Decades ago, CJ Jones walked into a St. Louis, Mo., public school and was told he was not allowed to sign. The Temecula Valley High School students that the Deaf entertainer performed for Tuesday live in an entirely new and accepting world.
“It’s amazing to see the change,” Jones said through an interpreter. “It makes it a lot easier for Deaf kids to feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not alone. I’m not strange. I’m not different because I’m Deaf and everybody’s hearing.’
“If they see hearing people sign, they feel confident and empowered.”
For more than 30 years, Jones has been spreading that word through one-man shows like the one he delivered Tuesday for more than 200 American Sign Language students in Temecula Valley’s newly minted performing arts center.
Afterward, the school’s ASL club participated in a workshop a series of non-verbal acting, gesturing and miming exercises aimed at giving many of the students their first real opportunity to learn the nuances of sign language from a Deaf person who’s learned to live in a hearing world.
“He’s inspirational for anybody whether you know sign language or not,” ASL teacher Darcy Calas said. “A lot of these kids have never had exposure to a Deaf person. To see him here and interacting with hearing people, to see how he’s able to communicate with the hearing world, it’s something that we just can’t teach in a classroom. You can’t learn that from a book.” ...READ MORE: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/12/education-jones-asl-deaf-students/
Official website - http://www.cjjoneslive.com
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