James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/15/91)
Index Number: 14876
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
It was our father of deaf eduation, Charles-Michel de l'Epe
who first thought of taking a spoken language and putting it into the
signed medium. This quote reflects his idea:
"Teaching the deaf is less difficult than is commonly supposed.
We merely have to introduce into their minds by the way of the eye
what has been introduced into our own by the ear"
He said that teaching the deaf is not really as difficult as
it appears. Educating the deaf would be eas would be easy if content
were introduced via the eyes rather than the ears. The eyes rather
than the ears provide access to the mind. During that time it was
thought that the deaf could not be educated since they couldn't hear.
De l'Epe challenged that idea with the idea that deaf children had
to be taught in a visual medium. Educators embraced de l'Epe 's
idea. The question be came one of what language was to be used to
get information across visually. Spoken French was not accessible
visually. De l'Epe 's answer was that sign language should be used.
De l'Epe learned to sign from deaf children. He set up a school for
deaf children and learned to sign from his students. He called
their sign system "Natural Sign." He learned to sign fluently but
still faced one problem--the signs the children were using were not
the same as spoken French. Because the natural si gns did not
conform to spoken French, he realized he would still need to teach
deaf children French.
This led to his idea of adding invented signs to Natural Sign
to make it more like French. The end product was what he called
Methodical Sign. People were thrilled with Methodical Sign because
it was thought that it made French visually acc essible. Methodical
Sign spread throughout France. Americans tried it too. Clerc tried
the same thing in America. The results gotten with Methodical Sign
are much the same as we have gotten with MCE. It didn't work.
Another man, Sicard, took over after de l'Epe died and then
a third man B bian took over. Our history of deaf education stops
after Sicard but it is the third man, B bian, who is really
interesting. B bian challenged the idea of using Meth odical Sign
and claimed Methodical Sign didn't work.
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