Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste!



In observation of what is happening on DeafRead, Jay Krieger expressed from his heart his views on History, Education and Unity. It is in his hopes that viewers will take his message in their hearts and come together and work toward a greater good.

45 comments:

IamMine said...

Nicely signed, Jay...

This was worth the time of putting off on my test! :D

And I won't blame you for failing it! :)

Thank you for summarizing things up and helping us to re-evaluate ourselves and where we want to go with DeafRead.

Yes, I thought Barb did a wonderful job with her kids in Bi/Bi vlog!

That really blew me away and I'd love to see MANY more like that!!

Wouldn't it be great if it's like that in ALL schools!?

Anyway, yeah... let's start over.

How about now?

I wouldn't mind another group hug! ;)

Thanks, Jay!

ASLumabas said...

Very powerful mesage! We, Deaf bloggers, must unity and work together in one group than divide in enemies. Keep vlogging!

Anonymous said...

A very good Vlog

Now I know you better everytime I watch your Vlog. I like how you think and your perspective in finding the solution in Bilingual issues.

Maybe someday we can go fishing and talk out in the middle of the lake when the fish are not biting.

John F. Egbert

Vampbat said...

THAT'S IT! u have a lot points same thing in my mind. really Deaf History good for us how much we did fight for our life to get success and show to children we did for them SAME THING americans war other country for OUR FREEDOM. so we fight people for our ASL right. yes i agreed ALOT stuff about it. we should discuss not NEGATIVE COMMENTS just discuss if they unagreed then just tell us WHY and show their feel as point what their opinion. yes u are right! keep up with ur vlog it's great!

Joshua Womick

Anonymous said...

Awesome --- An excellent point you have. I agree with you in 110%.

Anonymous said...

Good stuff, Jay; you hit the nail on it's proverbial head! Time to stop spinning our wheels and getting nowhere, politically.

Oh, and btw, don't think I missed the "P's" when you mentioned Turk, lol!

Anonymous said...

Jay,

You would make an excellent deaf leader one day if you aim to have that goal! What we need is strong unity among our deaf fellows. The last thing we need our inferiority or insecurity to be used as weapons to divide the deaf community. We should not make ourselves a huge laughingstock in the front of the world. It is up to us to decide if we want to succeed or not. After all, the choice is our own!

You are truly a fabulous gem for the deaf community! It is refreshing to have someone with a great deal of maturity & rationality like you! Keep up the good work w/ vlogging!

A Deaf Californian

Anonymous said...

Jay and Barb:

You both are doing a great service to the Deaf Americans. I think it is time to train Deaf people about Bi-Bi approach because many do not know what it means. The question from hearing professionals are: Does Bi-Bi work? If yes, how does it work? When we have the answers or suggestions and we can educate the hearing professionals.

It is understood that parents want the best for their children and most parents are afraid of Deaf people. Deaf people get too emotional on Deaf related issues. What they need to do is educate and share resources to help parents make better decision for their Deaf child without taking sides. Show the parents that American Sign Language is a very powerful language on earth. Do not use emotional and illogical arguments. The facts is what the parents need.

A lot of parents are comfortable with hard of hearing people because they know how to communicate with parents. I don't mean using voice but using facts.

An example that I use with hearing parents: American Sign Language has been proven by Salk Institute that a child will use both parts of their brains to accelerate their learning process. The reason behind this theory is because a child cannot use their vocal chords until much later. Why wait, and use ASL to simulate their brain to learn new language.
American Sign Language works perfectly with written English and most schools do not want to get involved in this because they lack the knowledge of the subject itself. Once the school administrators understand how it works and they will push for it because what they have now is not working for years. They need to open up to new ideas that will work. This is a win-win approach for the school and the Deaf people in a long term.

We can post facts and create a “talk” sheet to use via vlog/blog. Education is the key which will lead you towards enlightment. The talk sheet will include sources and facts that will provide a foundation for your debates. Debate on facts is very powerful tool to allow parents to come to you and ask more questions about the topic they needed information.

What are needed for the talk sheet?

