Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!mintaka!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!14!James.Womack
From: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: ASL,SEE, etc part 2
Message-ID: <15731@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 19 Nov 90 04:00:14 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:300/14 - The Emerald Isle, Tucson AZ
Lines: 36
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 11823

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Now ASL, contrary to what you say, is not the cause of deaf 
people graduating with a 3rd or 4th grade reading level. ASL 
has been suppressed for over 200 years by hearing educators. 
Oralism and oral-based sign systems have dominated deaf 
education. Their combined result has been a failure for the 
majority of deaf people. Common sense says that if a person 
does not have mastery of a first language, the second one 
cannot be learned with any degree of mastery. By denying the 
deaf children a first language particularly geared to their 
needs (ASL) and forcing one on them that was not geared to 
their needs (English) a grand folly results. English is 
phonetically based. You need working ears to have any hope of 
mastering it. Trying to teach it via the eyes is little 
different than trying to teach the color of a rainbow through 
the mouth. 
     If deaf kids had been allowed to master ASL in school 
and if it had been the primary early teaching tool and the 
tool to teach the second language, deaf kids would achieve 
more. The ultimate proof of that is the consistently proven 
by research fact that deaf children of deaf parents perform 
higher academically than deaf children of hearing parents. 
This is because these deaf parents provided their kids with a 
language suited to the child and the child mastered it. He 
/she came to school with a richer background of lingual 
experiences to draw from and associate with the classroom 
experiences. Just as hearing kids come to school with a 
lingual background that allows them to comprehend their 
teacher while learning new skills. 

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!14!James.Womack
Internet: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org