On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Angie Pappas wrote:
> I haven't written in months, but I'd like to tell Cecilia Smith to
>hang in there! Hopefully, someday, I'll be studying ASL lingustics at
>Gallaudet myself and, hopefully, by then (whenever that is...) I'll be
>taken seriously if I want to use SW as part of a research project.
> Good Luck! We have to start somewhere...
>
> --Angie Pappas
_____________________
9/6/98
What struck me, when reading this thread about Gallaudet, is that Gallaudet
is a big campus. Not everyone is unified on campus behind one idea or
another. There are many opinions and a diversity of educational methods
being proposed all the time.
I taught a short workshop on SignWriting to approximately 18 people at
Gallaudet in 1984. I believe Charles Butler attended that workshop. And it
was most enjoyable. True...I had a few people on campus express that they
were against writing ASL, but I also had lots of supporters too.
I lived in the Freshman dorms. That was a comical experience, since I was
the only hearing person in the building at night, and the students kept
ringing the fire alarms at 2:00 in the morning. It was snowing outside, and
we all had to stand in the snow until someone told us it was a hoax! And
the load speakers on the stereos were turned way up until my bed shook from
the vibrations. Finally I went downstairs and told the young man I was a
hearing person and I wanted to sleep. He politely pointed out that a
hearing person was not supposed to be in his dorm! I had to admit he was
right - ha!
I look back at those two weeks with great fondness. I remember going into
the cafeteria in the morning, and some of the students were reading the
SignWriter Newspaper and they would ask me questions. I even had lunch with
Robert Johnson and Scott Liddell - and we had an enjoyable conversation :-)
Recently a teacher told me that some of their Deaf teachers in their school
had heard about SignWriting while they were studying at Gallaudet, and they
were not against it, but in fact, quite open to it.
So not everyone is against SignWriting at Gallaudet. I went away from
Gallaudet with the impression that there was a place for SignWriting there
too. Over the years, the Learning Center at Gallaudet has ordered our
videotapes and software. And sometimes people contact me to tell me they
used those materials.
Valerie :-)
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Visit the SignWritingSite:
https://www.SignWriting.org
Valerie Sutton at The DAC
Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting
Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA
(619)456-0098 voice
(619)456-0010 tty
(619)456-0020 fax
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