Every Monday, Dr. William Clary wakes up at 4 a.m. and descends from the snowy mountains of his Big Bear home and drives down to San Diego to teach American Sign Language.
He teaches Monday through Thursday at Mesa College and works part-time at Grossmont College and Southwestern College on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Clary stays in a motel in San Diego during the week and then takes the five-hour journey back to Big Bear to his cabin where he enjoys the serene scenery with his wife and walks his dog through the tranquil woods.
He does all these things in silence.
Clary is deaf.
Born in North Hollywood in 1959, Clary went through school like anybody else. He had always struggled with math, but challenged himself to excel in other subjects.
“I took many difficult classes,” he said through an ASL interpreter. “Our group of students at the Berkley Institute for the Deaf were seen as the gifted students, so we were given difficult courses.”
Clary played varsity football and baseball in high school and junior college. He graduated and was the first deaf man to earn a Ph.D. from USC. He said his parents always had high expectations for him.
“I was always a model child,” he said. “When my parents would talk to my friends’ parents they would say ‘Look at Bill, your child can be like Bill.’ That would bother me because everyone is different, no one can be exactly like me.”
Clary said he wants to become involved in politics so he can hopefully change the way deaf education is taught in the United States. One of the problems in the U.S. deaf education he said is the fixation in trying to “fix” deaf people.
“Why do we need cochlear implants?” he said. “Because they want us to hear? Once you take out the implant you are still deaf. I see many deaf students take out their implants because they do not want to hear anymore. The U.S. thinks that if they fix a deaf person they may have a better quality of life and education, but that is not always guaranteed. I have never had an implant and I have a Ph.D. Did anyone try to fix me?”
Clary said the American education system should adopt the way deaf education is taught in Sweden, where it is more of a collaborative effort for parents and students. The U.S. educational system is more of a “dumping ground,” he said, where parents leave all the responsibility of education to the teachers.
“In Sweden, parents go to work, but they are also responsible for the education of students,” he said. “Sometimes in the U.S. educators that can hear make decisions for what is best for deaf people. You need to have a deaf educators perspective when making decisions like that.”
Clary said he wants to get rid of the stigma whereby deafness is seen as a disability. He said deafness is a communication barrier, not a disability.
“There is nothing physically wrong with deaf people,” he said. “They just cannot hear.”
Clary said he enjoys teaching sign language despite having to balance between three different colleges. He said his favorite part of teaching is seeing former students achieve success outside of school.
“Maybe it has been 20 or 30 years and I run across former students,” he said. “I have had so many students. I usually have difficulty remembering them, but it usually comes back to me. I always hope that I have made a difference in their education. Many teachers do not give the time of day to students, but I always strive to try to give opportunities to students and fulfill their needs.”
Clary said he enjoys seeing students go forward to become interpreters and interpret for him. One of his former students, Brenda Jimenez, interpreted the interview.
Jimenez said that she was not originally interested in becoming an interpreter until she took Clary’s deaf culture class.
“Getting to know deaf students is what I enjoy the most,” she said. “Sometimes you meet deaf people when they are students and the next time you see them they might be getting married or go to the workforce. It is just a great community.”
Clary said he has never let deafness hinder him. Although the journey from Big Bear to San Diego may seem like a hassle, Clary said his love for teaching and desire to help students makes the trek worth it.