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From: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Parable Upload Experiment
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Date: 15 Mar 91 04:47:58 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Stu, you said you went o mainstreaming and it was not to teach deaf
kids only hearing skills? Interesting because you then tell about the
focus on lipreading and such. All of that is geared to make the deaf
child more presentable to hearies. Nothing wrong withthat as far as
I am concerned. What is lacking is an opportunity for that child to
learn about his/her self as an individual and a deaf individual. Where
were the courses on deaf history? ASL? Accounts of deaf contributions
to society. Do you know that the inventor of shorthand was deaf? That
the inventor of the concepts for jet engines, plotting a rocket's trajectory
and the invention of the wind tunnel as well as the establishment of
the girl scouts inthe USA was the work of deaf people? I have my doubts
that you do not do too deaf people. We contributed heavily to studies
related to astronauts becoming sick in space (a lot of deaf people
don't suffer from motion sickness, NASA needed to know why), but what
do you know abput it? It gives a Deaf person a sense of self-worth
to know that we deafies are not the burdens that society sometimes
unintentionally portray us to be.

They taught you deaf skills, really? What were those D E A F skills?
No mockery intended there. But let me tell you what I see every year
here in Tucson and in California and have seen in other states as well.
Year in and  year out mainstreamed people dump SEE and start using
ASL and associating more and more with Deaf people. Manu are flocking
to places like my community college program in almost a lustful frenzy
to learn about themselves as deaf people and ASL as THEIR language.
They are also taking ASL/English classes to FINALLY  gain some mastery
of the -and I quote what many say over and over-hated English classes.
They eventually learn taht English is not to be hated as an imposed
condition onthem, but another language that is the primary medium used
by another group of people called "the hearing." They learn to come
to appreciate its role because they have learned to appreciate their
own and ASL's role. Both are very much part of the Deaf Community just
as English and Vietnamese is both a part of America's Vietnamese community.
These people become bi-lingual and bi-cultured. They feel less beaten
down.

I am sorry,but mainstreaming the way it is handled for the most part
today is a disapponting failure for too many of thedeaf trapped in
the system. Residential schools provide the needs for a lot of important
psychological stability deaf people need, true. However,these schools
also have faults. Being hearie dominated and having English only focus,
they do not nuture the full capacities of deaf people by failing to
allow mastery of ASL as a 1st language and using it to teach English
as a 2nd language. Still residential schools provide the deaf with
more than the average mainstreaming program does.

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