Dr. Owen Logue

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Dr. Owen Lugg is the executive director of the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, Maine Educational center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing on Mackworth island in Falmouth. He has over 30 years of experience working in education. Thanks for coming in today.

Dr. Owen Logue:

Thank you. My pleasure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've done a lot of work in the educational field. I mean, you have a doctorate of education from Vanderbilt. You have a master's in education from the University of Maine and a Bachelor of Arts in the University of Southern Maine. But you've also done work in social welfare. You've done work in special education. What has driven that path for you?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Well, I think my path was driven largely because of the influence of my family. I was born deaf in Orano, Maine, and at that time my parents had to navigate a lot of educational opportunities for me because there was a choice made not to send me to a school for the deaf because at that time it was only signing Deaf asl, Deaf, and they wanted me to someday be a spoken language deaf person. And there were a lot of challenges around that because there were no such programs and public schools didn't have the right, didn't have to take you because there was just no laws in place for that. So My parents had to create all these opportunities for me, like speech and hearing centers and summer programs. And eventually they got me into public school. It's just an incredible effort. I didn't know any of this until I was like about 21, until I asked my mother one day and just really discovered the story of my life, basically. And that redirected me completely to dedicate my life to making the lives of others better. And. And so I started out in social work and it was really hard to do that work, residential work. And I got recruited for a program like Teach for America called Teacher Corp. And it was a fully funded program to go back to school. And I got my special education degree. So from there I became a teacher for deaf in Bangor High. And that beginning the journey of exploring myself as a deaf individual and to teach three young women in high school that eventually went on to college. And then I went on to higher education and became a director of disability services and eventually became an academic dean. Just amazing journey for my life. And I'm so humbled that I've had all these opportunities in my lifetime.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So as you were growing up, you didn't know that your parents were going to these extraordinary efforts for you?

Dr. Owen Logue:

That's right. I asked my mother, I said, why am I only knowing this now? And my mother's response was, I needed to know that you were okay and that you weren't going to fall back and realize the true story of your life. So part of this story that I haven't mentioned yet is that at the age of six, I still couldn't talk. I only spoke 20 words, I didn't have a vocabulary sentence, I couldn't speak sentences. And even though I had therapy every week and my mother became my therapist, all these things were not making me a spoken speaker rather. So all of a sudden, at the age of six, my parents took me to Massachusetts and I hear throat hospital because they knew I was deaf, but they couldn't understand why I couldn't at least speak some language. And I was misdiagnosed at that time of expressive aphasia, which is another term for brain damage, inability to speak due to brain damage. And so it just speaks so strongly to my parents faith that I would someday speak. And it happened shortly after the age of six. And it's an amazing story. It's a spiritual beast. But my parents had a friend that went to Rome and met Pope John xxiii, and Pope John XXIII did a blessing of a medallion. And it coincided shortly after the blessing that I spoke for the first time. And my mother was an amazing therapist and always made me look at her. And I heard, to cat me out. And I turned to my mother and I said, mommy, to cat me out, like you always said it did. And I had never spoken a sentence before that. So my friend came back from Rome and asked my mother if I was speaking. And she said, yes, why do you ask? And so I have this blessing, that medallion, and I wear every day of my life to try a little bit harder. So I'm strongly committed to my life, my life work, I guess. But it really comes from the work that my parents gave me. So I asked my mother, I said, how did you know you made the right decision? They wanted me institutionalized at the age of six in Boston. And she said, I saw the twinkles in your eyes, and I knew we had to do what we did. My whole journey has been all about giving back, paying forward to my parents for what they gave to me with no regrets. And it's been an extremely rewarding and rich field, always. I have friends who've made a lot of money in the business world, and they all say that I'm the far richer man for my life's work. And I agree with them.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm struck by this possibility that at the age of six, somebody might have said, oh, this individual has expressive aphasia. This individual essentially is locked in. And that you could have spent the rest of your life not being able to communicate, but being very active in your mind. And what a huge difference that would have made to you, of course.

