The Oralists melodrama

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flip

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With the heated speech/english only vs. fully bilingual debates here, I found those paragrahps from an australian blogger, Dude, interesting.

Oralism, as Paddy points out, has had a far more devastating effect on Deaf people, than the debate of education and communication methods would have you believe. It’s wreaked havoc on Deaf people’s esteem, their sense of self worth, and ultimately shape Deaf and deaf culture. One of its lingering effects can be witnessed in some of these debates we have. A lingering negative self image.

This negative self image, this lack of self esteem, et al, is internalised and is then expressed as anger, turmoil, hatred even, and it polarises and pits people against each other. In essence pro-signers and pro-oralists, if you like. The target, however, is often Deaf people, especially those who sign, and in the ensuing bedlam, the instigators of Oralism, the movement responsible for this mess, are conveniently forgotten.

Oralism has its supporters and it has is detractors. Where a lot of the tension arises, is where the term is defined purely as the right to speak, or the right to choose the communication method you are comfortable with, and its wider manifest [aims and objectives] ignored. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. Very wrong.

In Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search Of Deafhood,Paddy likens Deaf and deaf people, to that of a conolised [conolized, but I prefer the Australian spelling] people. This is something Harlan Lane wrote about in his book, The Mask Of Benevolence. It didn’t make sense at first, but progressive reading [AND THINKING AND RELATING BACK TO OWN EXPERIENCE] of Paddy’s book, shows how our “hearing impairment” is interpreted as a loss and a disability, and remedial action is based on assumptions about what “hearing impairment” actually is and actually does.

The ensuing Oralist melodrama has been about imposing Hearing Cultural values and ways of seeing, as much as it has been about educating using oral methods.

» Tales Of The Deafhood - Deaf Communities Part One
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By the way, merry christmas :)
 
flip said:
With the heated speech/english only vs. fully bilingual debates here, I found those paragrahps from an australian blogger, Dude, interesting.



By the way, merry christmas :)
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I hope I get a book certifice for xmas so I can order Paddy Ladd's book. I've read excrepts from it.
 
Paddy Ladd is a very interesting read. He is a deep thinker, and very articulate. I find his work eye opening, and very informative. He sees the big picture, and all of the underlying attitudes beliefs that govern actions, and isn't afraid to point them out. I hope you are able to read his book soon, deafskeptic. While I might disagree with him on some minor points of reasonsing and interpretation, overall, he has a very powerful message and it is spot on.

Thanks for this thread, flip!
 
jillio said:
Paddy Ladd is a very interesting read. He is a deep thinker, and very articulate. I find his work eye opening, and very informative. He sees the big picture, and all of the underlying attitudes beliefs that govern actions, and isn't afraid to point them out. I hope you are able to read his book soon, deafskeptic. While I might disagree with him on some minor points of reasonsing and interpretation, overall, he has a very powerful message and it is spot on.

Thanks for this thread, flip!
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Yeah. I've read Harlan Lane and my only disagreement with him is his stand on CIs. I'm ready to add to my deaf book collection.

Merry Christmas, Jillio! I wish your son a Merry Xmas too. Too bad there's no hi smily or a wave smily or I'd use that for you son.
 
deafskeptic said:
Yeah. I've read Harlan Lane and my only disagreement with him is his stand on CIs. I'm ready to add to my deaf book collection.

Merry Christmas, Jillio! I wish your son a Merry Xmas too. Too bad there's no hi smily or a wave smily or I'd use that for you son.
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And the same to you deafskeptic. He's in the shower, but when he gets out, I will show him your post. We're having a great visit, and his roommate will be here later for dinner. His roomate is a friend from St. Rita, and I've known him for several years, so I'm looking forward to visiting with him as well.
 
Hi. This is Jillio's son typing under her log in. Thank you for Christmas wishes, deafskeptic, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my mom's new friends on All Deaf.
 
jillio said:
Hi. This is Jillio's son typing under her log in. Thank you for Christmas wishes, deafskeptic, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my mom's new friends on All Deaf.
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Merry Christmass to you too!
 
deafskeptic said:
I hope I get a book certifice for xmas so I can order Paddy Ladd's book. I've read excrepts from it.
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My neighbour have this book, but seems to never finish it so I can borrow it! Guess I will have to buy this book, too, before everyone except me have a glue what "deaf hood" is all about...
 
jillio said:
Paddy Ladd is a very interesting read. He is a deep thinker, and very articulate. I find his work eye opening, and very informative. He sees the big picture, and all of the underlying attitudes beliefs that govern actions, and isn't afraid to point them out. I hope you are able to read his book soon, deafskeptic. While I might disagree with him on some minor points of reasonsing and interpretation, overall, he has a very powerful message and it is spot on.

Thanks for this thread, flip!
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No prob :)

Hope parents around here will read his book, too, as I am sure many parents would be more careful with oral deaf education if they had a more overall knowledge about deaf topics.
 
flip said:
No prob :)

Hope parents around here will read his book, too, as I am sure many parents would be more careful with oral deaf education if they had a more overall knowledge about deaf topics.
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Absolutely. There are also some really good books on child development and deafness. One of the first that comes to mind is "Sound and Silence"., and another is Deafness and Child Development. Both were written by two of the most respected researchers in the area of childhood deafness, education, and psychology: Kathryn Meadows and Hilde Schleslinger.
 
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