Gallaudet University Is Not a Deaf Club; It's Home!

We are approaching the first anniversary of the 2006 Better President Now protest at Gallaudet University. This blog is dedicated to those brave people who brought Gallaudet University back home.

Ever had the experience of listening to a former administrator claiming that your university is but a social club? Former university provost Jane K. Fernandes said so. The choices are simple--forego the declaration, wait until you have interviewed for a job, or lower your standards and accept such a label. And we all have those regretful compromises, university mission statement that fell apart, SLCC to house ASL and Deaf Studies where people on the ground floor could be trained to watch those in glass elevators being brought up to higher levels (floors?) of language and communication, and student enrollment that is ever low.

Gallaudet University is not a Deaf club. Would it have been Jane K. Fernandes' club? No! Gallaudet University is a vast and varied community of Deaf individuals, each unique and precious, yet united by a common bond not just with one another, but with and in ASL. For Deaf people, Gallaudet University is not our agreement with one another that makes a community, but ASL, our language and culture. We use ASL with our eyes. We view the world with our eyes. Each of us acquire and perceives ASL in a different and particular way, and we do learn from one another and grow with one another.

That the 1988 Deaf President Now and 2006 Better President Now protests at Gallaudet University succeeded to the extent that it did is due not to the efforts of Deaf people, but to ASL. I wonder how IKJ and JKF felt as they watched their administration collapsed, for that is in truth what happened. Whatever IKJ and JKF intended, their adminsitration became an isolation entirely. The 1988 Reform of Gallaudet University was neither wanted nor needed; it was sloughed off like a snake might shed a skin. Only in this instance, the discarded skin took on a life of its own and collapsed. So did the IKJ-JKF administration.

The setting at Gallaudet University on October 13, 2006 was like a packed amphitheater in Smyrna. The crowd had been enjoying an afternoon of watching the administration tear the future of Deaf youth to pieces. The administrators, to their credit, saw no satisfaction in arresting peaceful students, and sought to persuade the DC Police to arrest furthermore. Paul Kelly did because he treats Gallaudet University as if it were a country club.

We must rest confident not in Gallaudet University, but in ASL. Only in ASL are we truly at home.

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Aloha All,

I've been receiving numerous emails, asking where I might be. I've been very busy with my work. As the title, The Best of Times and the Worst of Times, suggests, I've learned so many things from my writing.

The best, because of a mushrooming of my knowledge about the language documentation; the worst, because of the many questions about that documentation that still remain unanswered. I think that "worst of times" in my title may have too much of a pessimistic ring to it. Oh, yes, I still have plenty of mysteries left to challenge the minds of ASL sleuths. But as we entered the twenty-first century, the linguistics of American Sign Language has been replaced by a systematic stockpile of information that has yet to be coordinated academically. ASL scholars and researchers around the nation and most Canada are meeting, talking, exchanging findings, comparing data, and arriving at some mutually acceptable explanations. We still need academic (not political) leadership that focuses on coordinating information, knowledge and communication about ASL.

At the same time, I should not be too smug about ASL. It is no simply, unidimensionally reality. It is "slippery" in every way. Why? ASL as a visual language is being described and discussed in a vocal language, which could be problematic. ASL is not sound-based, sound-oriented and sound-enhanced.

For me as a born Deaf individual, becoming bilingual is a way of life. In The Netherlands, the country of my birth, I acquired both Gebarentaal (Dutch Sign Language) and the Dutch language. After my parents made a new home in the United States, I began to acquire new languages, ASL and the English language. My whole person is affected as I struggle to reach beyond the confines of my visual language and into a vocal language, a vocal culture, a vocal way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Total commitment, total involvement, a total intellectual response is necessary to successfully send and receive messages in this vocal language and culture. I believe I have mastered to separate contexts for both visual and vocal languages, to have two meaning systems. I do not have problems with "mixing up languages" amd I'm having fun mixing them up. A lot of fun!

I will get back to my blogsphere after this semester comes to end in a few weeks.

