[misc.handicap] Parable Upload Experiment

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.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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