Dr. Owen Logue:

Well, I spoke at a conference one time, and this young woman in the front row was crying through my speech. And I apologized after my speech, and she said, no, you don't understand. My brother was your age, and he was diagnosed as buzz aphasia. And he went to that school. And 12 years later, they apologized. They made a mistake. He never had expressive aphasia. So, yeah, you're right. I would have easily mimicked the behavior of all the other children I was around. I wouldn't know. I certainly wouldn't be speaking. So I know that, and I'm so grateful.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why not do the American Sign Language? Why did your parents feel it was so important for you to speak?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Very good question. And I embraced what they call bimodal, which is spoken language and ASL now. But at that time, there was a very divided camp that you either spoken language or l deaf or you were ASL deaf, and there was nothing in between. So it was a very big divide for families Families had to make a choice. And, you know, I just didn't know other deaf people until I was 21 years old. And, you know, so I'll talk about that, but it's just great, the work I'm doing now because children at a very young age and families have joined together with a commonality of deafness. And it doesn't matter if you're spoken language or asl. It doesn't matter. We all have the same experience.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Has there been any change in the controversy over the technology that now enables people to hear? Because I know that it used to be that people. There was a big divide between people who were born deaf and chose to remain deaf and people who were born deaf and chose to have the technology necessary to be able to hear again. Where are we with that now?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Oh, I think we're just many years ahead. I mean, just by virtue of me being an educational leader now, decades ago, I wouldn't have been considered the likely candidate to be the leader because of spoken language. And. But like I said, I am very bimodal, which is the ASLM and spoken language. So the biggest thing has really been the technology. The cochlear implant has really just dramatically changed the landscape of deaf education and deafness in general. We are able to. We have the newborn grant here in Maine now. So the first day of a newborn's life, we know if a child is born deaf. And immediately we bring in our team, ASL's deaf person and a spoken language deaf person into the hospitals. And so families know what's ahead of them and we stay with them all the way until they ask us not to be in the lives of the children. So that's remarkable because I wasn't diagnosed until I was 11 months and it's not uncommon. I met many adults like myself who didn't know until they were five or six years old that they had any deafness or anything. So the cochlear implant is huge. The technology. I bought my first hearing aid to show you later, but it's a body aid. It was one sound for everyone. Now I have digital hearing aids. It was customized. Bluetooth is an amazing thing. I usually have a Bluetooth device that I wear for phone calls. So, you know, anyone else wouldn't know that I'm listening and the sound goes directly to my hearing aids. And it's just. Everything is just so amazing now technology. We can see closed captioning on tv. There's a system called CART where you can have instant court reporting transcription that comes virtually online it's just unbelievable what is out there. So that has made all the difference. The challenge has been, and I see in this work, it's children with significant special needs. They have other issues beyond deafness. And that's what we're really challenged with now. How do we best meet the needs of the children who have deafness and other issues as well? And we're working very hard at that. But what you're speaking to. There was a time when they talked about being deaf in ASL only at one point, you know, deaf marrying deaf was extremely high, like 90% deaf, hearing deaf. But one thing that a lot of people don't realize is that there's also 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents. So it takes a long time for a lot of deaf individuals to have what I call the deaf experience. I mentioned I was 21 before I had that. And it was by chance that I discovered that the United States has a deaf Olympic team that competes in international scene. 2000 athletes in track and field, for example. And I had a chance to represent the United States, and that was the first time I've really been in a deaf environment. And it's wonderful. I had a chance to qualify three times for the Olympic team, and every time, I just grew deeper and deeper in love with the culture and my identity as being deaf. I grew up being almost ashamed of being deaf, and I didn't want people to know I was deaf. I used to wear my hair over my hearing aids, and I just totally denied all help, you know, and it's unfortunate. And so I don't want that to happen to anyone else in their future.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how would you describe the deaf experience

Dr. Owen Logue:

for me or in general? Well, the deaf experience is, like you said before, it is kind of a confusing one. They use a term that I like a lot called deafhood. And deafhood speaks to the commonality of all of us having the same experience of not hearing. And it takes different shapes and forms, and, you know, we all take different paths along how we get there. And so the deaf experience is a beautiful thing when you're in the company of hundreds of people who are deaf and just conversing and signing and. And the Olympic, the American Sign Language is only universal to the United States and Canada. So when you go to other countries, it's all hand motioned and, you know, like a lot of trading. Then you trade uniforms and trade shoes, and it's just so exciting and just very electrifying. And so I love the experience of being in the deaf Community, the music, you know, the signing of deaf events is very, very beautiful. And so I'm very proud of the staff I work with. I have over 80 staff members I work with and I have a very high percentage of deaf and hard of hearing adults who work with our team. And the work they're doing is just so electrifying. I guess that's the best word I can use.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When I was growing up, there was significant sadness around the Governor Baxter School because there was abuse that happened on that island with the children. And this is now decades ago, but it certainly left a legacy that I believe would be difficult to overcome.

