Through Deaf Eyes
Jessica Ortiz
Basic American Sign Language
Professor Loeffel
Through Deaf Eyes Assignment
Question Set #1: Education
Choosing a school is a hard decision for a student and his or her family. It is especially hard when the student is deaf. When choosing a school deaf students have two main options: Attending a local public school alongside hearing students or attending a specialized deaf school surrounded by the deaf community. Education for deaf students has been going on for centuries in the United States. However, education in the deaf world has really evolved and hasn't always been the way it is today. In the 1800s most deaf people were isolated from each other and had limited understanding of what they could do. It wasn't until 1817, when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet changed the way Americans believed deaf people could be educated. He had opened the first permanent school of deaf children in America. The outcome of this school spread American Sign Language around and many new schools for deaf children opened. In the hearing world Alexander Graham Bell is seen has a hero but in the deaf world according to Brian Greenwald, "he offers and antagonist perspective because he's like the boogie man. And even though he's a great man in his own right, but he did put forth the idea that life without signing, would be a better life." Bell thought that signing was preventing deaf people from learning how to speak. He believed there was new technology now than in the 1800s to teach the deaf community how to speak and lip read. Because of Bells beliefs oral school were opened in the 1860s where they did not teach sign and did not allow it to be used. By the early twentieth century, oral methods dominated deaf education in the United States. It was a big change in the deaf community since oralism was not considered before. Bell’s success in promoting oralism has generated much hostility from the signing deaf community for its impact on their culture that continues today.
Basic American Sign Language
Professor Loeffel
Through Deaf Eyes Assignment
Question Set #1: Education
Choosing a school is a hard decision for a student and his or her family. It is especially hard when the student is deaf. When choosing a school deaf students have two main options: Attending a local public school alongside hearing students or attending a specialized deaf school surrounded by the deaf community. Education for deaf students has been going on for centuries in the United States. However, education in the deaf world has really evolved and hasn't always been the way it is today. In the 1800s most deaf people were isolated from each other and had limited understanding of what they could do. It wasn't until 1817, when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet changed the way Americans believed deaf people could be educated. He had opened the first permanent school of deaf children in America. The outcome of this school spread American Sign Language around and many new schools for deaf children opened. In the hearing world Alexander Graham Bell is seen has a hero but in the deaf world according to Brian Greenwald, "he offers and antagonist perspective because he's like the boogie man. And even though he's a great man in his own right, but he did put forth the idea that life without signing, would be a better life." Bell thought that signing was preventing deaf people from learning how to speak. He believed there was new technology now than in the 1800s to teach the deaf community how to speak and lip read. Because of Bells beliefs oral school were opened in the 1860s where they did not teach sign and did not allow it to be used. By the early twentieth century, oral methods dominated deaf education in the United States. It was a big change in the deaf community since oralism was not considered before. Bell’s success in promoting oralism has generated much hostility from the signing deaf community for its impact on their culture that continues today.