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 fALKfc005767; Wed, 21 Nov 2001 15:41:48 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 15:41:48 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <11d.7ae6e81.292d6af7@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:3793] Re: Deaf, communication issues X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Status: O Content-Length: 2502 Lines: 13 Vicki: I think you made a reference to SEE helping students function in the hearing world. I know that deaf educational issues are very controversial--because deaf people have initiated this dialogue with the hearing educational world that has always made all the decisions on what was best for deaf children. And I know that in practice, deaf people often adapt and use signs from multiple sources. Here in El Paso we have Mexican Sign Language, ASL, SEE, home sign (there is no special ed system in Mexico and deaf children rarely go to school), and gestures. Since the goal is communication and learning, in practical terms the signs used are whatever the two conversants 'agree' to use, with the teacher teaching ASL signs, especially for new vocabulary. With so many deaf with very limited signing skills, we hoped to make it possible for the students to fully function in the deaf world as much as to function in the hearing world (the students were all adults). English reading and writing was taught as a second language because it did not represent their natural mental landscapes. For those with some hearing who spoke Spanish and no English, the process was the same: ASL and English reading and writing as a second language. The point I want to make is that we hearing people need to give leadership for deaf education to the deaf community. When the original deaf French came to Martha's Vineyard to start the first deaf school, they did amazing things, not the least of which was to organically develop ASL out of the French sign they had already created and the Martha's Vineyard sign that the residents used (from Kentish sign language I believe). Deaf leadership and control of resources in the education system may make us uncomfortable (after all, they might make mistakes). But we hearing people are not doing such a hot job, and it is their future at stake. I know all deaf are not alike. I have a 12 year old son with progressive hearing loss. His mental construct is that of a hearing person, and he will always be able to fit into the hearing world even after he loses his hearing. SEE may seem like the most natural way of signing to him because he will have been a hearing person long enough for his cogitive structures to fully develop and for him to become a fluent English speaker/thinker. It is the deaf themselves who divide the deaf world into "Deaf" and "hearing deaf" based on each other's cognitive structures and way of understanding the world. Kathleen.
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