Kootenai Valley Record
See the December 31, 2007 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story.
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Asa Wood students learning Sign Language
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
January 2, 2008
The first- and second-graders at Asa Wood Elementary are learning a second language, but you won’t hear them using it.
The youngsters are studying sign language during afternoon sessions with volunteer instructor Ray Eanes. The students are picking up the new language quickly and are starting to use it amongst themselves in class, said first-grade teacher Melissa Martineau.
“It’s just a wonderful thing,” Martineau said. “It’s a foreign language, and we don’t have any other foreign languages."
Martineau’s daughter, now in the second grade at Asa Wood, started learning from Eanes last year and is enthusiastically studying sign language again this year.
“She loves it,” Martineau said. “She asked Mrs. Eanes if she could have a weekend class.”
Eanes has been signing for about 15 years. She decided to learn the language after being intrigued by its beauty.
“I saw somebody in church do it, and I thought, ‘Oh, I need to learn how to do it,’” she said. “It was so gorgeous.”
Eanes has interpreted for deaf children at a school in New York and taught children who have gone on to use what they learned in their adult lives.
“It’s great,” she said. “Some of the kids I taught sign language to years ago are now interpreting for the court system, and one of them is an interpreter for the Senate.”
Eanes said she volunteers her time at Asa Wood “because I love to sign, and I really think it’s important to learn because now it’s considered a foreign language.”
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Editor’s Note: See the December 31, 2007 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Monday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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