Must-See Movie on Sunday Night!

This Sunday night at 9pm ET/ 10pm AST on CBS, a movie called "Sweet Nothing in My Ear" will be airing. The beautiful and talented Marlee Matlin stars alongside Jeff Daniels with newcomer Noah Valencia playing their son, Adam.

Here is a news release about the movie:

In CBS' new movie, two warm people are divided by a mutual love.

The wife (Marlee Matlin) is deaf; the husband (Jeff Daniels) is not. Now one issue -- whether to give their deaf son a cochlear implant -- splits them.

"Sweet Nothing in My Ear" has surprises for the audience and for the actors. "I had no idea about the pride in the deaf culture," Daniels said.

That's a key factor. "Some may see deafness as a disability," Matlin wrote in an e-mail interview, "but it is a spirit and a sense of community that has been around for over 200 years."

That pride propels the conflict, Daniels said. "(Her) opinion is, 'We're deaf; we're not disabled.' ... My argument is that we should not limit him, when there is this technology that might allow him to hear."

This is a frequent debate. Proponents say the implants can restore partial sound to some people who were born hearing; critics say this can separate them from their deaf family and schoolmates.

"I've seen my share of scripts, mostly poorly researched, featuring cochlear implant storylines," Matlin said. "This was the first one that looked at the issue intelligently, accurately."

The director is Joseph Sargent, 82. "He loves making movies," Daniels said.

In his 1985 "Love is Never Silent," Phyllis Frelich and Ed Waterstreet, both deaf, played parents of a hearing woman. They're back now, as grandparents encased in the struggle.

That was one of the attractions, Matlin said. It "featured several roles for actors who are deaf or hard of hearing."

Noah Valencia was 9, with no acting experience, when he was cast as the son.

"That kid is a wonderful actor (and) he was so prepared ... He was a pro," Daniels said.

Daniels had his own preparation. When the role came up, he said, his agent implied the actor knew sign language. When he got the part, "I ordered this 20-hour series of (signing) tapes and crammed," Daniels said.

Photo Credit

Bloody Wednesday

Today Kennedy's BAHA site was really "angry" when I cleaned it this morning. We do the same routine every day but for some reason it just gets really icky and sore sometimes. Tonight it began bleeding a LOT (most I've ever seen) - her hair was matted and everything. It was a sin! She had to miss Girl Guides (which she loves) and go the whole evening without her BAHA on, and she LOVES her hearing aid, but I had to let it dry out some and try and get it healed. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day as she has a big pizza party with the Sea Dogs (our local Major Junior League hockey team).

On a good note, I am finished classes until the first of May...just need to study for those exams next week!

Testing...

My new email subscription option...
Ignore this post :)

Test-time

Lately, K seems to have had quite a few tests and another big one coming up Thursday on the Interior Plains region of Canada. She has to know information about the climate, natural resources, plants, animals and the geography of the region. She recently had one on the Canadian Shield and she got 27/30. We were so proud. She also got 47/50 on a big spelling test and 12/15 on her grammar test for quotation marks. She is working so hard lately and I just wanted to share all the great news about how well she was doing!

Now, it's test time for mama - 3 exams next week...It's almost over, it's almost over, it's almost over...


This is Ms. KK and Ms. MacKenzie together shopping for 'fabulous' clothes at Old Navy on a recent trip. A girl's gotta have a break once in a while from all this school work, what's more fun than shopping???

Fighting for Choice

We have a war going on right now in our education system here in NB, if you want to read all the details about it, check this blog out.

Here is a condensed version: the NB government is trying to save money by cutting the Early French Immersion program here and forcing ALL students in grade five into this new, "Intensive French" program. Kennedy goes into grade five in the fall and now I have lost the choice for her to continue to be educated in English. There are no French interpreters or itinerant teachers for students who are deaf/hard of hearing, etc...this is a nightmare. The intensive French has them in French instruction 75% of the day for FIVE months!

This is inappropriate for Kennedy and even MORE so because she will not even have access to the information even if it WERE appropriate. I've had many others come to me and tell me they feel the same way and nobody in the government, at the school district, or at the school can tell me
a) how this could possibly benefit her
or
b) how they plan on accommodating for her unique learning challenges.

They are opening themselves up for quite a bit of legal trouble in my opinion (in addition to the fact that so many people are outraged by this decision that they will be lucky to see the light of day in the next election).

I wish things could be boring - just for a little while.

So, if you're wondering where I've been lately, I've been fighting the government over this regressive decision that will adversely affect Kennedy and others as well. A government removing choice from its citizens in a democratic system - kinda sounds a little backward to me...