I've always wanted to write a book relating my experiences growing up as a deaf child in Chicago. Contrary to what people might think, it wasn't all about hearing aids and speech classes or frustrations.
Marlee MatlinRead
When I was 11, I knew that I wanted to write a kid's book and tell the world what it was like being deaf.
Interpretation
Marlee Matlin expresses her childhood aspiration to write about her experiences as a deaf person.
This quote highlights the importance of personal narratives and representation in literature. Marlee Matlin, as a deaf individual, emphasizes her desire to share her unique perspective with the world through storytelling, illustrating how much can be learned from diverse voices and experiences, especially in children's literature.
In practice
This quote can be used in a keynote speech at a literacy event to highlight the importance of diverse stories.
I've always wanted to write a book relating my experiences growing up as a deaf child in Chicago. Contrary to what people might think, it wasn't all about hearing aids and speech classes or frustrations.
I'm a proud person who happens to be deaf. I don't want to change it. I don't want to wake up and suddenly say, 'Oh my God, I can hear.' That's not my dream. It's not my dream. I've been raised deaf. I'm used to the way I am. I don't want to change it. Why would I ever want to change? Because I'm used to this, I'm happy.
It was ability that mattered, not disability, which is a word I'm not crazy about using.
The only thing I can't do is hear. I can drive, I have a life with four kids, I work on TV, I do movies, so the deafness question, is it that they want to know because, what? Not sure.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and in spite of what most people might have expected from a young girl growing up deaf, life for me was like one long episode of The Brady Bunch. Despite whatever barriers were in my way, I imagined myself as Marcia Brady skating down the street saying βhiβ to everyone, whether they knew me or not.
I like to say that the greatest handicap of deafness does not lie in the ear, it lies in the mind. I hope that through my example, such as my role on 'The West Wing,' I can help change attitudes on deafness and prove we can really do everything... except hear.
My goal is to get peace and my goal is to see education of every child.
Education, whatever else it should or should not be, must be an inoculation against the poisons of life and an adequate equipment in knowledge and skill for meeting the chances of life.
The unit of effectiveness of education is not the individual but the group. An individual's moral values are primarily important for society as they contribute to a moral social climate, not as they induce particular pieces of behavior.
In college, I was an education major and qualified for several jobs. But the fame that came with the Olympic medals was too threatening to many people.
History offers us vicarious experience. It allows the youngest student to possess the ground equally with his elders; without a knowledge of history to give him a context for present events, he is at the mercy of every social misdiagnosis handed to him.
God has given to every one of us more than fourteen billion cells and connections in our brain. Now why would God give us such a complex organ system unless He expects us to use it?
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