An anchor between two worlds

Steve Silverman earlier this week sat at the front of his fourth-grade classroom during a reading exercise, pulled out a crumpled ball of paper and lobbed it at a student.

With their hands stretched skyward, the George Washington Elementary students talked over one another and dove across desks to intercept the errant throws — Silverman’s version of calling on someone to answer a question.

When they became too loud, the 55-year-old teacher told them to quiet down, even though he couldn’t hear a word they were saying.

Silverman has been deaf since he was 28.

“When I did hear, I could tell the difference between productive noise and unproductive noise,” he said. “I miss being able to make that distinction.”

Silverman has spent 20 of his 32-year career with Burbank Unified’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, teaching integrated classes of hearing and deaf students. It was the career he always hoped for.

And when Silverman retires next month, he will leave behind a bit of the change — a bridge between the hearing and deaf worlds — he worked so hard to effect.

Embracing a new path

Raised in the East Bay area of San Francisco, Silverman studied psychology at UC Berkeley. During his junior year he decided to pursue teaching, earning his credential in 1978. He settled into his first job, married and started a family.

His career was brought to a standstill six years later when hearing loss that began at age 19 intensified. A CAT scan revealed tumors growing along the nerve that leads from the brain to the inner ear — a rare genetic disorder in which tumors hamper hearing, balance and vision, among other things.

By the time he turned 28, he was deaf in both ears, unsure whether he’d be able to return to teaching. But after enrolling in a deaf education program at Fresno State University, he discovered a new world of educators, including Carl Kirchner, a pioneer in the field of deaf education.

“People in deaf culture don’t feel they are handicapped; they don’t believe they are disabled,” Silverman said. “They say among themselves they can do everything but hear.”

In 1991, Kirchner invited Silverman to Burbank Unified, where he had launched a revolutionary education model known as the Tripod Program, with deaf and hearing students being taught side-by-side.

But not every hearing family wanted their child in an integrated deaf-hearing classroom.