Deaf Again - Book Review

Book Report on Deaf Again

The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in with everyone and eventually does find himself and realizes that being Deaf is not a disease, but just a part of who he is.

About the time that Mark was in kindergarten, he thought he was a normal child just like everyone else, but he started to distort things he heard in class and was wondering why everyone would be laughing and why he would be getting corrected. One day in the first grade, Mark came to the realization that something was definitely not right with his hearing. During a Show ‘n’ Tell activity, he was asked to come to the front of the room to show off one of his toys. After giving a description of the toy, someone raised their hand and had a question. This person was from the other class and was a couple rows back so there was absolutely no way that Mark could understand what he was saying. The only thing he heard come out of the boy’s mouth was a garbled mess. Mark was so confused and could not answer the child that the teacher scolded him stating that this behavior was inappropriate. Mark did not know what to do. The teacher ended up sending a letter home telling his parents that she believes Mark has a hearing problem and they should have him checked out by a doctor. Since both of his parents are deaf, Mark’s grandfather took care of everything. He was devastated when he heard the news basically acting like the boy had a fatal disease. Mark’s grandfather tested him by saying a sentence and seeing if he could repeat it, which he could, then his grandfather would cover his mouth and repeat the same sentence, but this time Mark had no idea what his grandfather was saying. Mark came to the realization that all along he had been reading people’s lips and he never even knew it.

After this discovery, Mark’s grandfather took him to all kinds of doctors trying to find a solution to his hearing loss; a solution that would never come. The doctors told the family, including Mark’s deaf parents, not to use ASL in his presence and they would try to force him to hear. He went through all sorts of surgeries where the doctors tried to put tubes in his ears and he was also fitted with all different kinds of hearing aides. None of these solutions were the right ones because Mark still wasn’t able to hear. Mark was always forced into situations where everyone would be talking in group conversations and having a good, old time while he just sat there pretending like he knew what was going on. For half of his life, this kind of thing happened constantly where Mark would have to act like something he is not.

A year or so after Mark was diagnosed, it was obvious that Mark could not survive at Houston School so his grandfather looked around for the best and discovered Plymouth Meeting Friends School (PMFS). Mark was afraid that everyone would judge him at a new school, but he was welcomed with open arms and since the classes were a lot smaller than at Houston School, he could follow along a lot better. He attended PMFS from grades three through six and he was very happy there. At the end of grade six, it was time to look for a high school to attend. Again, Mark’s grandfather shopped around and found another Friend’s School, Germantown Friend’s School (GFS), and he felt that this would be good for Mark since it would continue the Quaker experience. Mark passed the entrance exam, but the principal of the school was concerned when he heard that the child was deaf. Mark would not let his grandfather down and, after sitting in on a few classes, convinced the principal that he would be fine. Unfortunately, though, Mark would not be fine. He had a really tough time through GFS and half the time he did not know what people were saying. He eventually got an interpreter, which helped him out, a little bit, but he would still be a couple steps behind. By the time everything