ASL class inspires youths at CHS Not 'speaking' the language is a plus in one high school class

Enterprise correspondent

How many languages can you speak?

Thanks to the recent addition of the sign language program at Clyde High School, students now have more options for fulfilling graduation and college requirements.

With a student's enrollment in this class comes the opportunity to learn from an instructor who teaches straight from the heart. Not only has Brent Borden's personality, creativity, and determination helped make this program a success, but overcoming deafness to become a teacher gives meaning to his lessons and inspiration to his students.

The American Sign Language Program was first started at Clyde High School in 2002 by Borden. He wanted to bring this program to students at the high school and give them an opportunity to learn about sign language.

His first three years were spent teaching classes in the library at 7 a.m. He remembers that the students were not quite as excited as he was; it was too early in the morning and difficult for them to pay attention. One of the hardest problems faced by students was not talking.

It was also hard for the students changing culture, from hearing to deaf. Borden's deafness makes communication more challenging, but the advantages of his life experience outweigh the obstacles.

"It is usually the most difficult for students at the beginning of the year; generally they are scared or excited," he shared.

" Some of them may feel overwhelmed or want to give up, but I encourage them to give sign language more time. I try to be patient with them.

"Several of the students that drop out of my classes regret leaving, but can come back with my permission," Borden commented.

American Sign Language, or ASL, classes are just like any other language class. They consist of exposing students to a different culture, learning new vocabulary and grammar, having guest speakers, watching movies, doing workbook exercises, and developing new language skills.

The classes are typically made up of at least 20 students, but that number is often reduced by five to 10 students.

These numbers change because some of the students do not like signing, cannot understand it, or find that sign language is harder than they expected - the same as with any other foreign language.

In the program's beginning, there was only one signing class offered at the high school, ASL 1.

After three or four years, Borden added more curriculum for a second class.

Not only does he teach at Clyde High School, he has taught college sign language at Terra Community College for the past 16 years. He explained that teaching at Terra is very different from teaching at the high school. Although high school students can have an attitude, he loves teaching at CHS.

When asked what he enjoys most about teaching, Mr. Borden responded, "Everything!" The only thing that upsets him is when students are not listening and talk during class.

He said that "texting" is a big problem as well, especially when it takes away from schoolwork.

Along with the classes offered, there is an ASL Club at the school, which is made up of about 30 members.

Anyone taking an American Sign Language class can sign up to be a member. Students involved in the club participate in various activities throughout the year and can get an "ASL Club" T-shirt.

Members used to hold an annual spaghetti dinner.

Also during Borden's fourth year of teaching, a selected group of ASL Club members traveled to local elementary schools to teach younger students about the sign language courses offered at the high school.

Borden pointed out he is always looking for new ideas from ASL Club members.

Jessica Colvin, a CHS junior, is in her first year of sign language. "It's fun; we laugh a lot," she said. "It was hard to understand at first.

"The tests aren't too hard, because they are one-on-one with the teacher. The hardest thing is remembering the 'Vocab. Power,' which is a lesson on words that look similar, but have different meanings," she added.

Sophomore Alexis Hofelich is in her second year of ASL.

Hofelich thought she would take advantage of the benefits of learning a second language.

"I wasn't really interested in the Spanish or French classes," she commented. " I thought that sign language might be fun, and that I could use it later on in life.

"Beginning a new language was difficult, because I didn't know anything and it wasn't easy to learn all the signs."

Hofelich said that Borden is a good teacher and her second year of ASL was a lot easier than her first, since most of the signs were already familiar to her.

She said she likes how the tests are very interactive and compel the students to learn and remember the signs.