Primary sign language

So recently I have been struggling to think of stuff to blog about. It seems like my brain has stopped working and I have nothing to say. I thought about Tracey and my calling as primary teachers and I realized I must speak out against one of the most horrific practices inflicted upon children in the church. This needless act is the unnecessary incorporation of sign language into primary songs. To make this worse, the songs are typically performed in some sort of sacrament meeting program making this unusual torture highly public.

Before I get a bunch of hate mail from people with deaf family members (yeah right, there are like 5 people that read this blog and I know all of them), let me say that I think sign language should be everywhere to help those that are hearing impaired interact with the world. My issue is when sign language is unnecessarily forced upon kids who have a hard enough time singing loud enough that people can hear them.

To make matters worse the person teaching the children doesn't actually know sign language making it a learning experience for all parties. Now I know it is a lot of work and I commend our chorister for that but I just think the effort could be better spent elsewhere (I was going to make a comment about choosing clothes that don't look like they were made for a renaissance fair but that would be too mean). The best was when the other chorister (that is right, our primary has 12 kids on a really good day and requires 2 choristers) tried to tell the kids what one sign meant, only to be corrected by one of the counselors that actually knows sign language.

I could go on for much longer especially about the video where the person is making ridiculous faces while signing the song but I will refrain. The point is, this practice needs to stop, for the sake of the children and for my sanity.