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The focus on student character development at CSDR for 2024-2025 is “building bridges.” We all need to agree on a broad definition of this two-word phrase.
The idiom means to improve relationships between people who are different or don't like each other. It can also mean to promote cooperation or reconciliation between hostile people.
Southeast Asia (Japan, Korea, Vietnam) is well-known for its homogenous people. They strive to coexist in peace with a common line of thinking, shared perspectives, and only one language and one race in a given country. Here in the US, we are not a homogenous society. Instead, we function in a diverse and complex society where we see multiple races among ourselves with their respective cultures, languages, and divergent lines of thinking.
It behooves everybody to join hands for mutual benefit so that a heterogeneous society can thrive in our geographical area.
In the 1700s, Catholics and Protestants had difficulty coexisting in peace for religious reasons in the US. However, we do better today because we don't allow our religious differences to interfere with our relationships in school, at work, and anywhere else in public. This is a good example of building bridges.
Below are three situations where building bridges was fruitful in advancing the deaf community.
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Another example of building bridges in the deaf community was the successful enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, a significant boost for civil rights for the deaf and hard of hearing.
To build political strength for lobbying, Deaf signers and deaf oralists put aside their different communication preferences and paired together to strengthen enforcement of the existential federal law for employment, education, services, and accessibility.
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In 1906, the California Association of the Deaf was formed to pressure the state legislators in Sacramento and auto insurance firms that deaf adults, whether they were deaf or hard of hearing, could be as good drivers as their hearing counterparts. The rally paid off with the legal right granted to the deaf and hard of hearing for driving privileges. More than 100 years later, the CAD continues to represent all DHH regardless of their differences.
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In 1946, Mrs. Spencer Tracy from the John Tracy Clinic at USC sent a telegram to Governor Earl Warren to support his intent to sign the bill to build the second California School for the Deaf somewhere in Southern California. What was surprising about Mrs. Tracy’s support was that she didn't ask for political favor in return for the imposition of oralism at the new school. We appreciate her effort in building bridges with signers for the educational benefit of all children.
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