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From:
Steve/Dianne Parkhurst Date: Thu Oct 28, 1999 2:53 pm Subject: Why is SignWriting Controversial? | ||||||||
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Dear Valerie and list, Thanks for sending your comments on SW controversy. I'm sure we have all experienced at least something of what you expressed. Every country is different and every culture is different and so we will find a lot of variation as to how this controversy shapes up in each location. Let me give you an example from Spain: You wrote: <<That is why teaching young children in school is the only way to make true social change for the next generation. But the present generation of Deaf adults did not learn SignWriting as children, and it is hard to teach adults. I am afraid this will go on for some time.>> I'm not a good judge of American Deaf culture, but here is Spain perhaps things are a bit different. As we considered how to begin literacy in SW in Spain we saw that our best opportunity would be with Deaf adults, not children. Here are some of the factors that lead us to that decision: 1. There is a highly organized Deaf community. There is a National Confederation and about 8 Regional Federations and every medium-sized city has deaf associations. Here in Madrid we have about 17 associations, one with over 1,000 members, several with 200 to 300 and the rest between 50 and 150. Most active Deaf go to the associations every time the doors are open if they can. Most go for several hours on week nights and longer on weekends. The association we attend is small and is open three times a week. If we miss a day they ask us where we were. 2. It is very common for the associations (and of course the Federations and Confederation) to offer classes of various sorts. SL for interpreters, Spanish grammar, computer skills, etc. So, teaching SW in the associations is very do-able. 3. We have seen many times that a certain sign that the kids learned in school was replaced with what was being used at the club. We did not want SW to be just a "school thing" but rather a "Deaf thing". 4. It seemed easier from our point of view to deal with Deaf community politics than with school administration politics. We assume that once SW takes off in the adult Deaf community it wil be much easier to convince the school administration of the value of SW. 5. As linguists we had many more connections with the adult Deaf community than we did with the Deaf schools. Our training is in linguistics, sociolinguistics, "mother tongue" (mother hand??) literacy, etc., not speech therapy, deaf education, etc. So, here in Spain, it seems that values in the Deaf community are passed down from one generation to the next through Deaf adults in the Deaf associations. Given this information, our training and contacts, it made more sense for us to start with the adult Deaf community rather than with children and schools. For what it's worth, Hasta luego, Steve :-) ------------------------ Steve and Dianne Parkhurst | ||||||||
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