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Dr. Harry Lang responds to the recent vlog posted by NAD

Dr. Harry Lang, Professor Emeritus at NTID/RIT, former WPSD Boardmember and life long NAD member, responds to the recent vlog posted by NAD regarding the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. Dr. Lang’s letter to the National Association of the Deaf appears below.

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Dear Howard and Chris,

I don’t believe that we have met, Howard—Chris is one of RIT/NTID’s great alums—so please allow me to briefly introduce and re-introduce myself. I have been a member of NAD for about 40 years, and have supported NAD’s history and advocacy in relation to the history of Deaf people as well as their communication rights.

I am also a co-author of a widely-used textbook, Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice. In addition, I have published many research and theoretical articles on teaching and learning in Deaf Education. I am also a proud graduate of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

In 2011, after 41 years as a professor at NTID at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), I retired with the rank of Professor Emeritus. The following year I was awarded an honorary doctoral degree at Gallaudet University for my academic contributions.

In 2011, I also retired as a full-time member of the Board of Trustees at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. As a profoundly deaf person, I had served for 23 years on the Board. It was a great pleasure to work closely with Don Rhoten and the Board, including such distinguished Deaf Trustees such as Dr. Harold Mowl, who recently retired as Superintendent of the Rochester School for the Deaf, Mr. Rodney Danco, Vice President of Finance at Danco Precision Company in Philadelphia, Dr. Nathie Marbury, expert in ASL, Deaf Culture, and Deaf Studies, Mary Lou Novitsky of Deaf Mosaic fame, former NAD President Libby Pollard, ASL linguist Mike Kemp, and numerous other Deaf professionals. My classmate Rodney Danco was the first Deaf President of WPSD’s Board of Trustees.

With this said, I must express deep concern about how you have exacerbated the issue of unrest expressed by people who have not been recently or deeply involved with the school. I asked myself who this person was on the video with Howard and why he deserved such attention from the NAD leaders. I don’t know if he had ever visited WPSD, but he certainly had opinions that ran counter to my many years experience as a Deaf Board member and supporter of the school. To me, indications from this vlog are that the NAD leaders accepted Mr. Bonn’s opinions, and perhaps those of some others, without any conversation about their validity.

Regardless of what your intentions were, as officers of NAD, in producing and posting the recent video on Facebook, you stunned many people like myself who have worked hard to build a fine reputation for the school.

Let me add a bit more on the validity of my own perspectives about communication at WPSD. Don Rhoten has always been proactive in establishing the School’s Communication Policy. Let’s put aside expressions like “Sim-Comm” and “Total Communication,” which have been created by people outside the school, and often confused in the broader field of Deaf Education. When I authored WPSD’s History, I researched 140 years of the school’s accomplishments. I wrote in the Preface about Don Rhoten’s motto: “Two hundred children—two hundred programs” and how it continues to reflect the individual attention deaf children receive at WPSD—a school that provides exemplary instruction at all grade levels. In this sense, Don has continued a long tradition that is reflected in WPSD’s history.

As a professor for decades in a graduate program responsible for preparing teachers of Deaf students, I often held up WPSD as a model. And this is personal as well as professional. The school prepared me well in ways I never dreamed possible. The excellence of its teachers, curriculum, staff, services, and research are recognized state-wide and nationally. Without the education I received at WPSD, I would not have become a scientist, educator, and author of ten books. The school made a difference in my life. I am a member of the family of accomplished, engaged WPSD graduates.

I see the impact of this school everywhere I travel, and know the difference WPSD will make on the lives of countless young deaf Pennsylvanians in the future. More recently, I saw this impact on young graduates of the school who, practically in tears, argued on the web that those complaining should realize the damage they are doing.
I am appalled at the recent efforts of a few people to tarnish the school’s image with their comments on the Web.
Granted, people have the right to protest any concern, but NAD should have exercised more caution, in my opinion. I first became aware of the concerns when a few WPSD proud alumni posted videos defending our school. I added a comment to one young woman’s video that I was proud of her for standing up to unfair criticism, as she so capably expressed. I hope that you have seen a few of their vlogs as well. These students and alumni grew up in the school. Certainly, their perspectives deserve your attention, too.

