Wednesday, October 19, 2011


Do Deaf students participate in foreign exchange programs?

Of course they do! Deaf schools have participated in exchanges for over 25 years, beginning with the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut. More recently, a non-profit program run by Rebecca Epple was implemented in 2011, called the Deaf Wisconsin French Exchange, which takes students to France: Paris, Lyon and La Balme. The criteria for Wisconsin student participation include courses in: Deaf Studies, American Sign Language (ASL), as well as written French and French Sign Language (LSF-Langue des Signes Française).

The purpose of this exchange is two-fold: Students apply their Deaf Studies curriculum knowledge while on this Deaf-heritage tour.  They explore the hometown and Deaf school of Laurent Clerc, a Deaf Frenchman, who later sailed to the United States with Thomas H.Gallaudet, and established America's first Deaf school.~ The second purpose of the trip is to utilize LSF skills while interacting with the French students and staff, as well as the Deaf French tour guides. 

Epple stated, “After our tour in France in the spring of 2011, we were delighted to see that the French Deaf schools, guides and associations were very welcoming! It was an opportunity of a life-time for all involved. I was amazed at my students’ abilities to communicate in French Sign Language and thoroughly enjoy themselves!” ~On how they raised money, Epple shared, “Our biggest 2 challenges were our budget and creating an itinerary from scratch. Students fundraised and used their own personal money from summer jobs to pay for the trip, in addition to donations from various sponsors. Designing the itinerary was accomplished by hundreds of hours researching on the internet, video-phone conferences, and networking with the Deaf community both state-side and abroad.”

        In 2012, the Parisian Deaf students will visit the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan, Wisconsin for their portion of the exchange program.


Post submitted by  Rebecca Epple, teacher, Wisconsin School for the Deaf, Delavan, Wisconsin.


Tuesday, October 11, 2011


Creating a Good Society – The Other Reason for Global Education

The need to educate globally competent students for better employment opportunities and the needs of the global economy are not at all at odds with the “other” argument for providing students with the opportunity to learn about a world much larger than their own state or country. Indeed, when corporate leaders talk about their need for a globally educated work force, they emphasize foundational skills. They want their employees to be interested in other cultures, understand different points of view, and be able to communicate in at least one language other than English. I have argued elsewhere that a reduction of the goals for global education to a mere jobs argument may be short-sighted and overly narrow, and it seems that I am not at all at odds with the views of Wisconsin’s corporate leaders.

Howard Gardner of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education argues in his preface to Educating for Global Competence that “what is needed more than ever is a laser-like focus on the kinds of human beings that we are raising and the kinds of societies – indeed, in a global era, the kind of world society – that we are fashioning.” “Young people,” Gardner writes, “need to understand the worldwide circulation of ideas, products, fashions, media, ideologies, and human beings.”

Gardner’s rationale, it seems to me, is highly compatible with what employers identify as needs for their prospective employees. Therefore, schools should create the broadest global education programs possible. Those programs should educate our students to be globally competent in all content areas and give them the opportunity to investigate the world, to recognize different perspectives, to communicate ideas (in as many languages as possible), and to take action to create a better world. Educating for Global Competence shows how that can be done.

The Global Wisconsin videos provide good examples of how Wisconsin schools give their students the opportunity to “do good,” as Howard Gardner puts it. Students, he says, “want to do the right thing.” Take another look at Connecting with Cuba and listen to what the fourth graders are telling us: “We know that our countries do not get along that well, and we want to change that.” It takes children to express in very simple terms what adults struggle with. But our children are our hope. Let’s give them the opportunity to create a world worth living in.