The Topic That Would Not Die (or: ASL or No ASL? That is the question.)

Wow. I am blown away by the response to both of my recent posts discussing thoughts for all hearing parents. Both Amys continue to weigh in and other people continue to add their thoughts.

It's clear that we are far from being on the same page here and we need to continue this dialogue in order to consider and understand varying perspectives. That said, here's *mine*: the most important thing, to me, is that no parent ever makes their child feel like they need to "become hearing" and like they aren't good enough if they can't be hearing, and that they are never denied opportunities to learn ASL and to meet other deaf people. This is true for me, regardless of whatever educational, communication, and technological choices parents make for their children.

Before I go on, I really, really appreciate everyone who took the time to write in. There are some wonderful thoughts . Thank you, Barb, Mark both Amys, cali, Cy, Melissa, Aaron, White Ghost, Dianrez, Dawg, VB, Ella, and the hearing father of 3 deaf children for sharing your thoughts and extending the discussion! (If I missed anyone, I apologize.) Thank you!

Let's keep talking about it. My two posts on the topic can be found here and here.

One situation occurred that made me realize I need to discuss house rules for comments. This really has not been an issue in general, but maybe I should be proactive and establish house rules. I generally publish every comment that is relevant to the post and that is respectful toward others. This is an open forum and one that does not practice censorship. However, one commenter posted Amy's last name and Amy wanted her last name removed from the comment, which is very understandable. The commenter gave a very strong rebuttal about how Amy's last name is already pretty public information. Since Blogger does not allow me to edit comments (Blogger, are you listening??), I had two choices: leave the comment up or to remove it completely. Neither choice seemed acceptable. I opted to copy and paste it into a new comment and remove Amy's last name, then remove the comment in question. It's not ideal, but... *sigh* To everyone involved in the situation, I apologize for the inconvenience and I hope this solution is satisfactory for everyone who was directly involved in the situation.

Speaking of house rules, I'll try to post them in the next few days. They'll be in the sidebar. But here is a rough idea:
1. Peruse Mr. Sandman's house rules for his blog. My rules will basically be pretty similar, with some minor differences and tweaks.
2. I've only had to delete one comment, and that was the one described above. It was deleted only because of a privacy concern and the person involved asked. I've declined maybe 3 or 4 comments without publishing and that was only because they were either:
a. comment spam - something that was posted on multiple blogs to promote one person's agenda, or
b. hostile and rude, calling someone nasty names.
3. This is a place for freedom of expression. I welcome widely diverging opinions, as long as we remain respectful (and you guys have been respectful thus far! Keep it up! *smile*)

Let the discussions continue! I'm looking forward to more gems like Mark Drolsbaugh's, Amy Cohen Efron's, hearing parent of 3 deaf children's, and many others' comments and to hearing the other side, such as Melissa's, Amy's, and VB's.