1. Parents need information on American Sign Language. Pick a web site that is credible such as Gallaudet, Clerc Center and etc.
2. Facts of American Sign Language are: Give a short list of information.
3. Benefits of learning Bi-Bi
4. Deaf history, Deaf culture, Deaf organizations and Deaf schools. One good comment would be “the first Deaf school in America was created 41 years after the Declaration of Independence.” This is to show parents of Deaf children that Deaf education is not new. A little history of the school for the Deaf in Paris, France because this was the first formal education of the Deaf.
5. If parents wanted their Deaf child to be implanted with the cochlear device and explain to the parents using American Sign Language and speech will enhance their learning experience. Do not say, “Cochlear Implants are BAD!” That will not work because the parent already decided and it’s important to work with the parent and help their Deaf child grow up successfully.

You can add more information to help the parent, Deaf child and the Deaf World to grow in a world that is filled with wonderful opportunities.

I apologize for the length of this post.

--DeafLinux

Anonymous said...

Hey Jay.... you're not married, are you? (grinning)

~ A single deaf female fan of SeeWhatYouSay, SayWhatYouSee :-)

Anonymous said...

So well said! Left me with a good feeling as I listened to you.

I would like to quote something I just read in my homework tonight. (I have been multitasking a lot today). This is about adult learning and technology. It is called reflective learning.

As Mezirow states, “reflective learning involves assessment or reassessment of assumptions” (1991, 6) and

“reflective learning becomes transformative whenever assumptions or premises are found to be distorting, inauthentic or otherwise invalid.” (1991, 6)

Reflective learning activities can assist students in examining their biases and habits and move them toward a new understanding of information presented.

(from abstract by Delores Fidishun, Ed.D., Title: Andragogy and Technology: Integrating Adult Learning as We Teach With Technology)

If you want that translated into ASL, better find somebody to do it because I am still too self conscious to get on vlog.

Dragon 21 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dragon 21 said...

Jay,
Man I love you! Your vlog is very very powerful and inspiring message. Yes there are so much chaos on Deafread.com and we need to stop and think... what've we got us into? You were right abut Frank Turk about young children. They are our future. I bowed you.
JD

Anonymous said...

Bravo Jay!!!

You were talking about "Ego-Manic" we all know who you were referring to. Let us focus what we need to do.. This sacred Deaf world is here we cheerish, rather than dividing them into what people think they should be... Let us not to listen to this particular "Ego-Manic" from Hawaii!

The Coyote-

Anonymous said...

Waving hands! This is the best vlog presentation I have seen. You beautifully expressed your words of wisdom from your heart. What a leader you are! Thank you.

Unity always,

Julie Rems-Smario

Anonymous said...

Jay,

I love it when people speak from the heart about things that really matter; about things that raise awareness in a positive and non-harmful way; about messages filled with encouragement, meaning and hope. Your lengthy discourse was very inspirational to everyone in the DeafRead community and beyond.

Thank you for being a bright light for us all.

~ LaRonda
www.earofmyheart.com

Karen Mayes said...

Yes, Barb DiGi's blogspot is one of my few favorite blogspots (due to my deaf children, as a mother, I am more interested in deaf education, and because as a bias, I know Barb personally, a sweet, brilliant, caring lady), along with Jay's blogspot and a few others that fit my taste for now. Yes, I was concerned by the smears and negative remarks and I did remark that in the email to Carl who views the kind of comments as a "growing pain" to unity. We might need them to challenge our thinking process, how to reconcile the negative thinking, change it to positive... an enlightening challenge.

Yeah, forward to the future... because of my children.

Hands waving to all of you.

ASL said...

You are wonderful ROLE educator in America and possible in North America. Not only one this vlog but so far all of your vlogs are great describe to make sure that we still are Deaf unity!

Your explains are very powerful for positive human being, no matter what people think of us but we still always learn more and better these days for our children in the future.

ROLE has two different mean :)
1. The characteristic and expected social behavior of an individual.
2. Rules Of Law Enforcement

Anonymous said...

Your presentation was awe inspiring and gave us food of thoughts. For many years we were labeled as second class citizens. With your thinking and point out many things, we can elevated ourselves to "first class citizens". Have you stop to think how much of knowledge we have compare to many "hearies". We are much smarter than they thought or expect.
Continue digging for more unusual thinking and sharing with us. We are fortunate having a person like you and if there are many more like you, this planet of deaf people will be different than the past deaf people living in. Looking forward to more input comments from you.

Anonymous said...

Jay...

WOW...really impact a lot from your loud message out...Deaf Educators and Deaf Community should be around a lot to improve our future children. If Deaf Educators and Deaf Community are not hanging around, HOW CAN IMPROVE THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN!!!

