Once Upon a Time...

I recently returned from the Oklahoma Education Association Delegate Assembly. It's an annual meeting where delegates chosen from local associations meet to conduct business and decide the direction of the association for the following year.

I submitted 2 new business items to the delegates for consideration:

Motion:
I move that OEA, through existing publications, share current information and research about hearing health with members to raise awareness about noise decibels in the classroom and ways to make classrooms and schools more hearing friendly.

           Rationale: Current research has shown that due to the immature neurological development of children, the level of ambient noise, and reverberated sound in the classroom, children only hear about 70 – 75% of all that the teacher says. By raising awareness about how noise decibels affect student learning and hearing health, teachers can make their classrooms more hearing friendly – raising student achievement and protecting the hearing of children and adults in schools.
   
          Maker: Bonnie Stone, Tulsa Metro A/B
          Second: Suzette Hightower, Tulsa Metro A/B

Motion:
I move that OEA, through existing publications, share current information and research about how to recognize symptoms of hearing loss in students.

            Rationale: In Oklahoma public schools, students only receive a hearing assessment if the parent grants permission. Unlike vision difficulties, hearing loss manifests itself in ways that are not easily visible or recognized by educators. Hearing loss is often misinterpreted as loss of focus, ADD, poor listening, and/or learning disability. By raising awareness of the symptoms of hearing loss in our students, teachers can more readily be able to advocate for student needs.

            Maker: Bonnie Stone, Tulsa Metro A/B
            Second: Suzette Hightower, Tulsa Metro A/B

Both passed unanimously.

Both are subjects I have grown passionate about since losing my own hearing. My advocacy for students with hearing loss has now grown beyond my own little school into the greater realm of my association. At the very least, 261 delegates have heard my story about the little boy with profound hearing loss who'd been misdiagnosed with a learning disability until he became my student...and they will carry those words -- consciously or subconsciously -- with them forever. They will affect changes in their teaching. And they will affect changes in their schools and in their profession.

The glorious and storybook ending to the day is that our association's vice president wants to take my 2nd motion to the National Education Association as a new business item when the national delegation convenes in July of this year.

Maybe it's not a storybook ending, after all. Maybe it's just the beginning ---

Once upon a time, there was a teacher with hearing loss who met a little boy...


(You can read more about my student in this blog under the October, 2014 posts "Seeing" https://bonniestone.blogspot.com/2014/10/seeing.html and "Seeing: An Addendum".  https://bonniestone.blogspot.com/2014/10/seeing-addendum.html  A follow up post, "Monday" https://bonniestone.blogspot.com/2015/02/monday.html is found in February, 2015.)
     

Dangerous Decibels

This afternoon, one of my first grade students returned to my room after running an errand to another classroom in my school. She innocently replied, "That room was so loud, Mrs. Stone. It hurt my ears." She punctuated her story by covering her ears with her hands.

Since losing my hearing three and a half years ago, I've become acutely aware of how important it is to reduce the noise decibels in my classroom, not only to reduce the noise that interferes with my hearing devices, but also to protect the hearing of the students who spend 5 hours a day in close quarters while I teach them.

If only this were true of all teachers.

The reality is that classrooms are dangerously loud places for children to spend so much time. Research has shown that typical classroom noise levels exceed 70 dB. To put that into perspective, your vacuum cleaner is about 70 dB, as is city traffic. Studies have also shown that children, because of their neurological immaturity, are inefficient listeners, and thus need optimal sound conditions to listen and understand. Ambient noise is detrimental to listening and learning. According to School Planning and Management, students in today’s classrooms are unable to understand approximately 25 to 30 percent of what their teacher says because of excessive noise and sound reverberation in the classroom.

There are many problems that work against ideal listening conditions in our classrooms. Schools buildings are old. Acoustics are poor. Classrooms are crowded. Many teachers use voice amplification systems. Students spend increasing amounts of times in front of computer screens with headphones that pummel their ears with concentrated sound. Teachers are unaware of decibel levels in their classroom. Children aren't taught to use appropriate voice volume -- often even encouraged by the adults around them to yell at deafening levels -- "I think you can do better than that! Let me heeeeeaaaaarrrr you!" And the ensuing screams leave children grimacing in pain and covering their ears.

Unfortunately, when children and the adults who teach them are repeatedly exposed to these levels of sound, they are subjecting the delicate hearing cells in the inner ear to irreparable damage, usually unaware that they are doing so. It isn't known at what point that hearing loss may actually occur in the damaged cells. It could be a cumulative effect of repeated exposure to excessive decibels. It could be instantaneous.

The point is -- as caretakers of children, shouldn't we be caring more for their hearing health than we are? We certainly take many precautions to keep them safe and healthy throughout the day, yet we continue to expose them to dangerous hearing decibels.

As one who has lost her hearing, I realize how precious it is. And I am committed to protecting and teaching my students about dangerous decibels. And if you read this blog, you know, too.

We should be doing better.

Discreet

Discreet: (adjective) not likely to be seen or noticed by others; careful not to cause embarrassment or attract attention to.

This morning I read several blogs on hearing loss sites. The articles were a fair and basic overview of hearing loss and its impact on individuals who've experienced hearing loss, both the physical and emotional problems that may ensue when one loses their hearing.

The problem I had with all of the articles was the reference to the newer hearing aids that provide users with a "discreet" solution for their hearing loss -- as if they should be something that is kept hidden and, God forbid, discussed openly with others.

My problem is with the continual use of the word discreet. 

In a society where hearing loss is reaching epidemic proportions, why should we be concerned with being discreet about our hearing losses and the devices that make it possible for us to hear again -- as if our hearing loss and our hearing aids should be regarded as an embarrassment, a personal failure, a family secret?

According to the National Institute on Deafness, a whopping 15% of Americans aged 18 or older have a hearing loss and approximately 9% of adults between the ages of 55 and 64 have a disabling hearing loss. That's about 1 in every 10 adults -- and the numbers continue to grow each year! It's time we bring it out into the open.

I am not sure why hearing loss and hearing aid use has been relegated to the quiet whispers of the back room with other health afflictions like bladder control, erectile dysfunction, or sexually-transmitted diseases. No one seems dissuaded to hide their failing eyesight by wearing discreet eyeglasses. Nor are they inundated with a barrage of insensitive or uneducated remarks about their eyesight. "Oh, I see you have eyeglasses! They're so big. Couldn't you have gotten more discreet ones? Can you still work? Can you still drive? Can you see me now?"

Indeed, it is ridiculous to think that our eyeglasses should be unnoticeable or inconspicuous -- as is our preoccupation with keeping hearing loss discreet.

Hearing loss is no joke. Nor is it an embarrassment. I hope that those who read this blog will know and understand and spread awareness about something that should not be discreet.

My name is Bonnie. I have profound hearing loss. And I wear hearing aids. Proudly.