With aloha always from Hawai'i,

Carl

Imitation in ASL by means of Chomsky, Descartes and von Humboldt

As Albert Einstein is hailed as the herald of relativism, Noam Chomsky is of the study of language. Chomsky offers a hypothesis that we are born with a disposition to acquire language. He also asserts that children are born with a potential knowledge of grammar. Nonsense?

Let me postulate that Deaf children are born with a brain that is developed with no or minimal auditory system (residual hearing is a catchword...) so they attain the mastery of the complex system of language skills through a sight channel. While their knowledge structure is a disposition to acquire American Sign Language (ASL), it is not itself linguistic. It is cognitive. Descartes' description of it as "a simple reflection of the form of thought." Deaf children do think about their own thoughts.

A child, born to Deaf (compared to deaf) parents, is surrounded by ASL from the moment of the birth. His or her language competence is a disposition to use ASL which is linguistic. I concur with von Humbadth's conclusion that "the force that generates langauge is indistinguishable from that which generates thought." A child coming from Deaf parents do imitate their language.

Imitation, Chomsky points out, is not only one way to learn; imitation itself has to be learned. Imitation in ASL is simply beyond mimicry because the child exposed to ASL is active in that he/she forms for himself/herself systems of linguistic rules and applies them. Imitating ASL is great if one thinks about it!

I-KNOW-THAT: ASL Phonological Rules

From DS (deep structure) to SS (surface structure):
1. Lexicon: I, KNOW, THAT
2. Application of signs for each lexeme
3. Assimilation of hand shape by the verb sign KNOW
4. Application of H-deletions
5. Choice of signing space
6. Location of sign

We Are Not Amused...No Misunderstanding Here!

What Do We Learn From Blackburg, VA?

Vlog: At Virginia Tech, Cho Seung-Hui was a known stalker, and he had concerned one woman enough with his calls and e-mail in 2005 that the university police were called in. However, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said the woman declined to press charges and Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system. Virginia Tech is now having a lot to explain about whether its disciplinary system be a student judicial board or a kangeroo court.

Is Our Independence Limited by ASL? Which Comes First: ASL Dragon or the Egg?

The limits of my language

mean the limits of my world.

--Ludwig Wittgenstein

Is American Sign Language (ASL) central to everything we the Deaf do? Does it distinguish us from our English counterparts. ASL is not only the principal medium that we use to communicate with each other but also the bond that links us together and binds us to our culture. To understand our humanity, therefore, we must understand ASL. And ASL Dragon, too!

Although our ability to use ASL is perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of our Deaf community, our general society underestimates the miracle of our language, the linguistic creativity. Peter Farb writes in his provocative book Word Play: What Happens When People Talk, that this linguistic creativity is the birthright of every human being.

Despite the ruling of the 1880 Milan Resolution prohibiting the use of sign language everywhere, we refuse to be ignorant about ASL. Noam Chomsky published his Syntactic Structure in 1957 that he believes all human beings possess at birth an innate capacity to acquire language. As wings are to birds, so languages are to people. Acquiring ASL is therefore biologically determined as a means of information, knowledge and communication.

The idea that Deaf people have their own language is as ancient as Socrates who had Plato write in his book Cratylus that words be replaced by signs. However, this Socratic question remains strange because our educational institution continues to make the distinction between ASL as a true language and "signal codes" for the English language. As the twentieth century philosopher, Ludwin Wittgenstein asserted the limits of his language, are we also limited by ASL?

Are we indeed linguistically independent? What does Chomsky mean when he says, "man is born with a disposition to acquire language"?

Since Deaf Culture influences ASL and ASL influences Deaf Culture, we cannot reasonably study ASL without studying Deaf Culture. This is a old puzzler of which comes first, ASL Dragon or the egg, because there's no clear separation between ASL and Deaf Culture.

"Bait and Switch" Advertisement in SLCC?

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder questions who the target consumers might be for SLCC. Parents of the Deaf should go to the Laurent Clerc Center for services. So SLCC is for university students? Is SLCC going to be a "bait and switch" advertisement, a technique by which SLCC exposes American Sign Language (ASL) on good terms but does not really count it for its data collection? Why would all paper works go to HSLS, not ASL and Deaf Studies.

