James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (03/15/91)
Index Number: 13938 [This is from the Silent Talk Conference] Jay, here is a parable I tried to upload before but did not seem that I succeeded. It is a bit paraphrased as the original is rather long. One day a farmer walked through the woods. He saw an eagles nest high in tree. He decided to climb the tree and in doing so, found an eaglet. He took the eaglet home and put among his chickens. For five years the eagle grew up among the chickens and behaved as a chicken. One day a man who knew birds came by to visit the farmer. As they stood in the barnyard, the chickens came to feed. Among them was the eagle. The man said, "That is an eagle!" The farmer said, "Not so it is a chicken. It was an eagle but now it is a chicken." The man who knew birds said that it was an eagle and to prove it, he would make it fly. The farmer laughed. The man lifted the eagle and said, "You are an eagle, fly!" The eagle looked at the man. It looked at the chickens feeding on the ground. It jumped down and commenced to feed with the chickens. The farmer said, "See, I told you it was a chicken. The man said it was not a chicken, but an eagle. "I will try again." The man took the eagle to the roof of the house. "You are an eagle and not a chicken. Fly!" The eagle looked down from the and saw the chickens feeding. It jumped down to join them. As the man who knew birds descended the rook, the farmer laughed. "You see, it is a chicken now." "No, let us take it to the mountains where it belongs. I wish to try again." They put the eagle in the truck and drove to the base of the mountains. The took the eagle out and set it on the ground. "Eagle, you are an eagle and not a chicken, fly!" The eagle trembled as if new life was coming into its body, but it did not fly. The farmer gloated, "I told you it was an eagle!" The man who knew birds turned the eagle's face to the sun. Suddenly, with the screech of an eagle, the great bird lifted into the sky and soared ever higher. It disappeared into the sky and never returned. Though it was raised as chicken, it had the heart of an eagle. THE FARMER= Hearies who insist on trying to make deafies hearing. THE MAN WHO KNEW BIRDS= Deaf people who know that the deaf people need a solid first language to develop a base for all other learning to take place. THE EAGLE= The deaf Morale: Though educated to be like the hearing, deaf children grow up to be deaf adults. Maybe that's why deaf people abandon SEE and other Englishizing sign system once we begin associating with our own, we are who we are. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!14!James.Womack Internet: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org
Stu.Turk@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Stu Turk) (03/15/91)
Index Number: 13939 [This is from the Silent Talk Conference] JW> Morale: Though educated to be like the hearing, deaf children JW> grow up to be deaf adults. Could be. But at least they have the knowledge of how to deal with hearing people. "Mainstreaming" isn't (in my opinion) suppose to mean that a deaf kid is taught only hearing skills. Its suppose to mean s/he is taught deaf skills _along with_ hearing skills. When I went to school (regular city school) they had a special classroom for deaf and hard of hearing kids (who received lipreading and speech training) for several periods and spent the rest of the time in regular classes. This is the way I believe it should be and my only problem with my own schooling is that at that time the "experts" decided not to teach sign language to the hard of hearing. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!26!Stu.Turk Internet: Stu.Turk@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org
James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (03/15/91)
Index Number: 13957 [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. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!14!James.Womack Internet: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org
Stu.Turk@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Stu Turk) (03/15/91)
Index Number: 13961 [This is from the Silent Talk Conference] JW> Stu, you said you went o mainstreaming and it was not to teach JW> deaf kids only hearing skills? Interesting because you then tell JW> about the focus on lipreading and such. All of that is geared to JW> make the deaf child more presentable to hearies. Nothing wrong Er, actually, this was 40some years ago and at that time professional educators couldn't care less about how presentable the deaf kids turned out. The school I was in had a special class for *hard of hearing* kids, who were given lipreading and speech training. *Deaf* kids were sent to another school and were taught sign language but (from what I've been told) no lipreading or speech training. I belive this has been changed now, or at least I sure hope so. The lipreading training came in handy for many years but now my eyesight has gotten so bad that I can't see well enough to lipread. It would have been nice if they had taught both lipreading _and_ sign language in addtion to regular (mainstreamed) school subjects... -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!26!Stu.Turk Internet: Stu.Turk@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org