To dispel the "mystery" surrounding Hammond Ham...
FYI, I am NOT a college graduate, I am not a high school graduate and I doubt that most college "grad-u-ates" do not have any higher IQ than do I.
I have over 40 years in working with and raising deaf and HoH children. My success rate is not 100%, but neither is yours.
My children have outpaced most of those exiting most deaf ed programs.
My hands on experience, IMNSHO, is equal to, maybe more, than most BS, MS and DR sheep skins.
BS = We all know what that is.
MS = More of the same.
PHD = Piled Higher and Deeper.
It is sad that those with high academic titles have, for the most part, never raised a deaf child and only regurgitate the academic tripe with which they have been fed.
I subscribe to "NO GUTS, NO GLORY" and my children attest to my GUTS and GLORY.
The encyclopedia notes that l'Eppe "developed his Old French Sign Lsnguage as a means to educate and to "save the deaf" (from themselves, I presume).
That same spirit permeates deaf academia to this very day. It is a manifestation of the selfish pride, the "feel-good" of controlling others and, along the way, of demeaning everything or anyone that disagrees or postulates anything new or inventive.
Most are too timid to examine or try anything new, besides, they are content with the status quo no matter who suffers, just as long as they are not challenged in their thinking.
As for me, I'll try most anything (at least until disproved) to teach (not my profession).
All in all, I have been successful, especially in helping to educate my children (with no thanks to the "professionals, so called).
Here is a think-it-over......lead, follow or get out of the way! I am a pioneer, a thinker, a mover and shaker of ideas and policies.
How about you? Have you ever taken the chance to experiment, to test, challenge or promote something new or inventive?
No, you have not the guts to move outside a proscribed comfort zone and, there, you shall live and die, never having experienced the "agony of defeat" or of real success.
Your tombstone should read, "I never tried anything new, once"?
Maybe you need a change in career and a redirection.
Now, be genteel in your response. You are a lady, aren't you?
Hammond Ham -aka- Nemisis
