James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (03/28/91)
Index Number: 14517
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
I would like to ask a few questions. If MCE is so effective, why
do deaf people resist it so much? From children who dump it upon
leaving school to deaf adults who may even teachers themselves.
Why do we fight it so much? Don't cow behind that apartheid bull.
It is insulting. We want the best for our kids just like any other
people. If a method works to raise our children higher than we
achieve ourselves, we would rejoice now and forever. So don't
insult us by implying we don't want the best for our children.
The other question is if MCE is so great, why is it that
mainstreaming and residential programs both which are
predominantly MCE in approach still don't make a true difference
in the reading level of deaf children. Yes, Anne, most residential
schools use MCE. SEE 1 or SEE 2 or L O V E or SE or "Total
Communication." My last question is this, why is there such
resistance on the part of hearing teachers and oral deaf to giving
ASL the same try that all these methods that have come and gone
and then got reincarnated over the years? What's the problem with
trying ASL as a first language then using the knowledge base a
child develops to teach English as the second language? Foreigners
who come to American colleges learn this way. Why not try it with
the deaf? Will formalized and coherent use of ASL hurt the deaf
any more than other failed methods? Why is it that those
intelligent Deaf people who so ably formed schools for the deaf
were educated via ASL? I call this resistance oppression and
suppression of a people. What do you call it?
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