PROFILES IN EDUCATION: Dean Roberts

Gig Harbor High teacher signs about teaching, living as a deaf person

Nate Hulings

of the Gateway

As a high school instructor, Dean Roberts is fluent in the language he teaches.

The Gig Harbor High School American Sign Language teacher spends his school days educating students on the craft of communicating with the deaf. He teaches in every way he can — and like other language courses, language barriers often arise.

But when students have a question for Roberts that they can’t or don’t know how to ask in ASL, speaking English is not an option.

Roberts, 52, who has taught ASL courses at Gig Harbor High School for the past three years, is deaf. He lives in Bremerton with his wife, who has been an ASL interpreter for the past 24 years.

The Peninsula Gateway caught up with Roberts during his planning period last week at Gig Harbor High. The questions were asked directly to Roberts but were translated into American Sign Language by Marc Schmitz.

After Schmitz signed the question, Roberts responded in ASL, which Schmitz simultaneously translated into spoken English.

Peninsula Gateway: Were you born deaf? How did you respond to being deaf in your childhood?

Dean Roberts: I grew up deaf, yes. I wasn’t born deaf. We really don’t know. We’re not quite sure of what happened.

I went to the Washington School for the Deaf in Vancouver, Wash. And I left early because I wanted to be with my family. I went to a mainstream school program, and when I finished there, I went to a public junior high school, where I was the only deaf person there. There were no (deaf) teachers, no note takers — nothing at all for me. Basically, I partied around a lot, missed a lot of school, and my parents decided to send me back to the school for the deaf.

I remember as a little boy looking around and remember the trees; everything was really big and beautiful. But I didn’t know any sign language. I knew how to finger spell a little bit, but that was it. I didn’t know how to sign.

When I got a report card, I looked at it and everything was an “F,” but I didn’t really care, because it was public school. In public school, you got a prize if you got an “F,” but at the deaf school, they looked at it much differently. They looked down on me. I was very embarrassed.

I realized I had to learn sign language to compete and do well. I made it onto the honor roll; I took the test and made it to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. That’s the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the world.

I didn’t graduate there. I failed Beer 101, you could say, so I moved back here to Washington. That’s where I went into Olympic College and Western Washington University.

PG: What is your teaching background?

DR: I used to work for the state for DSHS and I taught basic signs for autistic kids for their language development, and I did that for 15 years.

Then I decided, well, I have to go back to school and get a bachelor’s degree, and once I got my degree, then I went to WWU. Then I went to Olympic College in Bremerton, and I started to teach in the morning. I taught American Sign Language there for five years.

I had a lot of frustrations, because it’s hard for a person who is deaf to find a job, but I ended up finding a teaching job in Gig Harbor. This was competing with Mount Tahoma.

I preferred Gig Harbor because it was closer to home, and I wouldn’t have to go across the bridge all the time. They offered me the job here; this is my third year now.

PG: You use ASL to communicate in class. What are the positives and negatives of that approach?

DR: It’s very common. The big issue is I don’t have an interpreter in my class. Most sign language classes don’t have interpreters, and if they do, they are very fortunate. We had to call the guy that is interpreting for you today on a special arrangement.

But for deaf students, they do provide interpreters. In this class, they do provide interpreters for and after school for events.

For in class, here I am as a deaf person and people kind of get used to the idea. They are confronted with and have to engage with an actual deaf person, and that gives them pause to concern.

The negative part is that sometimes without an interpreter, communication goes awry.

PG: How do the students respond to having a teacher with whom they can’t necessarily communicate?

DR: In the first month, I’m sure that they feel a little confused and at a loss of what to do. There is no interpreter, but you know, once and a while, I do have a teacher’s assistant to help smooth out the communication.

In the long run, after a year, I never need to call the teacher’s assistant. We are able to work it out just fine.

The first month, it feels awkward and almost insurmountable.

PG: What is the biggest challenge about being a deaf teacher?

DR: I guess communication, it is. Especially with ASL 1 class, because I am working on their vocabulary. It is very, very basic.

So basically, what we do is write back and forth and use a lot of body language and gestures to communicate basic things. In the ASL 2 class, there is a lot more interaction, and definitely the ASL 3 class.

The big successes are in ASL 2 and 3. And you know, it happens to everyone in the fall. I tell them, “If there is no interpreter, don’t worry. We’ll find a way to communicate and be able to write back and forth.” It’s a surprise to them as a deaf person that I can read and write.

PG: Are people more accepting of deaf people now compared to when you were younger?

DR: Yeah, people are a lot more accepting of diversity than they used to be. In the 1970s, people were embarrassed to sign in public. If you signed in public, people would kind of laugh at you like you were a monkey. I didn’t care what people thought of me; I signed.

I see the deaf students here. They’ve become popular because people are much more accepting.

PG: How important is ASL in everyday communication?

DR: Students come in all the time and say they encountered a deaf person and stuff like that, and they are really excited to be able to communicate. It’s American Sign Language. It’s different than other foreign languages, but in the same way, it’s similar to a foreign language.

Deaf people have a better chance of communicating than foreigners. If I were to go to another country, hearing people might be at a loss on how to communicate. Deaf people, we know how to gesture and make up spontaneous language to communicate. You know we can use symbols, signs that are iconic to communicate.

We can gesture tree, chop it down, or drive or chop the head off of a chicken. And sometimes hearing people can’t understand words and have to look it up in a dictionary to communicate, and it takes a long time.

I think deaf people in general are much, much better at communicating with other people in the world. I think that’s very interesting.

Reach Reporter Nate Hulings at 253-853-9243 or by e-mail at nate.hulings@gateline.com.