You are correct in your concern that the person to follow in Don’s footsteps will have a huge challenge, including running the Scranton School, and various outreach programs. The individual will also be challenged by the various political interests of external publics.

In 2008, the Board observed classes to examine whether the school’s policies on communication were the best for deaf learners. We observed 40 classes. These included about an equal number of elementary, middle school, and secondary classes. The range of topics covered in the classes was broad—from the standard subjects such as science, mathematics, social studies, ASL, and English to such skill development as using Google to look up biographical information on the nine Supreme Court justices, finding solution sets for two algebraic equations with two unknowns, building a bookcase in woodworking from the lumber from a campus tree cut down recently, competing for the best windmill construction, or using the Web to find information on the Dust Bowl storms.
I doubt very much if Mr. Bonn had a similar scope of observations of communication at WPSD on which to base his concerns.

The range of communication needs represented by students at WPSD is very wide, and both teaching and non-teaching staff exhibit a strong loyalty to the school and dedication to its purposes.

The Board members were asked to address the question “Is WPSD’s communication policy/philosophy appropriate for the students?” Our response was “Yes. It recognizes and supports accommodation for the diversity among students, although we think it might go further and acknowledge that the ability to communicate among such diversity is reflective of the real world and therefore should be seen as a potential advantage as well as a potential challenge. The range of communication preferences in terms of dominant mode presents challenges to the WPSD teachers; however, effective communication was generally accomplished. Several teachers were noted as particularly adept at code-switching for the benefit of different student needs…”

We were also asked by Superintendent Rhoten: “Are the staff following the policy/philosophy?”Generally, we were very pleased with the communication we observed. In some classes, there were students who used ASL only. There were also teachers who did this. On the other end of the spectrum were classes with emphasis on speech and use of residual hearing. Most classes fell in between these two descriptions. These classes had more heterogeneous mixes of students and, consequently, simultaneous use of speech/lip movements and signs by teachers and students, with teachers applying judicious communication strategies that were as inclusive as possible (including a wide range of modern technologies). Bilingual education is an important emphasis at WPSD, with classes devoted to ASL as a language.
In 2013, after I retired from the Board, WPSD invited me to spend a week at the school as “Author in Residence.” During that time I visited about 15 classes and met with the pupils for about an hour in each class. In addition, I provided several presentations to the faculty and staff. This experience “up close” with the students and teachers made me even more proud of what WPSD is offering in terms of quality education, including bilingual emphases. During one of my presentations to the faculty and staff, I stated that I believe that our current Chief Executive Officer, Don Rhoten, is the best thing that has happened to WPSD in its 142-year history. “Don [and Cathy] have done so much to enhance WPSD as a model for other schools,” I signed. “Because of their hard work, and the work of the many staff at WPSD, the school has a great future, one of collaboration with other school programs, both schools for the Deaf and mainstream.”

NAD should be doing everything possible to support such schools. Don Rhoten deserves a much better farewell than to have leaders of such a national organization as NAD publicly express concern about the school’s quality when Don and so many other people have worked very hard to establish the school as a model of excellence in contemporary Deaf Education.

As a life-long NAD member, I hope that you both visit the school and see the programs and staff in action. This is something you should have done before you supported the “hunger strike” by some disgruntled individuals. Please discuss with the school leaders why ASL is used with other methods of communication for all students. See the beauty of ASL in action in many educational contexts, including artistically (WPSD has a playwright in residence program, and the Deaf actor Amber Zion is among its graduates). Also, please see the variety of communication needs among the pupils with whom the teachers must interact on a daily basis. Talk with the alumni who are proud of the school’s heritage, and heartbroken at the denigration of their school by the national organization that is supposed to be representing them, and PSAD as well.

In summary, I feel strongly that Don and WPSD should not have been trolled online by national leaders based on the views of people who have not even visited the school.
Sincerely,

Harry
Dr. Harry G. Lang, Ed.D., L.H.D.
Professor Emeritus
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Rochester Institute of Technology