School Plans Class in Sign Language

THOUSAND OAKS — Ventura County’s foreign language menu for high schoolers offers a steady diet of the staples--Spanish and French--with a smattering of German classes.

Now Thousand Oaks High School is ready to serve up more exotic foreign language fare: American Sign Language. The school is poised to become among the first in the county to offer an ASL class, with a proposal before Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees Thursday.

The proposed pilot program is the brainchild of Marty Crawford Hoffmeier, an English teacher at Thousand Oaks High who learned ASL in college.

Students have already shown they want the program, she said.

A sign language club that met at lunchtime regularly attracted 30 to 60 students. And even though the pilot class has yet to receive school board approval, 32 students have signed up for the fall offering. The proposal will get its second and final hearing before the school board June 19.

“I think teenagers are enthusiastic and tend to be inclusive,” Hoffmeier said. “They’re relational creatures. Signing to them is a way to reach out to a new bunch of folks.”

American Sign Language holds more allure as well, she said.

Students are curious about deaf life and culture. Talking with one’s hands is fun. Sign language fills foreign language requirements for Cal State and University of California schools. And job opportunities for fluent “speakers” of sign language are plentiful.

“It’s a great idea,” said Ventura County Supt. of Schools Charles Weis. “ASL is a valuable tool in a variety of settings.”

ASL speakers find work as translators and as teachers of autistic and developmentally disabled youngsters, according to Michelle Morrissey, a community client advisor with the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness.

In Los Angeles County alone, there are from 750,000 to 1 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people, Morrissey said.

“You could be a translator or work in deaf advocacy, of course,” she said. “Or you could specialize in deaf and hard-of-hearing clients as a doctor, a psychologist or a real estate agent. There’s a need out there.”

Hoffmeier’s proposal would offer the class as an elective for sophomores, juniors and seniors through the foreign languages department. Hoffmeier has yet to find funding for textbooks but said she is hopeful about grant possibilities.

In the class, students would learn ASL vocabulary, syntax, storytelling and the visual skills to understand the signs of others. By learning songs, practicing a sign language job interview and listening to guest speakers, pupils should come away from the introductory level course with an understanding of deaf culture.

Whenever possible, Hoffmeier said, students would sign with deaf people.

“A bunch of hearing people signing to each other in a room is like living in a bottle,” she said. “You have to have some exposure to the deaf culture.”

That exposure shouldn’t be hard to come by in eastern Ventura County--both Moorpark College and Oxnard College have programs catering to deaf students. And in the San Fernando Valley, CSUN is home to a Deaf Studies Department and the National Center on Deafness.

Or, if students want to practice their ASL with other novices, they can chat with Rio Mesa High students, who also have access to sign language classes. Some Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees are waiting to hear Hoffmeier’s pitch before deciding whether to approve the class. A supporter of the idea is trustee Elaine McKearn, whose 12-year-old daughter has Down’s syndrome and learned sign language as her first language.

“I think it would be a great addition to our school district,” she said. “I would even like to take the class.”

The concept is appealing, said Charles Eklund, the director of secondary education.

“It’s a high-interest course with lots of opportunities,” Eklund said. “I think students will take the class.”