[lit-ideas] Re: amazing employment application questions
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:26:15 -0500
AA:
>> the "what's that pig outdoors" is what he heard when his father said
>> something that had nothing to do with pigs or outdoors.<<
Actually it was Kisor's son who came running in and asked: "What's that big
noise?" Kisor went to the window and looking out asked: "What pig outdoors?"
The two expressions look almost identical to a lip-reader, they say.
>> At any rate, your student really does sound like someone who rejected her
>> deafness and tried to fit into a hearing world, probably with great loss to
>> herself. I wonder if it's because her family didn't want to be bothered
>> learning ESL, I'm just speculating. <<
Unless the family didn't speak English there would be no need to learn ESL
(English as a Second Language), however they might have found ASL helpful which
is American Sign Language. Your speculations seem warrantless to me. The
debate among the deaf as to whether Signing or Oralism is the best approach to
education of the deaf has raged for centuries. Here is a summary of the
varying arguments for both sides:
"Oralists believe that by not providing the option to sign they are helping
children by forcing them to develop oral communication skills.
My opinion is simply that every decision we make in life involves a trade off.
Time spent teaching a child to talk could have been invested teaching that
child to sign.
As with any decision you have to weigh the costs against the benefits--both
long term and immediate.
As with any purchase you have to ask yourself, am I getting the best value for
my money?
The moment you start talking about "values" you will find yourself surrounded
with controversy because people value different things.
Some parents value having a child who can communicate orally.
Other parents value making sure that a child has maximum early cognitive
development.
Some parents value having a child that speaks the same language as them.
Other parents value new experiences and are willing to learn whatever language
best fits the need of their child.
Some parents feel it is better to be able to communicate in a stilted manner
with millions of people.
Other parents feel it is better to be able to communicate fluently with a
smaller number of people.
The best decision as to the communication mode of a child will depend on many
factors.
Are the parents cognitively and situationally capable of effectively learning a
second language? Some adults are simply not going to succeed at picking up
sign language at their stage in life.
Does the family live in an area where there is a strong Deaf community and
opportunities for signed communication? How much residual hearing does the
child possess? Is there a Deaf School nearby? What does the child want? Are
there other Deaf children around who are using a particular mode of
communication?"
So you see, the question is a little more complicated than you suggest.
Oralism is not "rejecting one's deafness" any more than physical therapy is
"rejecting one's handicap". And though one need not be deaf to have an opinion
on the matter, it strikes me as irrelevant. If the young woman was a
lip-reader I can fully understand why she'd prefer to do that than have someone
sign to her. She was lucky she had John as a teacher and not Nietzsche.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Andy
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 10:15 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: amazing employment application questions
I sometimes wonder about this. I've muted my television while not using
captions and tried lip reading what's going on on the screen. I can't
understand a thing. Even with training, a reader/listener can only understand
one person at a time that they can see, and many sounds are similar even if the
speaker is careful about shaping the words with his mouth. There's a book
called What's That Pig Outdoors, by Henry Kisor, a journalist who was deafened
at a very young age, but after he learned to speak. He (his family) rejected
ESL and used oralism to fit him into a hearing world. He writes about how
difficult it was to go through the educational system and life in general being
unable to hear. He married a hearing girl. The title of his book refers to
one of problems of lip reading, (The way I find a use for things is to throw
them out. I threw out my paper on the book when I threw out my notebooks. I
therefore can't tell you what his father really said. But, I don't have the
clutter, so the trade off is worth it.)
John Wager <john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was once asked to make "reasonable accommodations" for a deaf student in
my class. She didn't want an interpreter that would translate my class on the
fly into sign language; all she wanted was for me to shave my mustache a bit
higher so she could see my upper lip to do lip reading. This seemed quite
reasonable to me, so for the rest of the semester I was a bit less shaggy in my
mustache than I might have been.
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