Passive Voices

By Leeanne Seaver, H&V Headquarters ©2018

I am sitting in an IEP meeting. The principal has just said “pacific” when she meant “specific” …for the third time. She is leading the meeting. I’m wondering if too much cringing can cause an embolism…if this is how I go out.

We are discussing my son’s language goals. The teacher of the deaf is busy trying to figure out the new IEP software that will make her job easier. This will distract her for the next hour and a half, which several in attendance have pointed out is longer than the district allows.

They want to know what my bilateral, sensorineural, profoundly deaf son, Dane, will do. I’m given the opportunity to dream big for three to five minutes, per the printed agenda. Mind you, I’m not knocking the printed agenda—it’s just that no one asked me what I wanted included on it. So I say, “I want him to do whatever he’d do if he were hearing,” by which I mean I want him to make friends, talk smack, get the joke, raise his hand, master reading, get cast in the spring play, and be recognized as the smartest, coolest kid who ever went to this school.

In its efficient, optimistic homogeneity, the new electronic IEP prompts every goal towards an outcome statement: “The learner will…” but I want to know what the teachers will do. The answer is keyed into the form in digits: 20 (minutes of speech), 40 (minutes) 3 (times a week with the itinerant teacher of the deaf).

There are five minutes left and I still don’t know, pacifically, how any of this translates to Dane’s academic and social success in third grade, or was it fourth grade . . . or was it another kid’s IEP meeting when I was there as an advocate? Or was this another parent’s story shared at a recent H&V conference where I realized that these scenes are still playing out in schools nationwide—more than a decade after Dane graduated from high school?

The Problem of Passivity

This learner (me) will now school you on the grammatical problems posed by such IEP outcome statements.

First, a quick reminder: “The hearing aids were hidden by Dane,” is passive voice. “Dane hid his hearing aids” is active voice.

When the subject of the sentence receives the action, the verb is in passive voice. Passive voice has its place, but should be used sparingly. It’s often confusing and always considered the weak, paltry version of a declarative statement. Passive voice “often obscures the subject, so readers are left to guess about who performed the action of the sentence’s verb.” (www.scribendi.com) 

Indeed, and here’s my point. “The learner will” reads declaratively, but it actually means “The learning will be done by the student.” Yet doesn’t the learning hinge entirely on how effective the teachers and parents are? Where has that critical piece of accountability been spelled out in the IEP?

Imagine conversations where there are outcome statements focused on teachers and parents. Why can’t we put in writing that “The teacher will—

• effectively customize instructional delivery based on my son’s learning style
• communicate directly in my son’s primary mode or method (or ensure that a qualified interpreter is delivering the content accurately)
• innovatively cover the same curriculum hearing kids are taught so my son’s language needs are addressed in context to his grade-level standards
• ensure that my kid is actually learning, and troubleshoot in a timely manner so he doesn’t get behind when he’s struggling

And while we’re at it, there should be clear goals for us as parents so we understand what support on the home front looks like: the parents will help with homework and communicate any concerns or “AHA” moments back to the teachers; the parents will use preliteracy techniques every night during the bedtime story, and so forth.

But how would parents know what these preliterary techniques are? Well, I’m glad you asked because parents and teachers alike should be workshopping the newest edition of the NASDSE Guidelines (see http://www.nasdse.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=so5QDUsOY0U%3d&tabid=36) where “the learner will . . . “ is spelled out in context to what s/he should be capable of doing, and what we need to do to support that. These guidelines can help all of us understand what it takes to optimize educational outcomes for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. In a perfect world, we all own our part in the development and implementation of an IEP, and our kids emerge with their own active voice (and/or hands) in that process.  ~

H&V Communicator – Winter 2019