Update on Deaf Tibetans

Well, I've been looking for some Deaf Tibetans. There's not a lot of information readily available, basically. Like I mentioned before, Tibetans take especially good care of their pregnant mothers and infants, so the rate of hearing loss is much lower than in the U.S. (not that I'm blaming American moms for all incidences of deafness in their children!!!- don't misunderstand- I love being Deaf!). Anyway, when I asked one of the doctors how they treat (medically) and educate their deaf children, I wasn't really satisfied with her answer. She basically lumped deaf kids in the same category as children with other disabilities; no different than many people in the U.S., so I'm not faulting her for it or anything. Just wasn't a satisfying answer.

Fast forward a couple hours later, my wonderful teacher Dr. Mim brought her good friend to meet me. I wish I could remember her friend's name, but she was the wife of one of the members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile. She let me know that there is a group of deaf children about 3 hours outside of Dharmasala who go to school with two teachers and an assistant, and all of them know sign language. They grow up together in a foster home as well (typical for most Tibetan children who are sent to the area while their parents stay behind in Tibet- some of the foster homes have up to 30 kids - but as I said before, they're well taken care of). I was really happy to hear this! I want to come back and visit the school and play with the kids, maybe write a little story about them for publication, because the culture of compassion in Tibetans is so wonderful and I want to see that in action with deaf children. :-) She reports they're really happy, normal, they grow up to do things that are similar to other Tibetans (Thangka painting, etc.). The woman was just clearly well-aware of the issues related to raising deaf children well, and I was so glad. There's another program for kids with special needs through the Tibetan Childrens Villages, and they have a couple of kids with some degree of hearing loss, I'd like to visit that program as well. I just want to learn as much as I can about how they educate the kids and practice Buddhist philosophy in those kinds of settings.

I feel really lucky that my kids go to the school they do; Madeline goes to a school with a classical education model. Honestly, I just picked the school because it sort of sounded good, she would wear a uniform, it's a charter so we could move to Minneapolis if we needed to, etc. But they diligently teach ethics and virtues as well, and I'm increasingly seeing some parallels with Buddhist teachings. And the more I learn about both philosophies and pedagogies, the more I realize that's pretty damn sweet.

Love,
Steph