Hilliard teacher Jeff Tackett’s experience as the child of deaf parents provided the moral foundation for a new HCSD course offering, reports Kevin Corvo for ThisWeekNews.com.
Mr. Corvo writes:
This school year [2017-2018], Hilliard for the first time will offer American Sign Language as a course at the McVey Innovative Learning Center.
Mr. Tackett is undeniably the driving force behind this initiative, according to the article.
[Memories of his parents being teased because they were deaf] inspired Tackett, a 2001 Darby High School graduate and a special-education teacher for Hilliard City Schools, to help a new generation of students become advocates for the deaf community in Hilliard.
[...]
He said his vision is to create an awareness of it and a path for hearing-impaired students to go to their hometown school rather than the Ohio School for the Deaf.
The new ASL course has already generated significant interest from students ...
Tackett will teach 75 students in three sections of ASL-1 at the MILC when classes resume in August.
When ASL was introduced as a class that met the district’s foreign-language requirement, there “was an immediate interest,” and all three sections are filled, said Mark Tremayne, director of innovation and extended learning.
... which is not only inspiring but will also pay societal dividends for years to come.
Ultimately, Tackett said, he hopes students will become aware of the hearing-impaired community and, when possible, be advocates for it.
“I was at a hospital not long ago and saw a woman, a patient, struggling to explain (something). I asked to (interpret) and she began crying,” said Tackett, who hopes his students can help in such instances, even if it is assisting a hearing-impaired person at a grocery store.
Full story here. (It’s a great read!)
❧
We do our best to highlight news we think you’ll find interesting and useful. Come across a story we should know about? Let us know!
Posts
