brightly painted colours. I knew out tour guide was signing something but we couldn't rip our eyes away. Every year a deaf artist comes into the school to create art with the children to display on the walls of the school, the particular work I talk of was created by Chuck Baird.


After seeing room after room of airy visual space and seeing the walls lined with lovingly created art pieces, I was interested to know about the actual running of the school. The oral method did not have influence here in this school, each child having a teaching plan created by the state, the parents and the school to decide how best they could be taught and whether they should be put into a program encouraging speech or whether they should be exposed to only sign language. Most classes were taught in sign, with a rough estimate of 40% of teachers and teaching staff being deaf, all of which know sign language. The school try to take on as many deaf staff as possible into their school and in every classroom there is at least one deaf role model. The students, some come in daily from far and wide on buses, some board at the school in the dorms, range from 0 years old to as old as 21. Staff go into a newborns home to give support until they are ready to start at the schools kindergarten program at around age three and then they will move through the program until age eighteen, when they will graduate. We were shown a board congratulating the graduates of 2016- all four of them, heading off to either college or into work. After this, the school support the students to go into a profession and if they are not ready, give them housing on campus so they can get a taste of life as an independent individual.

I could of cried seeing this school, wandering around it seeing the simple attentiveness given to the word 'Deaf', not having this word slotted in as an afterthought by the hearing administration. England is so far behind this level of schooling that it is practically pre-historic. You can barely find a school that use sign to teach. Scrap that, you can hardly find a deaf school. RSD support their children in every way they can: to write the best they can, sign to a high standard, read well and prosper as a deaf individual, engulfed by their own natural language, in a beautiful setting surrounded by deaf role models. This is so important for these students. I am not deaf, but can I move to America please?