I am one of your "Champ" Blog watcher!!!

SW-D

Judge said...

Jay,

Dunno if you all know for the fact...

We only use 3% to 4% of our brain.

The more information comes in your brain, it would cause you headaches? or your mind goes nuts?

So, are we saying that the rest of your brain is WASTED?

Nonetheless, your comment is pretty much well-received agreement Hopefully it is not our intention to kill each other over the DeafRead.

Thanks for bringing up and hope to cease the war & dividing each other.

Wish you all a Merry Hanukkah! No? Oops, now is it red thing? or green thing? My mind is confused.

Anonymous said...

Wow! What can I say? I'm blown over by your well prepared, articulate oratorical presentation! You nailed it by summarizing all of the important topics succinctly! I'm glad you are on the platform in DeafRead.com with positive energy.

Thank you, Jay.

Amy Cohen Efron

Toby Welch said...

Very good vlog! I made vlog about "Re-consideration of Colonialism." I meant to help us to re-connect together. But your vlog is much better than mine. You had many good points about Deafread.com how we treat bloggers/vloggers at deafread.com. Thank you!

Roy Collins said...

Jay,
I admire your philosphy! I favor it!
Roy

Net0maN said...

good deep thinkings. i enjoyed your vlog.

Tad

Anonymous said...

Hello there Jay,

I wanted to share something with you. I remember watching a Nubia comedian was telling his jokes. He mentioned that nubians got upset when Tiger Wood said he is not just black but he is also an Asian. He told them, don't be upset. He is still DARK. I was thinking of the same thing for Deaf people. When some deaf people get CI, don't be upset because he or she is still deaf. Will never hear exactly the same as hearing person. They will still come to Deaf community. That goes the same for Nubians, they decided to join different races. Let go but they will always come back to them. That goes the same for deaf people with CI, they still come back to us, Deaf people. For instance, Iammine who has CI but still hangs around with us Deaf people.

That nubia comedian is SINBAD. I love him. He is sooo FUNNY!

Anonymous said...

Nubia is another word for black. I think Nubia is a beautiful word. and i love to pronouce it.

Hey! Dont feel offended or anything. My husband is black. He calls himself Nubian.

Anonymous said...

Deep Thinking, Jay. I reckon that you have studied the philosphy and psychology things, including the political stuff....What can I say?

Why do I like your vlogs? No reason for me to tell you this but you are supposing to convince us to debate your vlogs! Great job, Jay.

Judge, have you forgotten it's blue.....Brain isn't always perfect....even with the war games. We could have beaten and won the computer games.....

Huh?

White Ghost

Anonymous said...

Jay,

Well-Done job!

I would like to say something. You focus on Deaf Americans as bilingual people(ASL/English).

How about deaf foreigners who moved in America from other diferent countries such as Poland, India, Korea, Mexico, etc. They know their native tongue. I would say that they are trilingualists.

ASL teachers in America should be DEAF. We cannot do anything because of human rights. In Canada there is no hearing ASL teacher. Hearing people should respect Deaf people for not teaching ASL. I went to the ASLTA conference in Indianapolis( your beloved home) some years ago. I was floored to see the majority group of hearing people who happen to teach ASL. I could not read them and they cannot read me for I am a proASL user.

There should be a curriculum to teach ASL to deaf children, not hearing people. Many books that are used to teach ASL are designed for hearing people. Where are the books or textbooks for teaching deaf foreigners ASL??? Teacher made materials for them is the best option.

The best quote is " Easier said than done".

We have to work together as a group but it is out of quesiton because we do have people who have ego problems. I strongly believe in working together or throwing some ideas for one organization or other instead of getting a credit for myself. Many attention getters won't work together until they get their spotlight or credit. What a shame!

Another issue is that when deaf Americans travel in another country, hearing people in that country understand deaf Americans better than hearing Americans because of gestures.

I talk too much!

I better sign off now!

Anonymous said...

Jay, wonderful and very thorough.

There is a fine line between having the right to be open and how to say it.

It all comes with the degree of being reasonable to reveal and how to reveal. Many times when one tries to tell even s/he may not be clear or may be verbally tough, it is worse not to listen this person and finally learn in years later this person was right.

They are something what I see that works best:

1. Do not get ugly.

2. Do not indulge to talk cheaply no matter if this person is wrong, one being wrong does not give another the right to be wrong.

