sana

https://www.youtube.com/user/billvicars

and here’s the link to the website he puts in his videos:

Not only is the conversation format immersive and helpful for learning the grammar, but the students make common mistakes which he corrects, mistakes I wouldn’t have otherwise know I was making.

He also emphasizes learning ASL in the way it’s actually used by the Deaf community and not the rigid structure that some ASL teachers impose in their classrooms

His lesson plans include learning about the Deaf community, which is an important aspect of learning ASL. Knowing how to communicate in ASL without the knowledge of the culture behind it leaves out a lot of nuances and explanations for the way ASL is.

Lastly, his lessons are just a lot of fun to watch. He is patient, entertaining, and funny. This good natured enthusiasm is contagious and learning feels like a privilege and not a chore

Last week at my volunteer work we had a DoorDash driver who was hard of hearing. My ASL is limited to about a dozen words, and all of them come from “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong (because once upon a time we did actually teach some ASL in schools, and then fucking Shrub got elected), but I managed to tell her I liked her shirt.

The program leader immediately deferred to me and asked if I could explain directions. Between my extremely limited vocabulary, a little bit of pantomime, and text notes, we got it together, and the driver was thrilled I knew any sign at all, but I was embarrassed by how little of her language I actually knew, and I decided I needed to find some ASL classes, because I’ve seen her car before and I suspect we’ll meet doing this job again.

Nina: Oh wow tha-

Like:

“I feel a fjerdan man seeing ankle for the first time.”

“This sentence would kill a fjerdan child.”

“Not to sound like fjerdan woman suffering from hysteria—”

Reposting from my twitter here, but: you wouldn't prevent an adult from speaking to their friend or eating when they were hungry. In your personal life that's abusive behavior, in the work sphere a suppression of workers' rights. Other places these rights are violated include: prison.

In Education and Peace, Maria Montessori describes the culture of war and identifies it as originating, on a personal level, in the struggle between the adult and the child that begins as soon as the child is born. This is the very first conflict. The adult subjects the child to their own wants and needs and completely disregards the needs, development and personhood of the child. This struggle continues throughout childhood, between both parents and children and other adults and children:

“Both the adult and the child are unaware of their own characteristic natures. They fight one another in a secret struggle that has gone on for countless generations and is becoming more violent today in our complicated and nerve-racking culture. The adult defeats the child; and once the child reaches adulthood the characteristic signs of the peace that is only an aftermath of war—destruction on one hand and painful adjustment on the other—remain with him for the rest of his life.”

This conflict positions children and adults relative to each other as two distinct classes, one with power and one without. Of course, there are other conflicts at play here—race is a huge one, gender another. And that’s not to say children can’t have power over parents, etc. But one of the most fundamental class conflicts is between adults and children.

And I should not be forced to endure bullying from adults simply because they are my teachers. If I am bullied by peers they should suffer consequences, and if they violently assault me, they should be expelled. If I have a difficulty learning or understanding I should be accommodated. I should not be forced to get up at 7 am and go to school and after school shit, then come home and do more school shit, taking away time I need to grow and learn and play.

And then she said something that just stabbed me in the heart. She said, and I do remember her exact words:

"He is allowed to defend his body."

It was a watershed moment for me both in thinking about how I approach animals, but also in how I suddenly understood my own trauma from childhood that occurred in school, home, and in medical contexts, and how I suddenly understood my adult reactions to my ongoing and neverending retraumatization at the hands of the medical and psychiatric professions.

I have the right to defend my body and my core psyche. And I had that right as a child as well. That wasn't well acknowledged then, and still is not, I live in a very toxic and controlling environment because I am disabled and mentally ill. Not being allowed to draw your own boundaries and decide your own fate fucks you up, man. It's literally killing me.

Children lack this added context. They don't inherently lack intelligence, they've literally only been here for 4 years, you've been on this planet about 4 or 5 times longer than that, so you have the benefit of a larger set of patterns to run through your pattern recognition. They don't have the benefit of the "it would be good for me" part, because they straight up don't have that little life hack yet. Every single type of sensation is new to them, and they lack the vocabulary to tell you, because they have never dealt with this before.

The biggest thing is to try and teach those pattern to them, and appropriate responses to those experiential sensations, before they have to suffer the consequences of unwittingly ignoring it because they haven't seen that particular pattern yet, again because every sensation and emotion is unfamiliar to them.

They have explosive anger issues? Well anger in itself is not wrong, emotions are not "wrong", teaching that response to that pattern of sensation leads to severe emotional dysregulation and other psychological disorders. Help them contextualize their experiences, their anger. Help them identify this new and highly unfamiliar emotion, and find their trigger so they can address it constructively , and actually deal with the anger rather than just shutting it out [ineffectual] or clamping it down [dangerous].

