'He that can have patience can have what he will'...

A quote by Benjamin Franklin. This blog will prove how deadly right he was. You know, when you read something or meet someone of true connection and similar virtues, ethos and creed? I felt that today after a dramatic lecture whereby the highly erratic tutor stormed out only to return 40 minutes later only to be sadly still nowhere near as authoritative as she should be.

It was then I began to realise my teaching must be retain the importance of how to keep morale at a high and not lose the respect of students with a less than maladroit display I stepped out and away from the idle chatter to find a journal of which I found highly compelling. It was Deaf Perspectives on Psychology, Language and Communication by Mairian Corker ironically published by the very charity I've started working for Skill in 1990. Now she is still a highly regarded scholar who felt strongly about deaf education and additionally I learnt the deceased had a severe hearing loss as well and here is what she had to say about it:

'My experience of deafness may be best described as a knot of tension deep within me... it lurks in the depths and darkness of the cage... others who are asking me to deny my experience, the explosive tension moves nearer to the surface... labelling the tension with such words as anger, frustration does not relieve it'. Identical to how I feel and primarily the reasoning behind many deaf person's need for nurturing, education and to launch a student's capacity for learning in the broader sense.

Now, as previously stated 24 is the minimum age to be a teacher of the Deaf in the UK (makes me wish I lived in American and trained at this fantastic establishment http://www.rit.edu/). So I have four years to complete an English degree, P.G.C.E and possibly an M.A then I'd be there but not without it's complexities. As well as the self-progression I must also take the standard level of my articulation of British Sign Language to be directly observable and manipulable. I must research further perhaps through the acquisition of spatially organized syntax and cognitive underpinnings of the language in my own time as the tutor I have for linguistics isn't coherent nor understanding of my in-ability to lip read him and I feel he finds my writing a touch too extravagant and dis-attached from the question originally asked.

So there is a balance between a writer and teacher of the Deaf, I must master the spatial inflection for verb agreement rather than likes of Pope, Shakespeare and Milton as I very much wish to. But also I must be patient and not burden too much expectation and most certainly... never storm out of your class over a minor dispute!