Picture this: You walk into a store, restaurant, or school one day, and suddenly, you cannot understand what anyone is saying. You can see their mouths moving and possibly hear very faint noises, but that is all you can make out. What would you do? How would it feel to not be able to communicate with anyone around you, or at least very few? Imagine not being able to communicate with your parents, your best friend, siblings, or classmates. It is time the opportunity is given.
Although I personally do not suffer from being deaf, I do feel very strongly that sign language should be taught in schools. Those who are deaf should have the opportunity, if they choose to, to go to a school where other kids are being taught the language that they know. I realize that there are interpreters that can walk around with students and interpret for them. However, growing up is hard enough; having someone following them around constantly so they know what everyone is saying would only make things more complicated. If we could make things even a little easier for them by learning to sign, why shouldn't we? We take for granted that we have this gift of hearing that some people do not have and may never get. So to give them the gift of signing would be the least we can do.
Sign language has always been something I have thought we as a society should highly consider learning, and when I saw this video, it really stuck out to me and I found it to be a perfect example of why learning to sign would be beneficial. This little boy had to no expectation that this mascot would know how to sign, and when he did, his entire day — actually, it is probably safe to say his entire year was made. Not to mention it made his parents' days as well!
If sign language was taught in schools, children who can hear would have a greater opportunity of learning sign language as opposed to hoping they just learn it on their own later in life. As you saw on the video, even a simple conversation of sign language with a deaf child can make all the the difference in the world. To those of us who can hear, this seems so small, but to those who cannot, it may make all the difference in the world. It is time we start to realize the importance of knowing how to sign. Not just for our benefit, but for those around us.
I would love to hear your opinions on if you think sign language should be taught in schools; you can leave opinions in the comments or even reach me personally! Thank you!