Dr. Owen Logue:

Yes, I'm glad you mentioned that. That was my generation. There were 200 men that were molested by one individual. And it is a very dark history. And, you know, when I was interviewing for the job that came up and the point was made very clearly that we've moved on. We don't want to dwell on that. That's happened. And I've worked extremely hard to welcome all deaf individuals to come back to the island. We host a lot of different events on the island, a lot of meetings. We have a Deaf Culture Week every year in the fall. And it's just so fun to see a lot of people letting go and coming back and embracing their experience. And we have a wonderful museum. Bill Nye, the former science teacher, has created this incredible museum. It's one of the best. So it's fun to see deaf people from all over the country come to. And of course, Mackworth island is just incredibly gorgeous. You know, just the surrounding. You know, Governor Baxter willed his 100 acre land and he gave his summer mansion and, you know, it's just so, so beautiful.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this is Bill Nye, the science guy.

Dr. Owen Logue:

No, he's not a science. It's funny, he's referred to as a deaf science guy, but he's not the famous Bill Nye.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

A different Bill Nye.

Dr. Owen Logue:

Different Bill Nye.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Different Bill Nye, who is also a science guy.

Dr. Owen Logue:

That's right. But he's also. Ironically, Bill Nye is in his 80s. He is a former science teacher. So that happens a lot.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

How many students do you have at your school now?

Dr. Owen Logue:

We have a very vibrant preschool program on the island, and that's roughly 30 students. And not all are deaf and hard of hearing. Some are hearing. So some families are choosing their children to have that kind of total immersion experience. And we want our children to have that experience. And it's one of the. It's gaining a lot of national and international attention. For its approach, they have a room with spoken language only, with a hearing teacher of adept, and then there's also ASL deaf teacher who is teaching ASL only. So when you walk into one room, you sign only in one room, and then you go to the other room and it's spoken language only. And it's really gained a lot of attention all over the world. And it's very forward thinking, very innovative. And it's kind of the idea from Karen Hopkins, the director of the whole preschool programming. It just really embraces spoken language ASL and just takes away the challenge of families making the right choices. Because we document the developments of each child that we can show how quickly they're learning ASL and how quickly they're learning spoken language. There's a movement to encourage children to learn ASL as their primary language, from which they then build the spoken language. And a lot of research proving that that is the greatest, better way to go. And so we're seeing children making great advances by being immersed and being fluent in ASL and then spoken language.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What do you think of this cultural movement of individual introducing babies to sign language?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Yeah, I think there's a lot to. Like I said, the research is really supporting that kind of quickly. I think you're seeing a lot of families, deaf or not deaf children, being exposed to any kind of concept. And if you think about it, really, it makes a lot of sense if you want to express some basic desires, like being thirsty or hungry, et cetera, you know, your dog, your cat. I mean, it's a beautiful language and it's very expressive and easy to learn. So, yeah, I think you're going to see a lot more of that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about some of the challenges that you have encountered over the years in education.

Dr. Owen Logue:

I mean, like I said before, the technology was extremely poor at that time in Maine, we had such few services available. There was only two speaking here in therapist and state of Maine at that time, and one in Waterville and one in Portland. And there was some extreme financial hardship for families because they had to pay for everything. And unless they went to an institution like Governor Bastard School for the Deaf or like Clark School in Northampton, which is an oral deaf school, if families committed to that institutional piece, the financial piece didn't often come with that because they didn't have to pay for all this services. So because my parents were kind of in no man's land, so to speak, they had to create their services and pay for everything. And it was really hard to do that. But so the Technology really, really, really big because I can't stress enough what it would sound like. If you think about digital hearing aids, it's sort of like the Bose radio versus what used to be like a transistor radio, like a really cheap sound. So the richness of sounds is what we refer to as accessor. Sound is so great, especially with cochlear implant. So cochlear implant children who were born profoundly deaf, and we're seeing children being cochlear implanted by one year old now. And we just. Now we can put hearing aids on two week old babies. I mean, so this whole idea of a life of silence is very rare. There is a percentage of failure for cochlear implants. That's not a guarantee, about a 5% failure rate. So we have seen children who have been unsuccessful with cochlear implants and that's unfortunate because you can't regain that, you lose it and you don't have it. But for those who can, as that sounds, we're seeing a lot. But there are a lot of challenges because language is so driven to the acquisition of spoken language. Reading and writing is all based on what you hear. And Helen Keller was once asked if she had a choice of being the deaf or blind. She said she would prefer to be blind over deafness. And a lot of people don't understand that. I understand that. Not that I would want to be blind, but the mastery of language and reading, writing, all that really is driven by what you hear. So it makes a lot of sense to me when I think about Helen Keller's choice.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are you hoping to see for the future? What is it that. What direction do you hope that your students will go in?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Well, I really like the direction that the organization is going. I mean, all over, across the country, you know, school for deaf are not what they used to be. We used to have 200 children on Mackworth island that lived on campus and you know, we don't have that anymore. We're now embedded in the Portland public school system. East End Community School. We're at Limey Moore Middle School and then Portland High School and then the PATH Vocational School. So that's kind of the trend, is that we're moving students into the mainstream experience. But we have incredible support services for them to be successful in that. So our biggest challenge here at Maine is that we don't have enough teacher for deaf sign language interpreters. I'm fortunate. I have a good array of sign language interpreters, but statewide we don't. If you think about the county or down east or the islands of Maine. It's really a challenge. How do you get. Get those services? But we're hoping to. We're approaching an idea of regionalization, that we're going to regionalize like we do for birth to 5 year olds, that we can go out, we can provide services kind of in a regional way, that we can provide greater assets to support services for all staff as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You mentioned to me before we came on the air that your son is a filmmaker.

