I have already written a blog post about the Netflix Original series Master of None, but when I was considering which show could help teach a lesson, I couldn’t think of a better one than an episode from the second season of the show. There was a specific episode that I felt would fit seamlessly in a classroom setting. This episode, titled “New York, I Love You”, features a long segment about what life is like for members of the deaf community.
The episode pieces together the lives of three separate lower-class New Yorkers. It explores the day to day lives of a doorman, a bodega cashier, and a taxi driver. As a whole, the episode does an incredible job of showing how hard life in New York can be, and it also shows the immense variety that is all contained by this one city. I recommend this show to nearly everyone that I encounter, but if you only want to watch one episode, I ask that you watch “New York, I Love You”.
As mentioned, the part of the episode that I felt would be a useful teaching instrument was the scenes involving the deaf bodega cashier. In the scenes involving her, the show is absolutely silent. No background conversation or music, just a very noticeable silence. Watching the show with headphones on made the experience even more interesting for me, because all noise was completely absent.
The reason I think that this would be a great lesson, especially for elementary school teachers, is because of the perspective it gave me. I experienced total and complete silence for just a few minutes, but by the end of it, I was infinitely more thankful for my ability to hear. It made me more sensitive to the boy who lives on my floor, who has impaired hearing and often needs a little extra time to process things. For the first time, I noticed a mother and daughter using ASL at Walmart while shopping for groceries. I even reconsidered the impact of my sorority’s philanthropy, which provides hearing aids to those who cannot afford them on their own. My eyes have been opened to the vast differences between my life and the life of someone with hearing loss.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 1 in every 8 people in America has hearing loss in both ears. This means that everyday, I interact with many people that have hearing loss, at least to some extent. Obviously, not all of these people are completely deaf, but they are living with an invisible disability. Through Master of None, I’ve become much more aware of the people around me who are going through things I can’t even see.
I believe that this lesson about the struggles of life with hearing loss is crucially important for school-aged children to learn. Allowing them to realize early on that this is an issue that we have to be cognisant of is the only way to improve the quality of life for those with hearing loss.
The episode pieces together the lives of three separate lower-class New Yorkers. It explores the day to day lives of a doorman, a bodega cashier, and a taxi driver. As a whole, the episode does an incredible job of showing how hard life in New York can be, and it also shows the immense variety that is all contained by this one city. I recommend this show to nearly everyone that I encounter, but if you only want to watch one episode, I ask that you watch “New York, I Love You”.
As mentioned, the part of the episode that I felt would be a useful teaching instrument was the scenes involving the deaf bodega cashier. In the scenes involving her, the show is absolutely silent. No background conversation or music, just a very noticeable silence. Watching the show with headphones on made the experience even more interesting for me, because all noise was completely absent.
The reason I think that this would be a great lesson, especially for elementary school teachers, is because of the perspective it gave me. I experienced total and complete silence for just a few minutes, but by the end of it, I was infinitely more thankful for my ability to hear. It made me more sensitive to the boy who lives on my floor, who has impaired hearing and often needs a little extra time to process things. For the first time, I noticed a mother and daughter using ASL at Walmart while shopping for groceries. I even reconsidered the impact of my sorority’s philanthropy, which provides hearing aids to those who cannot afford them on their own. My eyes have been opened to the vast differences between my life and the life of someone with hearing loss.
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 1 in every 8 people in America has hearing loss in both ears. This means that everyday, I interact with many people that have hearing loss, at least to some extent. Obviously, not all of these people are completely deaf, but they are living with an invisible disability. Through Master of None, I’ve become much more aware of the people around me who are going through things I can’t even see.
I believe that this lesson about the struggles of life with hearing loss is crucially important for school-aged children to learn. Allowing them to realize early on that this is an issue that we have to be cognisant of is the only way to improve the quality of life for those with hearing loss.
No comments:
Post a Comment