Anything but Dry

“Many books about educating the Deaf have struck me as a tad dry, but Rachel Zemach’s The Butterfly Cage is anything but dry. She shares her many years of teaching her Deaf students while trying to work within the “system” to provide a better—and more equitable—experience for them. While this may seem like a “big-picture” book filled with some truly heartbreaking scenes, we do meet many unforgettable characters, all of whom are beautifully rendered to illustrate clearly how and what must change in the future. The Butterfly Cage is a clarion call not only to reconsider how Deaf students have been historically served but also how they deserve a far better chance now to improve their own lives not as Deaf people trying to be hearing, which is actually a form of oppression which is brilliantly delineated in these pages, but as Deaf people as themselves with their own set of unique cultural attributes: diverse, vibrant, and powerful.”