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From: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Multiple Uses Of Sign
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Date: 28 Feb 91 16:09:32 GMT
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Index Number: 13758

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

What you said to Jay about residential schools, i would love to see
you stand before a classroom like mine in a residential school and
tell my high schoolers the same. Don't worry, i willhave the governor
order the National Guard to protect you from the kids.

Jay is correct that deaf education is inthe hands of too many who have
never been deaf. Tobe deaf is to be mnore than just deaf later on or
anything. To be deaf is to be face to face with social realities hearing
society subjects deaf people to. Mainsteaming. Hoooo Boy! Theyway it
is done is a pity. Wish you could meet those who went thru it, then
later associated with Deaf ( note the capital so it isn't confused
withthe clinical term "deaf') and grow to resent what they endured
as mainstreamed students. a shame really because if mainstreaming worked
the way it should have and as I described in an earlier post, it would
be one heck of a great educational system!

They shut down residential schools in some states but openede them
later because public schools were failing miserably to meet the kds
needs. This year alone and once again at my school, we have received
about (counting high school only) 6 or 7 kids whose parents pulled
them out of mainstreamed programs after finally realizing theier kids
were not benefiting as theyw ere led to believe. Many did so after
meeting or seeing our "residential" school kids in town or on some
tv program or something and quickly saw how vital and self-assured
they were when compared with their own children. With so many peoplelearning
ASL now, I find my kids and myself interacting with hearing people
in ways we never thought of before. Even those who don't signwant top

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