An enduring bond: Mother-son pair to graduate together at Clarke School Saturday
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NORTHAMPTON - It's not easy for a teenage boy to share a school - or a stage - with his mother.
Teenage boys tend to be embarrassed by their mothers, as was the case for 16-year-old Jared Wolpert the day his mom, Janis Wolpert, came to school dressed like a doctor for Halloween.
Mother and son are hoping this Saturday will not be a repeat.
Janis Wolpert, 54, of Fresno, Calif., will put on academic robes for Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech's annual commencement. Jared, 16, who is deaf, will be graduating from the program he entered in 2006. His mother, Janis, can hear and is graduating from the Smith College/Clarke graduate teacher education program.
Janis looks on with admiration at Jared as the two chat with a reporter in a school meeting room Thursday morning before classes. They discuss the first time Jared and his mother crossed paths at school last year on Halloween.
Dressed in a Clarke School hooded sweatshirt, he has the sleepy demeanor of a teen at 8 a.m. But he remembers this story quite well. Like the rest of the dozen or so women in the graduate program, Janis came to school that Halloween in costume. Dressed up like a doctor, she doled out "shots" of candy to the school's preschool through eighth-grade students.
Janis had fun. Jared was mortified.
"It was the first time she came to school and I was nervous," said Jared, who reads lips and speaks and can hear fairly well with a cochlear implant. "She wore a doctor costume and gave out this fake shot. I was so embarrassed."
"You're afraid I'll continue to embarrass you?" Janis teased.
Jared nodded.
"I was really popular for Halloween," she said.
A shared graduation
On Saturday the Wolperts may be the first mother-and-son pair to graduate at a Clarke commencement, said Jennifer Einhorn, Clarke's director of communications. Clarke School was established in 1867, and its graduate program in 1962. Saturday's graduation at the Helen Hills Hills Chapel on Elm Street will honor 14 graduating eighth-graders and 12 graduate students.
Like many parents of Clarke School students, Janis Wolpert traveled far to ensure his education.
Not satisfied with the education Jared was receiving in California's public schools, the Wolperts came to the Valley in 2006 to check out the Clarke School. Unlike the preferred method in California, which teaches sign language, the Clarke School is an auditory/oral educator for the deaf and hard of hearing.
This means that children are taught how to listen and speak, rather than use sign language. This focus was evident Thursday morning as children chatted and hugged each other in the hallways as they arrived for class. The place was pretty noisy for a school for the deaf.
It's a controversial method among the deaf, some of whom say auditory/oral education and cochlear implants treat deafness as a disability rather than a cultural identity.
Wolpert said she almost immediately fell in love with Clarke's method of teaching, which she sees as helping children bypass their hearing handicap and learn how to talk by reading lips and utilizing cochlear implants and other hearing aids.
"I came here and I was prepared to tell everyone how to speak with him," Janis said. "You have to remember to make eye contact so he can see your lips when you're talking.
"But the minute I walked in the door, the teachers took over and they disappeared. I didn't have to say a word. It was great," she said.
She enrolled her son in the Clarke School soon after. He stayed in the school's residential housing. When Janis came back 10 months later to visit Jared, his speech had vastly improved, she said. When Jared entered the school he spoke in two- or three-word sentences. Less than a year later, he was speaking in 10-11 word sentences.
The dramatic change in her son encouraged Janis to enroll in the master's program Clarke runs in partnership with Smith College.
"I thought, I need this knowledge. This is really amazing," Janis said.
Janis moved to the Valley in 2009 and rented a house in Northampton for herself and Jared. They split the rent with another California family with a child at Clarke. The two families met during Clarke's annual student play. That year the school produced "Grease" and Jared played Kinicki, a gearhead obsessed with girls and drag racing.
Studying alongside each other
From then on Janis' days were filled with homework and taking care of Jared. She'd wake around 5:30 a.m. and head to school, come home to make dinner and then do homework until 1 a.m. She learned about speech development, how the ear works, brain development, and how to administer speech therapy. Although the master's program is traditionally completed in two years, Janis double-timed and finished in one.
"You said, #Mom, you have no life," she laughed, nudging Jared. "I had to balance my family and work. It was great, though."
Meanwhile, Jared was playing soccer- scoring 20 goals in 18 games in one season- and taking a class on how to integrate into a public high school.
After graduation the Wolperts will head home to their family in Fresno, Calif. Janis will use what she has learned to assist in her work as a learning handicap specialist in the public school system and to run her nonprofit We Hear You Foundation, which helps connect parents of deaf children with services. She will also continue to advocate for the passage of legislation in California that would require hospitals, schools and learning centers to give parents of deaf children information about communication options beyond sign language.
Jared will enroll in public high school, where he will apply what he's learned at Clarke. With his cochlear implant and training, Jared can hear and communicate fairly well, so well in fact that he can talk on the phone with friends in California. He has practiced his speech and knows how to advocate for the amenities he needs to be successful in school, he said.
Jared said he's a little nervous about leaving Clarke and entering high school.
"I've never been to a public high school - it's been a long time and maybe I'm not ready," he said.
Janis disagrees.
"You're ready," she said. "He's more prepared for the world than I could have ever imagined at this time."
