Breakfast meeting, School for hearing impaired, Military Museum

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6/6/2008 Breakfast meeting, School for hearing impaired, Military Museum

After a late night we had our earliest morning yet: a breakfast club that met at 7:30AM. That is the meeting started at 7:30 so we had to be there earlier. Selda (the Turkish GSE team leader) is a member and past president of this club. She is a lot of fun so we didn’t mind getting up early.

After the meeting we headed to the Asian side to visit a school for hearing impaired/deaf children. We were greeted with warm smiles and children saying “hello” when we arrived. They were eager to talk to us and ask questions.

Rotary Hearing Disabled School opened in 1996 to children as young as 36 months. The oral method is taught at this school; there is no sign language used or taught here. Sign language limits the group of people that the hearing impaired person can communicate with thus preventing them from attending a “typical” high school and or university. Standard elementary/secondary curriculum is taught to the hearing impaired children. Meaning they are learning the same things that the students is other schools throughout Turkey are using.

The oral method teaches students to read lips and communicate through speech. Hearing aids are worn by most students allowing them to hear a range of noises. This is one of 18 schools in the world that teaches using this method.

Teaching is done by overemphasizing the lips so students can understand what is being said. Pictures are also used to explain and teach what the words meant. It was impressive to see the student and teacher interactions.

In a different classroom, students were looking at books that had the words covered up and were writing what was happening in the story. They had to use the words that they knew.

We were able to observe a few lessons that were being taught at this school. One of the lessons had a story written on the board. The teacher read one sentence at a time. Then she went word by work making sure the students understood what the words meant. She even drew pictures after they discussed the meanings.

Funding for the building of this school was provided by Rotarians and continues to be financially supported by Rotary club members. 60% of the money that is put into this school comes from Rotarians and 40% from the government. Students DO NOT PAY to go to this school (the cost is covered by donations).
This is heart warming!!!!!!!
A father was hesitant about putting his son a this school, but knew that he could benefit from not only the schooling but also being around people that had the same disability. After a while at the school the boy came home one day, looked at his dad and said “dad”. The father looked a the boy and said what did you say? The boy repeated “dad”. Overwhelmed with joy the father began to cry. That day he brought a cake to work to share with his co-workers. Confused someone asked “ why did you bring that cake? Is it your birthday today?” The father replied yes it is my birthday today because I heard my son say my name for the first time.

We were also told a similar story about a mother hearing her daughter say “I love you” for the first time.
Its hard for us to imaging not having communication with the people around us, but that is a reality that these children and families face.

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Photos

Basketball Tournament
They were having a basketball tournament between classes. They are just like typical children

A classroom
Classes have around 10-12 students in them

They wrote a message in English for us
I was surprised to learn that these students are taught English.

The garden
Students are taught where their food comes from and how it is grown

Notice the words are covered in the book
He is writing about what is happening in the story

Ottoman soldiers
we went to the military museum after the school

We listened to the military band
It was unlike anything I'd heard before. Soldiers played music to keep up moral and to announce that the war had begun