so I'm going to be talking about the
first uh three paragraphs of chapter six um so they covered the topic of identity which is
how people describe themselves and or how others describe them um it's something that we think
about a lot either consciously or unconsciously um many countries have seen an increase in diverse
groups of people um with significant interest in cultural and ethnic group membership
and social identity um and then we can decide these identities for ourselves like how w
e feel
about labels such as nerd or jock um as well as where we place values in uh family culture
religion value system and careers um so like some questions that you would ask yourself
like who am I, what is myself like, what do I believe in, what do I like to do, who do
I like as my friends and what my personality so this portion of the book talked about how
identity is developed and how it's something that's been debated about for centuries
um self and identity have many dimensions so
it talked about three main focus levels
of identity um as you can see I inserted a picture from the textbook here um it starts
with individual levels so the center of the circle which focuses on one's uniqueness um
as well as like genetics um and experiences um for the group level which is the next
ring of the circle it talks about culture and how we are born into cultures um and
like the cultures that we join throughout life so it focuses on like similarities
and differences between ourse
lves um and the group that we're comparing ourselves to um
so things like race sexual orientation marital status relationship status Etc um and then
the Outer Circle um it talks about Universal level so we're all human we have many shared
experiences um biological physical um and okay so I have the section on deaf identity
and one person that was in this section was Edmund Booth um he was a deaf Professor who
became deaf from spinal meningitis age of four um his mother taught him how
to re
ad and finger spell and he had never met another deaf person until he went to the
American Asylum for education and instruction of the deaf and dumb persons which is now
called the American School for the deaf in Hartford Connecticut um some individuals who are
born Deaf May or may not accept calling themselves deaf like lowercase deaf or uppercase Deaf it
depends on the situation that they're in most people who identify as a capital D deaf are
those who use finger spell or a sign language
sorry um who feel strongly about being that
being deaf is fine or a gain um who socialize with and get support from other culturally
deaf persons and they just live a deaf way of life okay so for deaf identities continued
the book talks about core identities which is basically similar to personal identities in
the sense of both of them are how someone uses to Define themselves or who they feel they are and
the book describes how personal identity start at home and an example being how if a
child is raised
in a deaf culture, they view deafness their deaf identity as a core part of their identity regardless of
if they're hearing or if they're deaf and in a hearing home a deaf child's core identity is very
influenced whether or not their parents treat the subject in a positive or a negative light
and so like if the parent uses visual cues if the parent uses social cues and and because of
these aspects a child may not view their deaf identity as a core identity and shifting over
to
some examples that the book gives it describes Hilda's family doesn't accept that she is deaf
and it isn't until she meets some deaf peers that she views being deaf as a core identity so
that's an example how of how social cues kind of influenced that and Tina grew up in a family
where being deaf was where she was told she was deaf and that was her identity and she always
felt a little bit different and then she went to a deaf school she really felt different because all
the other stude
nts were white while she was black and this is just kind of some examples of how a
child may come to develop their deaf core Identity or if they don't at all and some positive or
negative experiences really do influence a child's acceptance of their deaf identity like outside
of the examples in those boxes the book also describes how if a child is bullied for being deaf
they may they may not accept their deaf identity and try to be hearing the book also use gives a
real life example with Al
isa cemento and how she originally went to well she went to a mainstream
school and she was embarrassed by her deafness because she had no other deaf peers it wasn't
until she went to a conference and met other deaf students who were in mainstream schools did
she starts to view her deaf identity in a positive light so uh for my reflection I didn't know much
about all the aspects of identity before reading this chapter but I found it interesting uh how
much we choose our own identities and h
ow we see ourselves and others overall I think this
the chapter had a really good aspect of something that I'm not really familiar with and something
that we've really never touched on um like focusing on the different levels of identity
um and then also I like how it Incorporated personal stories from others um to really get
a sense of um people's identity and how we see ourselves for my reflection, I just thought it
was interesting to hear about Edmund Booth and how he had never met anoth
er deaf person until he
was the age of 16 and I just thought it was crazy that it had been that long before he actually
got to meet a deaf person and get to know them and hey so what I found really interesting about
this chapter was how how deaf people view their deaf identities like in the past with this class
and pretty much all of the ASL classes I've taken before it's explained to us that deaf people view
their deaf identity as a really important part of themselves and I always was like
okay that
makes sense but it wasn't until this chapter it was kind of like no they really do view these
identities as an important and integral part of themselves and it just it really gave some good
context to all of that and it really gave some weight to that idea so I thought it was pretty
interesting and I finally grasped the gravity
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