Dr. Owen Logue:

That's correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What has your experience been as a parent who is deaf of a child who presumably is not deaf?

Dr. Owen Logue:

That's correct. I have three children, none of them are deaf. And ironically for me, my oldest daughter is a very gifted trombone player who went to Juilliard. And that was an amazing immersion for me to be exposed to music, classical music, in a way that I could never fathom. And I can't distinguish, for example, on a cd, you know, what's trombone, what's French horn? And as hard as I try, I can't really distinguish that. But in a live performance, I can see that. So. So I'm thrilled that my children have this incredible immersion to the arts. And I credit my community of Southwest Harbor. It's an incredibly culturally rich, performing arts based program. And so as parents, we just nurtured their interests and we can't really take credit for their successes. But. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Are there challenges that deaf parents have raising hearing children?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Sure, yeah. It's not easy. I mean, my family have learned to kind of live with my deafness. You know, when you wear hearing aids, they're not always one that you want to wear 24 7. You can't really. You can't sleep with them because they squeak if you sleep on them. And so frequently they're off. And then it's a challenge for my children and wife to communicate with me. So they have ways of getting my attention. And I'm a very good lip reader. And then I usually, if I know I'm engaged in a conversation, I'll put hearing aids back on. So. Yeah. And I hope. We never really talked about it or seen anything from my children's point of view of what they gained by the experience of having me as a deaf father. But I think they've seen incredible energy and persistence, I guess, in terms of just sticking with a goal and working myself through. And they know that a lot of the things I've done in my life have not been easy. And I think it's made them challenge themselves. To do that. That too. At least I hope so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You are, or at least at one point you are a runner.

Dr. Owen Logue:

That's correct.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You are a cross country star in college and you went on and you participated in the Deaf Olympics. Do you still run?

Dr. Owen Logue:

Yes, I do. That's really interesting to me. So I couldn't find my niche in public school. Public school was rather hard and a lot of it because people didn't know what to do. So I was basically just given the right to go to public school. But I didn't have any support. I had nothing. So my academic experience, I went on a college track because I wanted to go to college. I had two older sisters and I aspired to go to college. My parents went to college and it's just so hard for me to do what I had to do. But I kept persistent in that way. I didn't have very good self esteem because I felt really stupid and nothing could really master academics. But I found that even though I had severe asthma, which in that time wasn't really treatable, there was no exercise induced asthma treatments or anything. So I decided I found running that I could run and get sick later. And I didn't really care about getting sick later. It was just so exciting to be be part of a state championship team and to have great coaches. And I emerged as a leader. I became the captain of a team and took that confidence to another level and became class president and found myself as a leader. And I've always had that leadership piece in my life. But I attribute that because of the success I had in running. And so then I had the chance to. So I always wanted to run the Boston Marathon. And I always remember when I was a child, I couldn't run 40 yards the width of a football field because I couldn't do gym. I had to stand beside the gym teacher. So I always remember that 40 yard that I couldn't run, 40 yards that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon. That became kind of a passion. I was driven to that goal. And then once I experienced Boston, it wasn't good enough that I ran Boston. Then I wanted to see how fast I could run Boston. So I had some really great years. I ran really fast and I'm very humbled. I was inducted to the Main Running hall of Fame and I just met so many wonderful people along the way. But it also taught me a lot about goal setting and to do a marathon. It made my pursuit of a doctorate that much easier because I just made everything a mile. You know, every class a mile, every defense a mile and everything. So it was very manageable. I saw it to the end. And yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I've been speaking with Dr. Owen Logue, who is the executive director of the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, Main Educational center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing on Mackworth island in Falmouth. It's been a pleasure to speak with you and I really have enjoyed hearing your story.

Dr. Owen Logue:

Yeah, thank you very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

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