Chapter 44

        In this chapter, the question asked is, "When deaf people meet deaf parents of a new baby, they always ask if the baby's deaf or hearing.  Why?"  Before beginning this chapter, my first thoughts about this question included that it is just naturally part of Deaf culture.  If someone from the Deaf community was conversing with a deaf parent, it would be natural to want to know whether or not their child was naturally included as a part of the Deaf community. 

        Many people of the Deaf community are proud of their culture and by asking whether or not a child is deaf is "an affirmation of their empathy with other deaf people.  To them, being Deaf is something positive, something to be cherished-and celebrated" (pg 277).  So naturally, they are curious about the child of the deaf parent.  

        Learning more about how hearing parents work with their deaf children was interesting.  It is crazy to learn that some hearing parents resent the fact that their children bond with other Deaf adults, "feeling that they're expected to give their deaf children up to the Deaf community, instead of keeping them in their own families" (pg 276).  Although I believe that deaf children need to be included within the Deaf community, I do not think that their parents have to be excluded from their child's life in the Deaf community.  I would think that it is only natural for the children to be around others who are in the same situation as they are.  I agree with the parents who "instead of "surrendering" their children to this community, they become part of it" (pg 276).  By including themselves in the Deaf community, parents are likely to have that same bond with their children that the deaf adults have.