3. Validate others' view by thinking as if being in their shoes.

4. Keep facts and one's own baggage separate.

Anne Marie

IamMine said...

Anonymous said...
Hey Jay.... you're not married, are you? (grinning)

~ A single deaf female fan of SeeWhatYouSay, SayWhatYouSee :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, Anonymous - I think he's available... hehehe.

What? Just trying to help... ;)

Don't be going on a killing spree if Jay leaves us!!
::sobs::

Had to watch the vlog again, anyway! :)

Pearl Jam's "Severed Hand" snippet:

Do you want more?

I said, Yeahhhhh!!!!


*pulls t-shirt over face, backs away from screen*

Anonymous said...

I re-read my comment. Gosh, I misspelled word It is nubian, not nubia. Geez!

: - (

Anonymous said...

We need more Frank Turks to invest the Deaf Youth Kids. He is the reason many of us are the leaders. We need to ongoing our future Deaf Youth Kids. I was relucted to read your vlog because of 12 long minutes. Thanks. Worth my time to watch you. Thanks, Jay

Anonymous said...

Brilliant presentation you made that I ever see. I am going to ask you to marry me. OOPs.. you are man! Heh...
I am a biggest fan of your vlog. Keep Vlogging.


Dennis

Shel said...

An excellent vlog!

I am presently working on my vlog and have been re-doing it, as I had been concerned about what has been happening lately, but you have put things into perspective. The message is the main thing regardless of how the presenter presents it-in fluent ASL, or regional ASL, or in English.

Good show, chap!

Anonymous said...

Jay....

Im so IN LOVE with you!

Your message is powerful, simple and so very true!

keep it up, we need people like you who are aiming for better history, better education and better unity...

And why arent you running for NAD president. You would be FABOOOOOOOOO!!!!

btw...I'm available too--LOLOLOLOLOL!!!

Anonymous said...

Jay, whoa! That's a well organized powerful vlog with positive inspiration.

I'm not going to repeat what other commenters before me ahve already said.

I think you would be an excellent leader in deaf issues if you are not working at ISD. I see a lot of potential in you.

Also you're have smoothed the rough edges of the recent disagreement in the deaf vlog community over the deaf-open/closed issue. I see that everyone is banding together...you, Barb, IamMine, Aidan, and others. That was good to see to prevent further dissociation of the deaf vlog community.

I better shut up now, enjoy your day, Jay, knowing you made a difference!

Anonymous said...

BRAVO JAY! THIS IS EXCELLENT!!! I HOPE THIS WILL HELPS RESOLVED WHAT IS HAPPENING BETWEEN CARL SCHRODER AND MIKE SCHMIDT AS WELL AS ALL OF US. AGAIN BRAVO JAY!

Barb DiGi said...

Hi Jay,

Bookmarked your vlogsite several days ago as I intended to find the time to watch and reflect. I finally got to sit down and watch your 12 minute long video on a relaxing but early Saturday morning! Yeah, I actually watched the whole thing so bear with my long reply!!

Thank you for delivering your valid points. I truly enjoy how you present your perspectives that make a lot of sense but it surely stirred up a lot of emotions inside of me.

We will always cherish and value our Deaf heritage where we can preserve and pass it on to the next deaf generation by educating them. We cannot live without history since it provides us a blueprint of who we are today. A rapid changing society along with innovative technology surely affects how we live and interact making us different than our deaf ancestors.

To make our goals more successful, as you said, we should be including hearing people who advocates ASL and bilingual education just the same way Martin Luther King included white people. Without white people, I doubt that the civil rights movement will be successful. So we need to look at this way, we do need them to be on our side where this powerful message can make more impact. I have a dream for us to march and make a speech at the Capitol Hill where we can push for Bi-BI NOW! This is very possible for us to get to this point. I would like us to talk about this plan :-) so let's brainstorm. I get the feeling we will get to somewhere with our messages but we need a solid and organized plan. Do you think this is possible?

As far as deaf education goes, we do have a long way to go battling the concept to fit bilingual instruction in deaf education. It is much more challenging since today's hearing devices (digital hearing aids, cochlear implants) hinder the value of bilingual since parents and educators don't feel it is necessary to include ASL that these deaf children can manage English alone. We need to prove that bilingual will benefit these deaf children anyway but that is the challenging part.

