Reading and writing can be successful though unpredictable. It is time consuming and when the written communication is prolonged, errors can result and people lose patience. One certainly would not relish a counseling session conducted solely through note writing. Lip-reading has proven to be quite inefficient for all but a small percentage of Deaf individuals. Service-learning has been an important part of the MWCC curriculum for three years.
Students have a variety of opportunities to perform community service at various settings.
Teachers are encouraged to incorporate service-learning projects into their syllabi with objectives consistent with the goals of the course. We encourage students to participate in service-learning projects when they are enrolled in a Deaf Studies course. Language skill in ASL is of course the main objective for our students. Since language proficiency in ASL has always been necessary for the internship, we already had some experience with issues of placement when the service-learning program was instituted at our college. Some of the same issues exist for both programs, mainly that you cannot place a student in a situation with Deaf individuals if the student's ASL skills are not developed enough.