Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id fAL4WR011821; Tue, 20 Nov 2001 23:32:27 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 23:32:27 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <16a.4434764.292c87cb@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: KathleenBombach@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:3789] Re: Deaf, communication issues X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 7.0 for Windows US sub 10021 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="part1_16a.4434764.292c87cb_boundary" Status: O Content-Length: 4123 Lines: 55 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Where in the world did anyone get the idea that languages like SEE help deaf communicate with the hearing world? Maybe I live in an unusual place, but very few hearing people sign here in El Paso. Reading and writing help deaf communicate with the hearing world, but signing is not an interface to the hearing world. I must admit that I know only two credentialed deaf educators (both hearing) but I do know a lot of deaf people. They are adults, some of whom went through the local school district deaf ed program which teaches SEE. They come out of high school reading at the third or fourth grade level after twelve years of SEE--the school district called me once to see if they could put each years' high school graduates in our deaf literacy program because their reading and writing skills were so poor. They were no longer eligible to attend high school since they had already graduated. This is educational failure any way you look at it. The staff I hired who had gone to the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin or the New Mexico School for the Deaf were very vocal in expressing their opinions of the different sign languages (all considered SEE and SE artificial languages prefered only by hearing people), the hegemony of hearing people over the lives of the deaf, and the hearing world's denial of their autonomy and right to make their own decisions. Who am I to tell them what sign language is 'better'? I live in a hearing world and I am unable to think like a deaf person just as much as I am unable to conceptualize and use echolocation. I let them tell me what language is theirs. BTW, many deaf abandon SEE/SE as soon as they finish high school. I will look for the references on teaching reading and writing as a second language to the deaf and post them to the list. Kathleen Bombach
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