Deaf To The Past

NEWS UPDATE 12-8-14 WITH LEXINGTON SCHOOL / CENTER FOR THE DEAF. 0 Views 0 Comments 0 Likes. Results of a Study are presented that suggest the grammatical structures of English some deaf and hard of hearing students struggle to acquire. The history of deaf people and their culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is an ethnocentric

As Deaf Culture Changes, So Do the Questions : NPRNEAL CONAN, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Gallaudet University is in crisis. Since last Thursday, the world's only university dedicated to deaf and hard of hearing has been boiling.

A protest escalated so far that angry students are blocking the gates of the school, and it's effectively shut down. We planned to talk today with Gallaudet University President I. King Jordan amid the controversy, primarily over the choice of his successor.

President Jordan decided to cancel and issued this statement last night. I truly look forward to the opportunity to talk about Gallaudet and my long and wonderful relationship with it, and I hope that I'll have the opportunity to do so on the program in the not too distant future. But we still plan to talk about this unique institution today. Gallaudet is more than a school to many of its students, and more than a beloved alma mater to its graduates. The passions on all sides of today's protest tell a deeper story. Almost 2. 0 years ago, a civil rights movement swept the campus, and as a direct result, I. King Jordan became the first deaf president and helped to build Gallaudet into a symbol of progress and to an inspiration for deaf people worldwide.

• Deaf Education: A New Philosophy.
• Deaf Bible set to reach more of the unreached and unengaged deaf community with God's Word in 2015 with. Bucklew sees this movement as a repetition of the past.

No Longer Deaf to the Past. Posted 3rd December 2015, 9:21. The history of deafness is as old as humanity. An engraving of hearing aids from.

Today, we'd like to open a window on that community, get a sense of Gallaudet University's history and legacy and what makes this school — a relatively small institution of some 1,1. And, of course, we'll look at the current crisis on campus, too. Today, we want Gallaudet students and alumni, other deaf people and their family members to be our guests. Call and tell us about the school's meaning and value to the deaf community. We're providing real time captioning of this program at our Web site.

For more information on the captioning, go to npr. The telephone is 8.

E- mail, talk@npr. And with me here in the studio is Joseph Shapiro, an NPR reporter who's been covering the deaf community since the protest on the Gallaudet campus in 1. Joe, nice to have you on the program today. JOSEPH SHAPIRO: Thank you, Neal. CONAN: Tell us a little bit about that moment in 1. SHAPIRO: That was an important moment.

It was the — it was an expression of deaf pride. The issue was pretty clear back then: shouldn't a school that prides itself on educating deaf students have a president who's deaf? And Gallaudet had never had one before. Students demanded that it was time to have one. They closed down the gates of the university, closed down the university - much as we're seeing today. And finally, the board of trustees relented and chose I. King Jordan, who was a popular dean.

And this became a great moment, a glorious moment in sort of the history of deaf people in this country. CONAN: And this debate and this protest today seems to echo a lot of what happened in 1. SHAPIRO: No. So in 1. This is not very clear at all because this is — because the Board of Trustees met last spring and they chose a woman to be the next president — a woman name Jane Fernandes, and she is deaf. She's been a long- time administrator at Gallaudet. She, however, grew up in an oral tradition, learning to read lips and speak. She was 2. 3 when she started to learn sign.

She became a scholar of American Sign Language. But I think some still hold that against her. She had a long history at Gallaudet and she probably — and she made decisions that were unpopular. So she came with a lot more baggage and — but the issue was not so clear as it was in . Briefly, when you talk to people there — and you have over many years — what do they tell you why is Gallaudet so important? SHAPIRO: It's a special place because Gallaudet is the center of deaf culture and deaf history. If you grew up in a deaf family, chances are your mother went to Gallaudet.

Your father went to Gallaudet. Probably your mother and father met at Gallaudet. You may wish that someday you may think that your kids will go to Gallaudet. It's the center of deaf education, but also deaf culture. CONAN: Mm- hmm. There are — deaf culture is unlike the blind, who may go to institutions where they learn how to maneuver around. Deaf people go to school together, and they go to schools around the country. And Gallaudet is sort of the apex of that pyramid.

Isn't it? SHAPIRO: Well, there have been the schools for the blind and for deaf people. And actually, those schools, the number of them are going down. But there is more of a history in the deaf community. And Gallaudet is a special place where they often come together. It's a — people come together because they have this thing in common, that they communicate by sign.