Possible Deceptive Practices in SLCC

Oralism leads to deceptive practices in education. Deaf children spent many hours of learning how to hear and speak but a few hours of developing social skills among their hearing couterparts.

As long as deafness itself is incurable and undebatable, Gallaudet University must not initiate "unfair or deceptive" practices which might mislead our general society into thinking that hearing and speech sciences will enable the Deaf "hear and speak English" under the visual/auditory banner. Advertising and statements which have the tendency to mislead our society are illegal.

Both state and United States laws prohibit the use of "unfair or deceptive" practices by businesses. Since the products of Gallaudet University are Deaf people, these practices are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission at the federal level and by the Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection at the state level.

Deaf and Deaf-mute according to Webster's

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses reasons why he still prefers to be called a deaf-mute.

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

deaf = (adj) 1. lacking or deficient in the sense of hearing 2. unwilling to hear or listen: not to be persuaded

deaf-mute = (noun) a deaf person who cannot speak

Vlog: Three Stages of Language Contact in American Sign Language

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses language contact in American Sign Language (ASL) that has had an interesting consequence an increase in the numbers of signs that were introduced by Laurent Clerc from France as well as influenced by both Martha's Vineyard Sign Language and the English language at the first American School for the Deaf. It underwent three stages of language clash: (1) langue de signes francias and the English language; (2) langue de signes francias and Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, and (3) Martha's Vineyard Sign Language and the English language. Sophia Fowler Gallaudet must have experienced the language clash when she first went to the Hartford school.

Carl's note: There is no evidence that Martha's Vineyard Sign Language and the English language were used simultaneously.

Ready to Journey to ASL with Me?

Journeys may seem an individual adventure. There is much insight to be gained for all from our own journeys. I would like to invite you to my journey to bring you insights and pleasure of American Sign Language (ASL).

My journey to ASL began just before my parents made a new home in Maryland in 1963. My namesake uncle and his family had moved to the United States ten years earlier, and they saw Gallaudet College. Their discovery of Gallaudet College sent me into non-ordinary journey.

This journey of mine is like lightening blots flashing from the sky. From the lawn chaise in 1963, my newly formed American friend, Robert Lakenau, then National Association of the Deaf (NAD) president, offered me advise and said, "Go higher and we are proud to have you in America!" No strings attached, he promised.

Climbing up to the top of many mountains I continue to see further into many different mountains-- no two summits are alike! Below these mountain tops there are always meadows.

ASL is like grass it's always growing. Soon I arrive at the meadow filled with beautiful colorful flowers and I'm told they are like joys and I should enjoy them with no remorse. These flowers are here to be picked and brought home to make a fragant bouguet.

This is my journey to ASL, and there are five archetypes to interpret and use them to acquire and appreciate ASL. They are visionary, warrior, healer, teacher, and magician.

VISIONARY is me as I'm always embarking on the journey to ASL.



WARRIOR is me as I'm seeking to climb up the mountains.



HEALER is me as I see flowers in the meadow.



TEACHER is me as I arrive at each mountain summit of wisdom.



MAGICIAN is me as I picked flowers in the meadow to make a fragant bouguet.




To me, journeying is a powerful therapeutic tool. My journey to ASL gains a unique perspective and insight. Sharing my journey with you bring forth new insight into our own lives. Together we act upon our insights from our own journeys.

Journey often...and with friends...like you!

Fingerspelling: Tying T.rex to ASL

It all began with a newspaper article in the April 13, 2007 issue of The Maui News about the Tyrannosaurus rex, the scariest of all dinosaurs. I thought my students at Horizons Academy of Maui, Inc., need to learn how to use manual alphabet, the T.rex of American Sign Language.

In my fingerspelling lesson, I divided the class into two groups. One group went outside, and the other group stayed indoors. I gave them a note from which they read using manual alphabet to communicate through the window.

The levels of frustration varied from student to student, but they loved this type of activity, learning how to communicate with each other without using their spoken language.

Even a classroom assistant worked closely with a student who needed more time.

