In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

92 7 Joe I’ve been through a lot of things . . . I work hard. —Joe AFTER CORRESPONDING with Joe’s mother for a couple of weeks to plan our visit, I was eagerly anticipating our meeting. His mother spoke adoringly of Joe and all of his activities and achievements. As Marilyn and I parked in front of Joe’s home, we saw Joe and his mother beaming and waving to us from the front porch steps. Joe, now sixteen, has grown to a towering six feet two inches. He greeted us in a red high school football jersey. I told him I remembered he had dreams of playing high school football, and now he is. Joe was ten years old when we met last. Growing up deaf and black in hearing and predominantly white schools, he related many painful social experiences in our previous interviews, and I had remained concerned for him over the years. Despite this, it became clear that Joe, like his mother, was content with his many accomplishments. They were especially meaningful to him in light of the adversity that he has faced. He understands his mother’s esteem for him: “She stands by me through everything . . . Now she’s remarried and she has someone for herself and I’m happy for her.” He shared with me that he has maintained a 3.6 GPA on top of his busy athletic and extracurricular schedule and that he is looking forward to playing varsity sports next year. Needless to say, I was pleased to learn about his success. Joe and his mother and stepfather have moved to a new home. All of his siblings, who are hearing, are now away at college or are adults and living on their own. Joe has always been mainstreamed in public school total communication programs. One of the most striking things about this interview was the fact that Joe still has painful experiences in school with hearing peers, but his coping skills and resilient attitude are the key to his survival. His stories ring of responsibility and achievement. 93 JOE He maintains an outstanding academic record and résumé of extracurricular activities despite these experiences. He tells me, “It’s not easy,” and he doesn’t understand why adolescents do what they do, but he copes with these challenges by “showing them” through sports, academic success, and a generally mature approach. Compatible with his concept of his success to this point in his life, he has high expectations for his future. “I want to go to a Division I school, play football or lacrosse, major in business , and become a business executive.” He acknowledges his difficulties but also his strengths. It was fun to see the warm, loving, and mutually respectful relationship he has with his mother. It was ten thirty Saturday morning, and Joe was finishing up a glass of juice. He looked tired, and his mom reminded him to comb his hair. He chuckled and finished his juice. His mom took a breakfast tray downstairs to give us some privacy.  THE STORY responses that Joe provides based on the pictures I showed him were fairly reserved and brief, and I probed a bit, hoping for elaboration . Although perhaps not evident from this excerpt, Joe was content to stick to what he saw as actual detail; he worked hard to understand the perspective of the person in the picture or what the photographer was hoping to capture, and sometimes, rather than drift into the imaginary, he stayed safely with reality—“Well, they’re just models,” he told me. This was in contrast to the responses I got from Alex, who was more spontaneous, who freely associated his first impressions with his free-flowing imagination and eagerness to create ASL stories based on the photos. While Joe is sensitive and talked about his feelings and his relationships, his approach to our second interview using projective storytelling prompts with photographs was more rational than creative and illustrated his critical thinking skills as he considered various possible interpretations. He asked if I would be using “psychology.” He was very aware and informed, and he understood the purpose of my techniques. He is mature in his thinking and insight. In fact, he even mentioned psychoanalysis in relation to one of the pictures I showed him, and he told me that his sister is majoring in psychology or wants to be a psychologist as he discussed their supportive relationship. A bright and talented adolescent, Joe...

Share