Neither-nor : a young Australian's experience with deafness / Paul Gordon Jacobs.
"Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1974, Paul Jacobs lost his mother when he was three months old. When he was five, he lost most of his hearing. These two defining events formed the core of his being. He spent the first two decades of his life "coming to terms with being neither Deaf nor h...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Washington, DC :
Gallaudet University Press,
[2007]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Series: | Deaf lives.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Table of contents |
| Summary: | "Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1974, Paul Jacobs lost his mother when he was three months old. When he was five, he lost most of his hearing. These two defining events formed the core of his being. He spent the first two decades of his life "coming to terms with being neither Deaf nor hearing - a neither-nor, an in-between - and a person with a social identity that had yet to be invented." His memoir recounts this journey." "Jacobs excelled in sports and the classroom, but he never forgot that he was seen as different, often in cruel or patronizing ways. His father, a child psychologist, headed a long list of supportive people in his life, including his Uncle Brian, Rita his notetaker, and Mrs. Klein, a gifted art teacher who demanded and received from him first-rate work. Jacobs eventually attended university, where he graduated with honors. He also entered the Deaf world when he starred on the Deaf Australian World Cup cricket team. However, he never learned sign language and noted the lack of an adult role model for "neither-nors" such as himself." "Still emotionally adrift in 1998, Jacob toured Europe, then volunteered to tutor deaf residents at Court Grange College in Devon, England. There, he discovered a darker reality for some deaf individuals - hearing loss complicated by schizophrenia, Bonnevie-Ullrich Syndrome, and other conditions. After returning to Australia, Jacobs recognized what he had gleaned from his long journey: "Power comes from within, not without. Sure, deafness makes one prone to be stigmatized. Yet having a disability can act as a stimulus for greater personal growth, richer experience, and more genuine relationships.""--Jacket. |
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| Physical Description: | vii, 213 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. |
| ISBN: | 1563683504 9781563683503 |