Chapter 3: School

Miss Judy and Emily

JUDY DUNLAP had not been a kindergarten teacher long enough to become jaded and calloused to the ideals that brought her to the profession. She was twenty-four years old, had one year of experience behind her, and had nearly finished her master’s degree in education.

She looked at the drawing young Jaime had done of her and traced the word ‘NICE.’ She could not help but think the child had understood every word in the conversation between her and his father. And printing a word at just five years old, with no formal schooling, was advanced. If it weren’t for his muteness and lack of socialization he could probably have moved directly to first grade.

But how was she going to teach him in a class of twenty children, half of whom lived in non-English-speaking homes. She sat, sipping a glass of wine with her best friend and handed her the drawing.

“Done by one of your new students?” her friend signed. Emily Hearst had been deaf from birth, but it didn’t stop her from becoming best friends with Judy in college.

“He will be my student in two weeks,” Judy signed back. “He is mute—either psychosomatically or physically. I don’t know how to integrate him into the system. He hears and understands just fine, but how will he communicate with me or with other students?”

Emily looked at the picture again and finger-spelled N-I-C-E. Then she held her left hand palm-up in front of her and passed her right palm over it.

“Yes,” Judy signed. “He wrote that while his father and I were talking. I’m just so...”

Emily brought her fist to the side of her head, rapping gently as she scowled at her friend.

“What?” Judy asked. Emily repeated the sign.

“Dumb!”

“Why would you say such a thing?”

“You have the tool in your hands. Half your class doesn’t know English. Teach them all sign language at the same time.”

“Sign language! He’s not deaf!” Judy began. Then she realized she wasn’t deaf either. She signed to her friend to be understood. “Oh!”

Judy shook her head and repeated the sign for ‘dumb.’ She sometimes taught songs that had gestures or signs because the children found them fun. It involved more ways to learn than just listening. Why shouldn’t she teach sign language at the same time she taught English? Or any other subject for her kindergartners to learn.

“It makes so much sense!” Judy signed. “I have to make lesson plans!”

Emily laughed at her as Judy gathered her things and headed home. She had two weeks to prepare.

Jaime and Miss Judy and Juan

When Jaime and David arrived for the first day of kindergarten with all the other parents and children, the room looked much different than it had when they visited. The first and most obvious thing Jaime noticed was the alphabet characters posted in a neat row on one wall. When he’d been in the room before, the posters had capital letters and small letters. Now a hand image was beneath each letter.

The other thing that was unavoidable to notice was the chaos of thoughts flying around the room. He couldn’t tell who was thinking what and wished they would all just be quiet. He put his hands over his ears but that didn’t do anything for the inside voices. He repeated the sign to his father and then buried his face against his father’s chest. It wasn’t as effective as sheltering in his mother’s embrace, but it helped. He was soon able to filter out all the intruding thoughts.

The problem was that when he shut off everyone, he couldn’t hear Miss Judy’s thoughts either. She was the only one talking with her out-loud voice and her hands moved as she spoke. She said they would learn both English and sign language in the class.

Some of the adults who came with their children to the first day of school looked confused, but their thoughts weren’t in any words Jaime could understand. Then Miss Judy told the grownups they could leave now. David had talked to him about this and Jaime was prepared to stay with Miss Judy for a couple of hours.

Some of the other children were not prepared for this. They clung to their mothers—David was the only father in the room—and some began to cry. Miss Judy began singing a song and some of the children joined in. She signed as she went. Jaime tried to copy the gestures.

“Bye-bye, Mommy. I will see you soon. Don’t worry, Mommy. You’ll pick me up at noon. I’ll tell you all about my day, and all the things I learned to say. Bye-bye, Mommy. I will see you soon.”

Jaime wondered if the sign for Mommy and Daddy was the same. He would ask Miss Judy when he could understand more. Then she caught his eye as she changed the song to “Bye-bye, Daddy...” She brought her open hand from where it had tapped on her lower lip to tapping at the side of her forehead. Jaime grinned and copied the gesture, earning a smile from Miss Judy.

He worked hard on blocking out all the noise of the other children’s thoughts as their parents left them in the classroom. He had to listen carefully with his ears for Miss Judy’s instructions, as she led the class in other activities. She had two helpers in the class who explained things quietly to some of the children.

Miss Judy led the class in saying her name. She pointed to the letters in her name that were displayed on the wall, then wrote them on a whiteboard. She pointed to each letter on the board and made the letter sign for it while saying the name of the letter. Then she circled her whole name and made a new gesture. She brought her fingers and thumbs together and pointed to either side of her head, then brought her hands down in front of her. Jaime figured out that meant Miss Judy, since that’s what she kept saying.

Miss Judy led the class in the alphabet song, signing the letters as one of her helpers pointed at the letter and sign hanging on the wall. They sang the song several times and the class worked hard at copying the signs.

The other helpers had names, too, but Jaime was looking at the letters on the wall and trying to figure out what his name would look like. J-A-I-M-E. He practiced spelling his name and almost missed the class being divided into groups. One group went with each of the teachers to a different part of the room. Jaime’s group went to Miss Judy.

A boy sat alone sniffling. Jaime could tell he was upset with the day. Maybe he missed his mommy. Jaime still missed his mommy. He decided the boy needed a hug and went to him. The boy looked at him, but Jaime couldn’t understand anything the boy was thinking; just that he was very sad and upset. Jaime put an arm around the boy’s shoulders and gave him a hug while he led him to the group in front of Miss Judy. They sat together and Jaime could tell the boy felt a little better.

The next thing Miss Judy taught them was how to spell their names. She started by putting a hand on her chest, then tapping her index fingers together like a flat x. She repeated the signs saying, “My name is.” Then she spelled “Miss Judy” again. She finished that with the gesture she created for her name. Jaime could read her thoughts clearly now that everyone was in a different part of the room paying attention to the book one helper was reading and to the blocks the other helper was building with. He raised his hand.

“Yes, Jaime?” Miss Judy said, finger spelling his name.

Jaime copied the hand on chest and tapping his fingers together, then spelled his name. Miss Judy caught her breath and smiled broadly at him. She turned to the other children and repeated what Jaime had said and asked him to demonstrate. He introduced himself to his classmates. He thought only one had understood him, but soon his new friend raised his hand.

“Can you spell your name, Juan?” She wrote his name on the whiteboard.

Juan repeated the introduction gestures and said, “My name is Juan.” He got the ‘J’ correct, then hesitated over the next letter. Miss Judy held up two fingers close together and said, ‘U.’ Juan nodded and then completed the ‘A’ and ‘N.’

Jaime could feel the happiness of his new friend and now he knew his name. He nodded vigorously. He pointed at Juan and then fingerspelled J-U-A-N. Next, he put his hand on his chest and spelled J-A-I-M-E. The two were so involved in talking to each other, Miss Judy had to call their attention back to the class as the others in their group introduced themselves. Some were better or faster than others and some were much slower, but by the time his group moved to the helper reading a story, everyone in his group could fingerspell his or her name.

Jaime was proud of his accomplishment. He had learned how to sign his name and he had made a new friend. When his father picked him up at noon, he gladly signed his name. David was a little perplexed without the words accompanying the signs. Miss Judy intervened and spoke as Jaime signed.

“He is saying, ‘My name is Jaime.’ We’re learning sign language as we learn the alphabet.”

“That’s ... That’s wonderful!” David said. “Where can I learn sign language?”