These students worked very hard, making sure they udnerstood each other.

Some students need what I'd call a cheat sheet.

I aimed at making fingerspelling a positive experience for all of them. They all had fun! Neither t.rex nor chicken scared them away.

Only Stand Out of my ASL

When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes

and asked whether he could do anything

for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied:

"Only stand out of my light."

The way I use American Sign Language (ASL) shapes my life.

How I define ASL determines my destiny. My perspective of ASL will influence how I invest my time, spend my money, use my talent, and value my relationships.

One of the best way to get to know other people is to ask them in ASL, "How are you?" I often discover that there are as many different answers to that question as there are people.

ASL is like a circus, a minefield, a roller coaster, a puzzle, a theatre, a journey, and a music. Music? It is a carousel: sometimes I'm up, sometimes I'm down, and sometimes I just go round and round.

If I were asked how I picture the Deaf world, what image would come to my mind? My time in the Deaf world and my energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, and resources are all in the light of ASL.

If Alexander the Great was risen from his untimely death and asked me what he could do anything for me, my reply would be: "Only stand out of my ASL."

Discuss Newspapers with Deaf Students on Maui

Last year I had a wonderful opportunity to work with Deaf children mainstreamed at Wailuku Elementary School. Every morning I was with them for what I called "Newspaper Activities" in which the children were encouraged to explore the newspapers. I would write words on the cards and ask them to find these words on the front page.

These Deaf children need to be able to talk about the world around them without imagining that the newspapers is proposing a solution. The discussion of current events is an extremely sensitive and emotional one in our society, and our language and culture, that is American Sign Language (ASL), requires us to understand the phenomenon that has only recently begun to appear on the radar screen of American's TV media. We need to explain the events to Deaf children as much as possible.

I am comfortable about discomfort with ever-changing events around the world. I am able to articulate and facilitate them through ASL so that our Deaf childten will see that our world is not an enemy but an ally, and influences our education in profound and powerful ways. As we discuss the newspapers, we shall begin to see our own indistinct images reflected in these newspapers. We shall learn from them not only the warnings of danger in each situation that we may find ourselves, but the ways in which we may seek understanding and in which we may serve--in short, how we may live harmonously in our own world.

Deaf children in a mainstreaming educational setting must not be taken for granted; they are also amazingly fragile and subject to failure and ridicule. They are endangered species. ASL is vastly needed to enrich their lives.

Pruning of ASL to Shape Who We Are

If the rose knew

what the gardener's care

would result in come spring,

it would joyfully bend to

the pruning knife.

--Sufi Proverb

We use American Sign Language (ASL) to shape our lives, to teach ourselves lessons we need to learn for communication. However, ASL is being tested, and we are experiencing language pruning.

We knew the truth of ASL and we have to give up cultural expectations of what Deaf life is. Often we witness ridicule and ostracism of ASL by Gallaudet University, for example, along with changing its mission statements to either support or suppress ASL. Even if we use ASL, we experience language confusion because we are unable to follow in the path that Gallaudet University has laid before us.

It is not a matter of our Deaf minds. Apparently our minds are able to synchronize with our own language patterns that include all parameters of ASL: hand shapes, palm positions, signing locations, non-manual expressions, and modifier movements. The parameters that flow through our lives are powerful clues to the language reality of which our individual ego-consciousness is but a tiny blip that deals with the complex, contradictory, and self-defeating dynamics of the language of higher education. We envy those we think have "so called" perfect language skills. We suffer the pain of explaining what we mean in their language. All this pain can be understood as language pruning.

Such language pruning metaphors enable us to examine ASL, to observe the dynamics of our culture, to achieve perspective, and to remember who we really are: Deaf people.

Blackout at Gallaudet University: A Biblical Parallel

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder compares the symbolic SLCC blackout at Gallaudet University with a biblical literature.

ASL as a Discrete and Formal Language

Something goes awry at Gallaudet University. How do we know if Gallaudet University is improving? Do we know what really works in American Sign Language? What about teaching to the highest level of self-actualization in the Maslow Hierarchy of Human Needs?

