Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!umich!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!147.0!Christine.Selfe
From: Christine.Selfe@p0.f147.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Christine Selfe)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Sign language  Part 1
Message-ID: <15130@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 24 Oct 90 04:33:15 GMT
Sender: news@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: Christine.Selfe@p0.f147.n109.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/147.0 - The CyberChurch BBS, Washington DC
Lines: 53
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 11253

My but you do have a way with words!
First off my reaction was to laugh, but underneath it all is a bit of 
sadness. Because of the tragedy involved.. after all this is a person's 
life those so called professionals are dealing with.
And if you kne]
It sounds to me as if deaf Aussies have the same troubles we deaf United 
States folk have.. and I suspect, Deaf Canadians as well.
The question is how do we handle them ?
Right now the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) here in USA is 
working to change the attitudes of educators of deaf children ..
There is a very very big and hot  ... so hot  I just burned myself..
(ouch, Chris runs for the water faucet and turns it on cold then sticks 
here aching burned hands under the water)
Debate. There are those dummies on the one side who push some stupid 
method called oralism.You know.. the kind where the teacher stands in 
front of you and makes you repeate  again and again a..no, not e.. a,
I, no, not a.. i...  so forth and so on... till the poor kid has gone 
through about ten years of his life in school learning not how to read, 
write or add one plus one andmake two.. but how to porperly say the 
letter a.! Very very educational let me tell you!
then on the other side is the group that advocatesthe use of sing 
language only in educating the kiddies.. this group teaches a form of 
isolationism in that  the kids never learn to really communicate with 
those folk who are handicapped in their ability to sign.. about tow 
thirds of the rest of the world... this is the group that would prefer 
to have a world in which all deaf folk are on one side of the spectrum 
and hearing folk on the other side and woe to those who    would dare to 
cross over.
Then there is the smart group of educators.. this is the group that 
advocates total communication in all situations, for those deaf that are 
able to use voice at all, they are encouraged but not required to 
utilize that skill along with thier  preferred sign language method.
this is the group that teaches the kids the value of deaf culture , 
encourgages them to  mix with other deaf folk, yet , at the same time 
also teaches them the value of communicating with the hearing world,, 
this is the world the kids will be growing up in. Later on getting jobs 
in, raising families in. Why exclude either deaf or hearing from  your 
life ?
   Sorry for the long monolgue.. but as you can see it is an issue which 
affecta me deeply,, especially as I am one of those Deaf folk who can 
communicate equally well with both deaf and hearies, and am getting fed 
up with  being bombarded with " you are  deaf.. why the **** are you 
talking with those hearing folk for ? Or.. "why Chris, how wonderful of 
you to  be able to talk to those poor deaf people.. how  did you learn 
sign language so well?   Chris replies" I am deaf myself" Oh, but you 
talk so well...why bother learning sign language at all?"
Vhris groans in exasperation.........

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!147.0!Christine.Selfe
Internet: Christine.Selfe@p0.f147.n109.z1.fidonet.org