I felt honored when you used me as an example and I surely hope the others will follow by providing their examples to make it more visual and heard. The use of deafread.com is a mechanism for us that we can take a great deal of advantage to use the system. I think we are in an awakening period where we realize that we have found this precious gem that unlocked our cages allowing us to interact by sharing our comments, thoughts and knowledge that facilitate the others to broaden their horizons.

I found that it is more powerful using youtube (I know you are an advocate of videoegg!) because it is more commonly used by international deaf people where you may make more impact by delivering your future messages. This is what I've experienced when getting e-mails from deaf foreigners since they discovered my video through youtube not only from deafread. There are many many deafies here in USA not paying attention to deafread.com. There are several friends of mine who are involved in deaf education and they are not that familiar with deafread yet. I urged them to take the time to view and engage. So this is only a beginning but we can move forward as we continue to spread the word about deafread.

The more deaf advocates get involved, the more powerful and unified we will be. I was inspired seeing a lot of deafies involved for the Unity for Gallaudet cause that lured me to this v/blogosphere but what happened afterwards? I noticed people respond less to issues such as deaf education but more to "personalized" issues. I was comparing the number of people viewing my vlogs about an incident in the aiport and about deaf educational issues. Guess the difference on how many people saw between those types of vlogs? The airport story is now viewed by 16,000 people while deaf educational issues, the highest I could get, is 3,000 (the airport story was posted 2 weeks after the Future of Gallaudet: Deaf Education vlog).

But I am not giving up since I realize that people are slowly discovering this kind of information and day by day I keep on receiving e-mails asking to use my vlogs about bilingual education in their research and universities. You never know how any vlogs can make an impact that will be picked up as a resource by educators/administrators. We always are thirsty for visual examples of bilingual education especially that there are plenty of bs red tape getting permission to have deaf children shown in the public video. I am fortunate to have young deaf children that I, as a parent, can go ahead and decide to tape them as long as the experience is positive for them. My kids gave me the green light and I give them plenty of rewards. They got to hear from others who told them how proud they are about them reading and participating in the process. These words inspired them so much that they said they would do it again.

There is so much more I want to say but I realize I will just talk about this from time to time. Thanks again for the inspiration!

Your old "neighbor" friend,

Barb

Anonymous said...

I think big "D" cliques have really ruined the progress in the Deaf community. Maybe we need to take a look at Kappa Gamma and Phi Kappa Zeta and see how much damage they have done to the Deaf community.

Anonymous said...

What about people like Ricky Taylor a.k.a. Ridor? Deaf people need to stand up and sue him for libel. He is an embarrassment to the Deaf community, and needs to be stopped. I know it is probably no use because he has no money and living on Social Security Income benefits but still...we need to unify and fight against mean Deaf people first before marching foward.

Anonymous said...

Finally caught up with your vlog! Excellent points and it deafinitely raised our awareness on how to use our "mind" more and productive!

grantlairdjr said...

Jay,

I finally get chance to watched your vlog today. Very good job.

We still have long way to go. It is like we already created DeafRead Community in very unique way. Blogger and Vlogger have become powerful in some ways but we are still representing ourselves. It’s nothing wrong with it – just that we are in new era with Internet and blog community.

Yet other groups like (For example: TDI, NAD, State Association, SHHH, etc.) are way behind – they have larger link to grassroots deaf community. They are our key to local & state community like fighting with law issues, local concerns, political, technology, and etc. Hopefully we will get chance to help your local non-profit organization with whatever they need to increase such as more visibility, become stronger, etc.

I’ve been around deaf blog community long time even before DeafRead born – very few people mentioned about NAD and state association.

I will try and make vlog about these specific issues in near future. Thanks for bring it up.

gwlj

HDB Biker said...

IndianaCAG said....

High fives!!! Excellent point!.. No words can match your view!!..
Everyone has a lifetime job to do!.. Get up and protect our jewels..

Janis said...

I watched your vlog tonight and it was the perfect timing. We watched the PBS show, "Through Deaf Eyes" earlier and it was very nostalgic. Your concerns are very valid. The mind is a terrible thing to waste! We all need to focus on our future generations so they can continue to help their future generations.
That's what we need to do...think of others and strive to improve interaction and unity, be it in the classroom or in politics or in social activities.
I am sure that PBS show and your vlog will create big ripples!
Janis

Anonymous said...

Hey, Jay!

I do not understand why I received your VLOGs the other day instead of March.

I would like to share one powerful quote, DO THINGS, NOT DREAM THEM with you.

Sandra Goldstein