Compare two university statements:

1990: (Bilingualism in Higher Learning)

Gallaudet's mission as a unique educational institution is inextricably bound to the need for accessible and direct communication among students, faculty, and staff. The centrality of communication at Gallaudet permeates all of our programs and services. Each mission theme, therefore, must be read with theunderstanding that accessible communication is the right of the Gallaudet community and the people we serve. While the University historically has integrated sign language into its educational programs, it is only relatively recently that research has established American Sign Language as a discrete and formal language. As a result, the University is now actively exploring how best to integrate English and American Sign Language into all aspects of University life to meet the needs of the individuals we serve. The University is committed to becoming a working model of a bilingual, multicultural community where deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people learn and work together without communication barriers.

2005: (Language Bastardization)

The term inclusive deaf university refers to an academic institution of higher learning that is comprehensive and recognizes the diversity among deaf and hard of hearing people—in cultural identification, language and communication choices, audiometric measures, age of onset, use of amplification technology, school experiences—and in age, gender, disability, racial and ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, and social-economic class.

With all the overload, fragmentation, and profound confusion about the meaning of educating the Deaf, it is sad to see a change from the 1990 mission statement to the 2005 strategic plan at Gallaudet University. At the same time, they gave us practical ideas and reasons for optimism about using ASL exclusively.

We must thank the FSSA for staging protests that captured the leading edge of the Deaf education field in laying out what we need to know about these above Gallaudet University statements to give us the ammunition to use ASL and allow us become literate in our own language and culture of the Deaf.

ASL is not a discrete language! It never is.

Pride of American Sign Language, Stupid

Carl, why does it take you so much time to think?

When I was in Maryland School for the Deaf in the late sixties, teachers didn't know what to do with a child who read too much. Soon came the next frightful question.

Carl, why are you very stubborn?

Why was I very stubborn was that I felt incompetent and stupid. Well, not really!

At the time, people just didn't know. So they would say, "Carl is nice but he's a bookworm." It was first a joke, but then soon no one wanted to be around me because I was "a nerd."

I remembered once we went on a fieldtrip--to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The trip was exciting for me because I loved to see historical artifacts. However, there was a group of classmates that got lost and then became stuck inside one of the museum elevators. They were screaming as if they would never see the sun again. This incident was so embarrassing our teacher lost his cool. He gathered us together outside the museum and began to lecture, yelling at us.

For me, the fun was over. Reality hit when I realized that other people were also listening to our teacher. That made me feel double stupid so I had to interrupt the teacher. I asked him in the loudest voice I could ever make why he used his voice to talk to Deaf people.

There was a long pause. It took our teacher so much time to think. He didn't know why but continued to yell at us. I wanted to ask him why he was very stubborn about signing with voice, but I didn't want any more time of his lecture. Not especially when he signed with voice.

Yes, I think I am stubborn. For me, ASL with voice is simply stupid.

The Case of Professor Larry Stewart

In this vlog, Carl recalls his discussion with Professor Larry Stewart about his reason for aborting his candidacy for the House of Representatives from Illinois. He would appreciate if there are some people who are familiar with Stewart's political situation in the state of Illinois. It was widely known that he was married to a speech pathologist and he was also fiercely opposed to the use of ASL.

Three Cheers for NAD's Bobbie Beth Scoggins

The starting point for the education of deaf

and hard of hearing children is access to and

development of language and communication skills.

For many deaf and hard of hearing children, this means

access to a visual language, American Sign Language.

With a strong language base, deaf and hard of hearing

children can develop their cognitive and academic

abilities and grow into socially and emotionally healthy

adults. Language and communication cannot be acquired

in a vacuum. Because of their unique ability to provide

a language rich environment, schools for the deaf are

ideal place for communities of deaf and hard of hearing

learners to flourish.

--Bobbie Beth Scoggins, NAD President

in the April 2, 2007 letter to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski

A major educational debate today concerns how to save our Deaf schools and to prepare Deaf students to accomplish the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law which is basically unimplementable. The NCLB law focuses on results of state tests, plans for improvement and technical assistance, opportunities for professional development, and the chance for the student to transfer to another school. The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a private institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare, sponsored a November 30, 2006 conference and concluded that the NCLB mandate had largely failed in closing the achievement gap.

