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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Sat Jan 29, 2000 4:03 pm Subject: Re: Why is SignWriting Controversial? | |
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SignWriting List January 29, 2000 Dear SW List members: Back on October 28, 1999, Steve Parkhurst wrote a great message about SignWriting literacy in Spain. It was in response to a previous message I had posted about "Why is SignWriting controversial?". You can read these two messages in their entirety in the SignWriting List Archives: SignWriting List Archive https://www.egroups.com/group/sw-l/ The message numbers are: Message 2028: Why is SignWriting Controversial? (Val's original message) Message 2166: Steve Parkhurst's response about Spain The Archives are really valuable as a resource. It has a wonderful search engine. You can type in the word "controversial" and search, and you will find all the SW List messages with the word "controversial" in their title. You can also search by author or date...so it is a good information resource if you are researching SignWriting. Now...I have been meaning to respond to Steve's great message from way back then! It is now the end of January...but three months late is better than never ;-) ------------------- Steve Parkhurst wrote: >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. And Steve continues...and then concludes with this paragraph: >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. >Steve and Dianne Parkhurst > ---------------------- Thanks, Steve, for this great message...I had been meaning to tell you that for a long time! And I too wanted to make one comment.... I know it probably looks like we only work with deaf children here in the USA, because the specific project called "The SignWriting Literacy Project", which started in 1998, is a project where I donate materials to schools with Deaf children. That project has gotten a lot of publicity lately, because I want schools to know that the offer of donated materials is available to them. So "The SignWriting Literacy Project" is a specific project connected with my "donating materials in return for teacher feedback"...so it is not "SignWriting" in general ...it is just one project within the entire SignWriting organization. Meanwhile, we actually did exactly what you are doing now in Spain...we started working with Deaf adults, not Deaf children. We have worked with Deaf adults since 1981...so it has been 19 years..and for 16 of those years we never taught Deaf children...that is something new... As you know, Lucinda (Cindy) Batch was the first Deaf adult in the USA to collaborate with me. Cindy and I met and began working with each other at the end of 1981. Later Cindy and I formed the Deaf Action Committee (the DAC). And the very purpose of the DAC was to work with Deaf adults, which we did for years. It is only in the past three years that things changed for several reasons... 1. Most of our DAC Deaf staff members are busy raising young children, and so there has been a waiting period for everyone to have time to work with SignWriting again. 2. I also was quite isolated because of illness in the past few years, plus orders for books started to increase without the funds to print in quantities, so that I became so busy I didn't have as much time to work with others. 3. All of our funds in recent years have gone to donating the materials to the schools, or to paying our computer programmers on SignWriter 5.0, so working with the Deaf Community has been put on hold...but that will change this year...I am determined to start working with my Deaf co-workers in the year 2000 - I miss them! And I need their input and support too.. So I just wanted to express that I think it is wonderful that you have chosen to teach the Deaf Community in Spain - that is the very best thing you could do! And if the Deaf adults can in turn influence the school system in Spain - that is an excellent route to go... And thank you for your textbooks on SignWriting, which were published in Spain in 1999 - they are impressive indeed! Please send our best to all of the wonderful Deaf adults you are working with ;-)) Val ;-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton at the DAC Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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