In 1994 I had the privilege of being seconded to a small school for deaf learners. Never in my wildest dreams could I foretell the impact it would make on all my colleagues and my life.
We had only 18 learners then and we were four teachers of whom only the principal could speak sign language.
We did not know anything about the deaf culture.
At first it was difficult to enrol new learners because the parents did not want their children to leave home. We went to a lot of trouble to make them understand that it was important for their children to get an education.
In the meantime we took time to learn sign language and we had lots of laughs and funny situations, which occurred during those strange, but wonderful years.
The learners who entered the school were all much older than the compulsory age for children to go to school and they could not sign and were therefore unable to express themselves in language or signs.
One day, the principal said he did not think the learners knew they were deaf. They spoke to one another and to us with noises no one could understand. They laughed when they saw us laugh and they listened when we spoke as if they were able to understand our conversations.
Those first four years were a wonderfully chaotic and confused time and we bonded with one another and also became this strange family who learned to love and understand one another with and without language.
Some of the children adopted the habit to imitate the teachers’ little irritating habits.
They could imitate us perfectly and we quickly got rid of anything they could use to make us feel silly. With our deaf learners’ help we got rid of most of our bad habits, our bad moods and our bad clothes. They were so extremely honest to us and to themselves.
Thirteen years later, we have 55 learners of which 30 are deaf. We speak sign language and our learners are now able to express themselves with the help of signs. As we got older, so did our sight. These days we wear glasses and we have wrinkles and some days we do not feel so young anymore.
The small children grew older and the older ones have gone to secondary school. They come to visit regularly and we enjoy having them here. They still use our little bad habits against us.
They walk around with our glasses on their noses; joking about being deaf and saying that at least they are not blind. We know that our children will always come back to visit. We receive so many good reports from our learners and we are proud of each and every one of them.
In 1994 when I joined Sedibeng School for the Deaf we could not imagine the impact the children would have on us. Today we do not want to be anything other than teachers at this place we call home. It is not merely another school. This is a haven. Our learners are happy and confident children with so many good things going for them. They made us realise our shortcomings and we learned so much from them. We want to thank our small deaf community for the opportunity to be teachers and friends. — Tess Bugh, Sedibeng School for the Deaf, Limpopo