Some of the loudest voices calling for saving our Deaf schools came from the National Association of the Deaf. President Bobbie Beth Scoggins wrote a very good letter to Oregon governor, Ted Kulongoski, about recent events at the Oregon School for the Deaf. Basically her letter points out that schools for the Deaf are like a symphony in which the conductor manages the various sections to produce a harmonious sound. Teachers of the Deaf conduct the components of a school to create the buzz of Deaf students engaged in learning.

Teaching the Deaf is a complex activity that involves two things: the planning of objectives and activities on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis and the use of American Sign Language to demonstrate high expectations for students to master both languages, ASL and English.

When I was a child in Holland I had the freedom to express myself at home. Both my parents are Deaf, and we communicated primarily in Gebarentaal (Dutch Sign Language). In my happiness my sisters and brothers had their full share, in fact, the complete enjoyment of my creativities depended upon their taking part in them. One day, in this paradise of our childhood, entered a temptation from the educational world of hearing people. A school work brought from Effatha (oral school for the Deaf) was different; it was perfect and hearing-like. I had a hard time to understand why my parents were still Deaf and why I needed to learn how to hear and speak? One thing I failed to realize in my excitement at school--a fact which at the moment seemed to me insignificant--that both my being Deaf and my use of sign language, be it Gebarentaal or (now) ASL, are undebatable facts of my life as a Deaf individual.

The "No Child Left Behind" mandate isn't the only thing we ought to consider changing. We need to testify to our American society that we are both Deaf and bilingual in ASL and English. Bobbie Beth Scoggins' letter to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski is never an isolated endeavor. She represents all Deaf people very well. Three cheers for Bobbie Beth Scoggins!

Why I Say No to Deaf U.S. President?

Many years ago, in 1970s, I had a temporary job opportunity to work in the Atlanta Employment Evaluation and Service (AEES) Center on Memorial Drive where I counseled the total of twenty Deaf people. Due to the confidentiality agreement, I can only discuss a situation without mentioning any particular client or supervisor.

One early morning when I arrived at work, I saw a guy in a complete "Green Beret" outfit. I thought he was probably a recruiter, and as I walked toward my building entrance door, I realized he was one of my clients, and he was pantomiming, saluting as I walked by him. I was shocked.

I was caught off guard for several reasons. First, my client had a combative rifle, and I had no idea how he got it. He also had his name label sewn on his shirt. Second, my immediate supervisor was a Vietnamese War veteran who had a lot of trouble with tolerating noises Deaf people made in a lounge, classroom or cafeteria. He often told me horrible stories about fighting Viet Congs, and he was only one who was spared from a helicopter crash there. Our nation was also tired of loosing the war. Third, my client must have ridden on a public bus in this Army outfit.

I was all prepared for my supervisor's arrival at the AEES Center, anticipating one of his hot tempers. Yes, it was very bad but I learned a lot from him. He pointed out that when our nation is under attack, all armed forces would take over the control of our country, not the politicians in Washington, D.C. He asked if I would expect to follow this "Army" client's order should our nation be under the attack. No way! Well, the police officers and FBI agents were called to the AEES Center to deal with how my client got his rifle, and I understood it was "alive" with bullets inside it. Pretty scary!

No armed force in our country would allow Deaf people to become soldiers, right? Discrimination? No! How about the Commander in Chief (that is, U.S. President)? Our society wouldn't allow it, either. Try to imagine some campaign rhetorics and collect campaign money for the so-called "first" Deaf U.S. President who can talk better than either Ronald Reagan or George "Who" Bush. For better or worse, this Deaf U.S. President would have become vulnerable to the security of our nation. I am not talking about discrimination; I am talking about a good common sense.

Two U.S. presidents (Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter) visited Gallaudet University and spoke with the students in the past. They were asked if a Deaf person could become U.S. president, and they replied no. Ronald Reagan had his hearing aids in The White House, no? Then let's celebrate his hearing loss! We must be realistic with ourselves.

