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Hello, I am Marvin Miller. I have been teaching Deafhood. This is a series of courses built on the work of Dr. Paddy Ladd, a Deaf man from England. He wrote a powerful book, "Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood". This book has had profound impact on our Deaf communities and our lives in significant ways. I have developed several Deafhood curriculum, and with these I have traveled all over the country and Canada to teach the principles of Deafhood. Through the teaching process, I have learned so much from my students through deep and meaningful discourses which has led to several breakthrough ideas. These ideas represent as a paradigm shift in many ways for us, inspiring us to think bigger and deeply as Deaf peoples.
We have experienced oppression in different areas of our lives, and yet, understanding the specific forms of oppression visited upon our peoples: phonocentric colonialism and how we can begin to resist this effectively and effect the changes we want to see in the world. To do that, I had to think of my family. I have Deaf parents, and Deaf grandparents on my mother's side and hearing grandparents, aunt and uncles on my father's side. I grew up in two different worlds and I loved both sides of my family dearly. I also saw that there was challenges on both sides -- one signing freely and one struggled to communicate freely, yet we truly loved each other. This is the kind of love I want all families to experience in both worlds regardless of how they have been raised in Deaf education system: oral, mainstreamed or signing, all of us are truly brothers and sisters, united in purpose and in life. To understand what it means to be a member of a community. This passion has helped me take a long look at my four Deaf children who have taught me so much, going to bilingual Deaf schools with plenty of Deaf teachers, administrators and more. My children have grown up with so much potential because they had Deaf community on their side. We have come together to realize the importance of reframing our experiences to the world, and take a stand for our people and change the world for better. Marvin graduated with honors from Gallaudet University's Masters in Sign Language Education (MASLED) in May 2019, and he has bachelor's in Deaf Studies from Gallaudet in May 2017. Marvin developed and has been teaching Deafhood 101 and 201 curriculum for the past 7 years. |
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