ASL in Public School
Why American Sign Language should be an elective at QHS
By Avery Magee, reporter
When coming across a person from another country you may feel overwhelmed, or unsure of how to help them. That's the same when you meet someone who is deaf. People who are hard of hearing are accustomed to meeting others who don’t understand them, deaf people are able to read lips/communicate with the hearing community, but many of us are not able to do the same. This is why I think that there should be an option to learn sign language in our high school.
In order to determine if students would be interested in an ASL club, I interviewed 50 people and asked various questions, first I asked, “How many Americans do you think suffer from hearing loss?” The answers averaged out to around 6.95 million Americans. The right answer is 48 million. That just shows that we aren’t educated about the deaf unless someone close to us is affected by it. I also asked, “If you or someone you love was suffering from hearing loss, would you want others to learn ASL (American Sign Language) to communicate”? 94% of the people said yes. I then went on to ask, “If you had the option, would you take ASL as a class in school?” 88% of people said that yes they would, the other 25% of people said they didn’t have the room in their schedules. 94% of the people I interviewed said that they think that they would benefit from learning ASL, and they are right. In fact, research shows that if you start learning ASL in high school or younger, sign language raises your IQ by 12 points! Learning and knowing ASL also helps increase standardized test scores, and vocabulary.
As you age, your hearing starts to deteriorate. 1 in 8 people in the U.S. over the age of 12 have hearing loss in one or both ears. You can lose your hearing at as young as 4 months old. The fact that you start losing your hearing at such an incredibly young age just goes to show the necessity of learning ASL at a young age. Schools make you learn a second language, and learning a second language has the same benefits as ASL. I’m not saying that learning ASL should be mandatory, but if you have room in your schedule, you should get to pick it as an elective. When interviewing those 50 people I also asked, “If you had the option to take ASL as a class, why would you?” The most common answer was to help to communicate with others. One person said, “If I am fluent in English, that means I should be fluent in all forms of English.” Currently, 40 U.S. states have recognized ASL as a language, and they also recognize that ASL helps bring up grades. Another person brought up the importance of ASL during lockdowns, and how we could use it without making any noise to communicate with others in the room. All of these responses show the benefits of having ASL in schools, not to mention the fact that it looks really good on college and job applications.
Queensbury has us learn Spanish and French to not only help us grow as students, but also help us grow as people so in the future we can communicate with others. By learning ASL, students will be able to do the same thing; which is why ASL should be an elective at Queensbury.
Why American Sign Language should be an elective at QHS
By Avery Magee, reporter
When coming across a person from another country you may feel overwhelmed, or unsure of how to help them. That's the same when you meet someone who is deaf. People who are hard of hearing are accustomed to meeting others who don’t understand them, deaf people are able to read lips/communicate with the hearing community, but many of us are not able to do the same. This is why I think that there should be an option to learn sign language in our high school.
In order to determine if students would be interested in an ASL club, I interviewed 50 people and asked various questions, first I asked, “How many Americans do you think suffer from hearing loss?” The answers averaged out to around 6.95 million Americans. The right answer is 48 million. That just shows that we aren’t educated about the deaf unless someone close to us is affected by it. I also asked, “If you or someone you love was suffering from hearing loss, would you want others to learn ASL (American Sign Language) to communicate”? 94% of the people said yes. I then went on to ask, “If you had the option, would you take ASL as a class in school?” 88% of people said that yes they would, the other 25% of people said they didn’t have the room in their schedules. 94% of the people I interviewed said that they think that they would benefit from learning ASL, and they are right. In fact, research shows that if you start learning ASL in high school or younger, sign language raises your IQ by 12 points! Learning and knowing ASL also helps increase standardized test scores, and vocabulary.
As you age, your hearing starts to deteriorate. 1 in 8 people in the U.S. over the age of 12 have hearing loss in one or both ears. You can lose your hearing at as young as 4 months old. The fact that you start losing your hearing at such an incredibly young age just goes to show the necessity of learning ASL at a young age. Schools make you learn a second language, and learning a second language has the same benefits as ASL. I’m not saying that learning ASL should be mandatory, but if you have room in your schedule, you should get to pick it as an elective. When interviewing those 50 people I also asked, “If you had the option to take ASL as a class, why would you?” The most common answer was to help to communicate with others. One person said, “If I am fluent in English, that means I should be fluent in all forms of English.” Currently, 40 U.S. states have recognized ASL as a language, and they also recognize that ASL helps bring up grades. Another person brought up the importance of ASL during lockdowns, and how we could use it without making any noise to communicate with others in the room. All of these responses show the benefits of having ASL in schools, not to mention the fact that it looks really good on college and job applications.
Queensbury has us learn Spanish and French to not only help us grow as students, but also help us grow as people so in the future we can communicate with others. By learning ASL, students will be able to do the same thing; which is why ASL should be an elective at Queensbury.