TRAIN GO SORRY: Inside a Deaf World

The book is marvelous for its accurate insights into Deaf culture. It uses a Deaf residential school setting as the basis for the many subplots so we get an inside look at deaf people - It is an ingenious device. We see the various aspects of Deaf culture from many points of view as Ms. Cohen explores issues through the various characters in the book. All the characters are very interesting and fully drawn. You feel as though you know each one of them when you're done.

I am a hearing man who has been involved in the Deaf community for over 30 years. I teach ASL at a college and have read just about all the books available on Deaf culture. This is the book that I now require for my level two students. It gives so much "inside" information about deaf people. And she does it through the many fascinating lives of each character, most of them deaf, a few hearing.

If you are an ASL student or know a deaf person, you should definitely read this book. If your professor doesn't now about this book yet, tell him or her to read it. Even if you've never met a deaf person I think that you will find this to be a great read. It is breezy yet poignant and you keep turning the page to see what happens next to each person involved.

This book is a personal overview and interpretation of several issues of concern in deaf education. The author, Leah Cohen, was born into a hearing family who worked and resided at Lexington School for the Deaf in New York City. In this book, she explores her connection to the school through the stories of her father's parents, who were both deaf, and her father, who was superintendent of the school when this book was being written. Cohen also looks at the school from the point of view of two students, Sofia Normatov and James Taylor. She describes some of the accomplishments these students have achieved despite tremendous challenges. Sofia was a recent immigrant from the USSR, and must learn ASL and English if she wants to go on to university. James hails from the housing projects and receives very little support from friends and family for his academic endeavors. Nevertheless, he is determined to pass the Regents Exam and earn an academic diploma so that he will have the opportunity to continue his education. Cohen also describes her own experiences learning sign language and then developing her skills as a translator. The book includes some black-and-white photos of the main characters described in the text. There is no index or bibliography.

Worked into the chapters telling stories about Lexington School, its students, and staff are many issues that are central to the deaf community today. One of these issues is the question of mainstreaming deaf children into public education. Many administrators (and hearing parents) believe that deaf children should be treated like other handicapped children and enrolled in regular classes in hearing schools. These people cannot seem to comprehend how misguided this policy is. Deaf children, especially those born to hearing parents, need the company of other deaf children in order to learn the language that is best suited for them. Only in the company of other deaf children of varying ages and deaf adults is it possible for deaf children to pick up on Deaf culture, the culture that will understand them for who they are and not consider them handicapped. A deaf child who is mainstreamed is likely to spend most of his or her childhood isolated, unable to communicate effectively with peers or develop native fluency in sign language for effective communication with other deaf people. Schools for the deaf, on the other hand, provide rich opportunities for deaf children to develop socially as well as learn in classes that are thoroughly adapted for their skills and needs. In her chapters touching on the question of mainstreaming, Cohen reports the discussions at board meetings and the frustration on the part of educators for the deaf in getting education departments to listen to their arguments.

Cohen discusses at some length the topic of cochlear implants. Not only does she explain why those in the Deaf community see no use for them, but she also points out how they can harm the user by eliminating residual hearing they might have. In her material about the student James, she points out how little supposed hearing specialists know about the implants.

One of the largest and perhaps somewhat understated issues in the book is the question of the role of ASL in deaf education. I was shocked to read that some teachers at the Lexington School, at least in the early 1990s when this book was written, still had no fluency in ASL. How in heavens name could they communicate with their students? As Cohen explains, Lexington was founded as an oral school, and it has only been quite recently that students were finally allowed to communicate with each other in sign. Cohen was born into a family where her father and grandparents were fluent in sign and used it as their primary means of communication, and she spent the first 7 years of her life living in a residential school for the deaf, haunting the hallways and even attending preschool classes with deaf children. With such an upbringing, fluency in ASL should have almost been her birthright. Instead, with ASL banned on campus during the time she lived there, she did not start to learn sign language until her college years, by taking private lessons. (Perhaps this is why she was completely ignorant about deaf applause, and mistakenly attributes its invention to the Deaf President Now campaign at Gallaudet in 1988. While she claims that the shimmering hand applause of the deaf spontaneously appeared at Gallaudet in 1988 and from there spread rapidly around the world, I saw it in action in 1985-86 in deaf schools in Finland. I suspect it has been part of Deaf culture for quite a bit longer than Cohen was aware.) In her book, she notes that "train go sorry" is a deaf idiom equivalent for "missing the boat". The truly tragic "train go sorry" in this book is the fact that Cohen was denied learning sign language as a child, and that deaf students anywhere studying in deaf schools still find teachers in their classrooms who do not know and use ASL. While oral skills have their place and should be a part of the deaf curriculum, they should constitute a minor course of study, and not the medium of instruction.

About one-third of this book is about growing up Jewish, one-third is devoted to just plain stories of growing up (stuff we all did...) and a third is about growing up as a hearing girl inside Deaf culture, as the daughter of the administrator of a school for the deaf. The only interesting part is the Deaf bits, the insight into deaf students striving to create a sense of community at school when almost all of them came from hearing families. Their field trip to Gallaudet University is triumphant for most of them, and the featured debates over ASL, cochlear implants, oralism and mainstreaming are all major issues in the Deaf community.

I wish there had been more about this aspect, as it's difficult for a hearing person such as myself to get information on this parallel culture that lives among us.

The rest of the book is unremarkable, somewhat plebeian and wouldn't have held my interest by itself. Therefore I give the book 1/3 of a full recommendation, plus an extra 1.4 stars for the thought-provoking analysis of what it means to be Deaf.

The book is as described. It took awhile to follow the story lines, but beginning near the middle and through the end of the book, it came together very clearly and nicely. It gives a good understanding into the deaf education experience at a residential school, the Deaf culture and its intermingling among the hearing world, while also injecting humor and depicting the need to know the importance of ASL as a language in and with deaf individuals.

love this book it really tells you the struggles of the deaf community

in the book i found a few parts with pen written comments but other than that i'm totally satisfied with my purchase.

Leah Hager Cohen speaks from the heart as she tells of growing up as a hearing child in a boarding school for the deaf, and of the experiences and conflicts which deaf students must work through in establishing themselves as part of the deaf culture as well as part of the hearing world.

Interspersed with discussion of these issues are vignettes about Cohen’s growing up as an observer in the deaf world, and about the careers of two students at the Lexington School for the Deaf, one a Russian immigrant girl, the other an African – American boy. Often the transition between segments was awkward. I wish Cohen’s editor had helped her with this, as sometimes I felt catapulted from a textbook on the deaf experience, to a chapter of a personal memoir, and then again to a story told by an observer.

I came away with a deeper understanding of the problems faced by deaf people, but no solutions.

Used conditions but good enough for class and great price.

Had to read for class; knowing that I attempt to keep an open mind. At Chapter 3 or 4, I could not wait to get finished with the book! She jumps around and tells you everything from either her memory or (maybe) someone else's. She is not Deaf, her parents were not Deaf; she briefly lived at a home/school for the Deaf as her father was the superintendent/principal. Very difficult to follow...keep in mind she writes novels. Tends to throw in multi-syllabic words to impress her readers, but in other places in the book, the sentence structure is poorly constructed. My actual rating is zip; surely there are better books to read.

As a medical professional I didn t realize what was really going on with deaf people. This book blew me away.
I would recommend it to everyone....written to be easily understood and eye-opening.