WCR Letters to the Editor

All deaf people should be able to get an education

It is exactly because of statements like these that this myth is perpetuated. There is no reason why any deaf person can't go to school and get an education. It is appalling that parents are led to believe that they should lower their expectations for their deaf child, that their deaf child cannot achieve the same educational success as their hearing peers.

In the past, it may have been the case that deaf people could not go to school and get an education because their English literacy levels weren't sufficient to enable them to do all the reading and writing assignments at the higher grade levels.

But there are English based methods of communication that, when used accurately and consistently, give deaf students the ability to access the same information as hearing students, and to communicate clearly in the language of our society; namely, English.

Using these communication methods, deaf students can read, write, and become fluent English communicators.

I don't want my daughter's inability to hear to limit her ability to communicate, to read, to write and to get an education. Nobody will ever have to speculate how smart she is, or what she knows and understands, because she will be able to tell them herself.

Shelley Munro
Board of Directors
Society for the Educational Advancement of the Hearing Impaired
Edmonton

Chastity main barrier to vocations

I was speaking from a text and what I actually said, was "A society which does not appreciate or value chastity cannot produce many vocations, celibate or otherwise." I find the implications of this correction both interesting and important.

I made my observation in a consideration of generosity as being characteristic of Christian vocations. Certainly not all Christian vocations include a call to celibacy but all of them do include the call to Christian chastity and, rightly understood, chastity is a basic expression of generosity toward God, others and oneself.

Therefore in a culture which does not associate sexuality with generosity, celibacy, and especially chastity, become a Christian "sign of contradiction" and possibly a means, as well as, a witness for the new evangelization.

And so we might say that paradoxically, it is precisely in those cultures where celibacy most appears as a "roadblock" to vocations, that they may need the witness of chastity and celibacy.

Fr. Paul Terrio
Villeneuve

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