James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (11/19/90)
Index Number: 11825
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
I repeat, under no circumstances do I mean to put down
lipreading, SEE or oralism. They have their places for those
who CAN benefit from them. But for the majority of the deaf,
educators are robbing the child of the very tool needed to
benefit of education by insisting on teaching English with
English only (in one form or another).
Try this. Go to Japan. Learn Japanese without being allowed
to use English to help you associate what instructors are
saying at any time. Only Japanese will be used. English is
forbidden. You will indeed learn some Japanese. However, your
ineptitude in mastering it will parallel the ineptitude that
most deaf people have in English. Simply because you were not
allowed to use a language you had mastered as a first
language. You must have a basis, a foundation to build from.
You must. Now think of this. The average deaf child comes to
school with such a fragmented understanding of the most
mundane things within the very environment itself that you
have to teach things to a Jr high kid that a hearing kids
knows since age 5! Now go back to Japan and try learning that
language under those circumstances. That's what is being done
to the deaf child.
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