Same goes for sadness and fear.

Children are not objects you're given to own for 18 years by a deity. They are a whole-ass individual human being that you brought into the world, and it is now your responsibility to mentor them in sorting out as many healthy stimuli responses as you can teach them.

refseek.com

www.worldcat.org/

link.springer.com

http://bioline.org.br/

repec.org

science.gov

how’s your sleep schedule

have you eaten or drank anything besides sugar and caffeine

how long have you been sitting in one spot

have you gone out in public recently

have you taken a shower/brushed your teeth/groomed yourself properly

have you spent time doing an activity that doesn’t involve a screen

"No." Says the tuna, "Do you?"

"I have never seen it." Says the whale, "but deep in my body, I remember it."

"Why do you care," says the tuna, "if you will never see it."

"There are bones in my body built to walk through the forests and the mountains." Says the whale.

"They will disappear." Says the tuna, "one day, your body will forget the forests and the mountains."

"Maybe I don't want to forget," Says the whale, "The forests were once my home."

"I have seen the forests." Whispers the salmon, almost to itself.

"Tell me what you have seen," says the whale.

"The forests spawned me." Says the salmon. "They sent me to the ocean to grow. When I am fat with the bounty of the ocean, I will bring it home."

"Why would the forests seek the bounty of the oceans?" Asks the whale. "They have bounty of their own."

Last year I finally had an excuse to illustrate this simple little Tumblr story I've had bookmarked forever for class.

OCEAN May one explain what powdered milk doth be? Is it not gas? I live in constant fear.

NOT DEAD The water flees to air, the rest is left. The dry debris then forms the powdered milk.

OCEAN Thou sayest water doth reside in milk?

NOT DEAD Pray tell what thou believ’st the liquid is?

OCEAN Is milk not one pure substance in itself?

NOT DEAD No; ‘tis only milk-stuff mixed with water.

OCEAN Yet milk appears from living cows’ own tits!

NOT DEAD ‘Tis juice from tits, yet water still it holds. If water be in juice, then ‘tis in milk.

Enter DERIN, the scarlet pescatarian.

DERIN ‘Tis drops of fat afloat in water, As if ‘twas dressing for thy greens. With water gone, the powdered milk remains.

A NOTE attached to an arrow, written by BURNING BRAND, flies through the window.

BURNING BRAND’S NOTE Obsessed with he who foolishly believ’d That milk is element of chemistry.

The NOTE crumbles to ash. BURNING BRAND is not seen again.

OCEAN As he who instigated such a fight, I felt that this creation was my duty.

OCEAN unrolls a scroll of parchment with a flourish.

OCEAN Behold, ‘tis milk, one hundred and nineteen.

Enter JASON FUNDER BERKER, a frog.

JASON FUNDER BERKER And yet the burning question still remains: ‘Tis metal, not, or somewhere in between?

JASON FUNDER BERKER does not wait to hear the answer, and exits.

DERIN A lanthinide! A special case, I see. How fascinating, geometrically.  But let us leave atomic musings be. For milk is a rare metal of our Earth.

OCEAN Of course it is, for I am always right. My choices are, of course, deliberate.

DERIN I do not doubt thou speakest truth, my lord Thy brilliant mind is utterly unmatch’d. It seems that an agreement has been reach’d.

OCEAN Of course; however, in sincerity I wish to know thy scholar-driven thoughts.

DERIN I fear ‘twould be beyond thy comprehension. To teach to thee would take this much too far.

Exit OCEAN, in a huff. Enter JESIN, BOOP BOOP, FLIPOCRITE, VELVET, and LOVELY DREAMS, curious onlookers attracted to the scene.

JESIN Do teach us, it would not take this too far!

DERIN Ye all complain of learning strangely, Then ask me baiting questions such as this!

BOOP BOOP Thy gross ineptitude shall be my death! Milk is formed of small component parts. The fat, the sugars, proteins all combine They seep through pores of membranes in this drink Unpleasant compounds all are filter’d out. All this obtained for small amounts of coin.

DERIN No, milk is lanthanide, pray keep the pace.

FLIPOCRITE The word thou mean’st is lactanide, I think.

DERIN May sharpened pain-shaped stones fill up thy shoes So that thou never know’st a moment’s peace.

VELVET A cube of milk, three inches on each side Could blow up the entire galaxy.

DERIN Our galaxy was formed in such a fashion. ‘Tis why we gave it name of “Milky Way.”

LOVELY DREAMS Thus ends our entertainment for the night Here fools and pompous scholars come to fight.

Exuent, pursued by a cow.