By: Becca Robbins

 

Atop her podium, Johanna Larson stomps her foot on the wooden box to get the class’s attention that it‘s time to start. She signs a greeting in American Sign Language and launches into that day’s lesson. Her ASL 101 class watches her and mimics her motions. She had her wooden podium made for her after over 20 years of teaching ASL at the University of Oregon.

Larson is the daughter of two deaf parents and, while her transition to a sign language teacher may seem obvious, it wasn’t for Larson. “They always felt, and still sometimes do, that they missed out on some opportunities because they’re deaf,” said Larson. “So when both my sister and I were born hearing they said, ‘Oh you can do anything you want, don’t get into the field of deafness, do something you can do because you’ve got hearing.’” Both of her parents were teachers when she was younger, and she used to visit their classrooms. Instead, Larson found a passion for law and attended a year of law school. She also began to work as an interpreter, something she used to do with her parents, but said she found her true calling when she had a class of her own.

“I so avoided it because I was certain it just wasn’t something I should do, and the minute I stepped in front of a classroom I fell in love with it. It was a natural order of things. So I decided if I couldn’t change the world through legal means, I could change the world through education.” She had one of her first teaching jobs at 19 and “it just kept going from there.”

After decades of teaching, Larson plans to do more interpreting after retiring and leaving her classroom. However, she plans to continue her work with schools by going back to law school for a mediation certificate to advocate for deaf education. This is something a student of hers, Hannah Brown, admires. “I think it’s incredible. As someone who wants to go into special education and eventually wants to help the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] law myself, I think it’s a great experience. You get to know the inner workings of what you see in the classrooms, what you don’t see in the classrooms. I think it’s really cool what she’s doing.” For now, Larson will continue to introduce UO students to sign language. “I felt like I could see things from both a hearing person’s perspective and, as much as possible, a deaf person’s perspective,” said Larson. Brown said, “She’s just always so positive and inspires me to keep going on in ASL.”