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From: Bill.Swift@f165.n101.z1.fidonet.org (Bill Swift)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Hi All.
Message-ID: <13201@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jul 90 19:39:49 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

-> AS> about yourself.  I have one question though, do you use
-> AS> sign as your personal way of communication or is it more
-> AS> job related so you can communicate with other HI folks?
    Both actually.  It depends on the situation.  I use ASL to communicate
with deaf/HI friends as well as at work.  As I have a fair amount of
hearing I dont use it to communicate often inthe hearing world, and use
voice and lipreading and my own hearing most of the time.  For lectures and
trainings I need it to understand what is being presented, especially in
large rooms.  And I had to use sign once to communicate with hearing people
when one of my patients hit me in the voice box and I had no voice for a
few days.   ANd even when it cam e back, I sounded like a cross between
Wolfman Jack and Tallulah Bankhead for a couple of weeks.
-> AS> cutting down ASL but I sure would like to see a
-> AS> few changes made because I've seen too many miss out on so
-> AS> much, especially lacking in comprehension of our English
-> AS> language and
-> AS> lack of reading skills.  In order to correct this serious
-> AS> problem, I feel we are going to have to start with the
-> AS> young ones and see that they are provided with a better
-> AS> education than has previously been provided.  I feel very
-> AS> strongly about this and am quite militant with my views.

     I agree and disagree with that statement.  I feel the state of
education in this country in general is appalling and needs a severe
overhaul with a much stronger emphasis on the basics which involves reading
and the banning of calculators from math classes.  I think this is
something that should be done in all classes, not just in deaf schools. At
the same time I do subscribe also to the need to teach ASL as the primary
language for the deaf to communicate with.  I think Written and Reading
English skills are much too low to be tolerated but feel english should be
taught as a foreign language which is what it is.  ASL and English are
different and need to be taught, but taught separately.

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