CONAN: Mm- hmm. And briefly, tell us a little bit about the history of the school. You were kind enough to usher me over there earlier today, and I noticed that it was founded in the middle of the Civil War. SHAPIRO: Abraham Lincoln wrote the charter, 1. You saw some beautiful campus, old buildings. But as you said, it started 1. There were no schools for educating deaf people in this country. If somebody was deaf, they did not get educated.

If their family was wealthy, they sent them to Europe. And Thomas Gallaudet decided that he wanted to change that.

He actually went to Europe and brought a French educator to this country to start that college. CONAN: And how is it funded? SHAPIRO: Largely, it gets most of its funding from Congress — unlike other colleges and universities, it gets about 7. Congress. CONAN: Let's get some listeners involved in the conversation.

Again, we're hoping that Gallaudet students, Gallaudet alumni, family of deaf people will give us a call and tell us about this institution and why it's so important to their community. Our number is 8. 00- 9.

The e- mail address is talk@npr. Let's begin with Joanne(ph). Joanne is calling us from Encinitas in California.

JOANNE (Caller): Hi, Neal. CONAN: Hi. JOANNE: Thank you so much for taking my call. CONAN: Sure. JOANNE: I am a mother of a daughter who's deaf, who's attending Gallaudet.

I'm extremely upset and frustrated about what's going on, trying to stay in touch with my daughter via texting over her Sidekick. She feels and the students feel that they just don't have equal participation in the selection of this president and in the direction that Gallaudet needs to go. Gallaudet is the Mecca of the deaf world. She's adopted from Ethiopia and we tried to give her the best education we could, and that's why she's at Gallaudet.

When did you first find out about Gallaudet, and what kind of place did it hold for the people who were telling you about it? JOANNE: I first learned of Gallaudet in 1.

United States when my son was born in '8. We later adopted my daughter in 1. I said, it's the Mecca of the deaf world — have been to Gallaudet. And I had always hoped that she would graduate from high school — which she did, we're very proud to say - but she did not pass the English portion of the California exit exam because it doesn't take into consideration that English is the second language for deaf people.

American Sign Language is their primary language. CONAN: Joanne, thanks very much for the call. We appreciate it. JOANNE: Thanks. CONAN: Bye- bye.

And there are, Joe Shapiro, most of the deaf children in this country are the children of hearing parents, is that not true? SHAPIRO: You know what? I'm not sure of the exact figure, but I think that's probably right. CONAN: All right. Let's get another caller on the line. Angela's calling us from Pennsylvania.

ANGELA (Caller): Hello, yes. I happen to be deaf — partially deaf right now - and it's increasing. It runs in my family, but I'll say this: ten percent of the American population is deaf or has some form of deafness. This is not being addressed appropriately. We need to have more Gallaudets. We need to have more communication skills for people who are hearing impaired or deaf, not less. And they should have more Gallaudets around the country — not only teaching sign language or American Sign Language, sign language as a whole, and that should be spread as early as possible to get to the younger folks.

That's my comment. CONAN: And Angela, do you sign and when did you learn?

ANGELA: Well, I don't really sign much. I've been learning sign language. I'm teaching my daughter. We're actually taking courses on it through American Sign Language, but there's also a different kind of sign language throughout the world. I think we need to put this into the schools, and I actually think we need to start using — having sign language as part of our curriculum.

Because when you look at ten percent of the American population right now that's deaf, that's how many people? That's about 2. 8 million people right now. Okay, and deafness is actually on the rise because of, you know, we have all these loud music, loud speakers and things that people are using and that – actually they're finding genetic causes for deafness. None of this is being addressed appropriately in either the schools or in the universities, including the medical schools.

And we really need to have leadership coming from places like Gallaudet. We don't need to have a lot of controversy about Gallaudet. Student Loans.

We need more Gallaudet. CONAN: Angela, thanks very much for the call. And Joe Shapiro, is she right on that ten percent figure? SHAPIRO: I don't think it's ten percent our deaf. She's talking about people who have hearing loss, so it's not all those people would be people who'd use sign language.

But sign language is something that more colleges are starting to offer as a language as something you can take to meet language requirements. There is a growing interest in sign language. CONAN: Mm- hmm. And in the idea — Gallaudet University has 1,1.

It's not a big place at all. SHAPIRO: Eleven, 1,2. So it's a small place. CONAN: Even so, it's not rivaling Ohio State University, which we visited the other day. SHAPIRO: Right. CONAN: Is there a prospect for more demand for, you know, higher education for deaf and hard of hearing students? SHAPIRO: No, actually the population of Gallaudet is down from 1.