Tomato Is Fruit and Potato Is Not

Take away American Sign Language (ASL) and you have erased the cultural moment of the Deaf. Is it racist to wonder what would have happened if Alexander Graham Bell had convinced our American government to practice eugenics to remove inheritable undesirable genetic traits from human race? What sort of life might we have led if our deafness is claimed as a genetic defect? And, more important, how might ASL have developed and what sort of influence might it have had? How might Gallaudet University, the world's only university exclusively for the Deaf, have turned ASL to its advantage?

None of the above questions has a clear, specific answer. There is more, evident now as "tomato is fruit and potato is not."

Last year's protests at Gallaudet University were viewed as the supreme moral moment of the Deaf world. One day in the future, political analysts, sociologists, journalists, and historians will agree that the "race problem" was a virulent, underlying issue in the language and culture of the Deaf at Gallaudet University. How could it be otherwise?

When Deaf people retain a virtually genetic memory of decades, if not centuries, of language oppression, and when the fight against oralism, we are accused as absolutists, the very term used by the Gallaudet University administration. The mission phrase "diversity and inclusiveness" is essential racist. It gives us a notion that any one with a different color of skin or a different mode of communication is presupposedly better than us, and the mission phrase can forever alter the course of the university.

Once again, tomato is delicious, and potato is starchy.

Another "Misplaced" Note from My Writing

The multidisciplinary nature of the use of American Sign Language (ASL) is one of the reasons for the complexity of the academic discipline. Anthropology, linguistics, socilinguistics, psycholinguistics, Deaf education, and the so-called discipline that deals with ASL and Deaf studies, have their own respective inventories or terms and methods. Diversity of terms, constructs, and even attitudes and biases pervades the study of ASL.

To the average person the terms ASL and communication are synonymous. Communication is the process of exchanging information and conveying ideas. It is a process requiring an activity between a sender who encodes a message and a receiver who decodes the information. They both must be alert to the needs of each other to ensure that messages are effectively understood and followed up.

Although we the Deaf may primarily use ASL to communicate, other aspects of communication may enhance or distort the linguistic code. Paralinguistic cues, which include emotions and stress on signs, may signal our attitude and alter the linguistic information. Consider the differences that stress makes the meaning of a signer wishes to convey when uttering the following:

1) SHE-TOLD-ME
2) SHE-TOLD-ME
3) SHE-TOLD-ME

Or consider the effect a rising stress would have on the following ASL utterances that could alter presuppositions and implicatures.

4) JOHN-CL1(dominant-hand) MARY-CL1(passive-hand) KISS
5) JOHN-CL1(dominant-hand) MARY-CL1(passive-hand) KISS
6) JOHN-CL1(dominant-hand) MARY-CL1(passive-hand) KISS
7) JOHN-CL1(dominant-hand) MARY-CL1(passive-hand) KISS
8) JOHN-CL1(dominant-hand) MARY-CL1(passive-hand) KISS

In addition to paralingistic cues, non-manual cues also contribute to the communication process. Non-manual cues include gestures, torso movements, eye gazing, and facial expressions (eyebrows, mouthing, etc.). All of us are familiar with non-manual cues but, conversely, they are grammatically meaningful in ASL.

Like all other languages, ASL has its own components--form, content and use--, and they are interrelated. There are three parts in the form component, ASL has phonological rules that govern parts of signs and their combination; ASL follows morphological rules that goverm the organization of signs; and ASL also includes rules that govern sentence structure. In the content component, ASL has its own semantics for signs and their combinations, and in the use component, ASL has its own pragmatics for the use of language in social contexts.

Sources:

Bloom, L., & Lahey, M. (1978). Language development and language disorders. New York: Macmillan

Owens, R.E. (1986). Communication, language and speech. In G. Shames & E. Wiig (Eds.), Human communication disorders (2nd ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.

Is Anti-gay Racist? How about Anti-ASL?

Aloha fellow bloggers, vloggers and readers,

This morning I received an email from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. I do respect her request and I am happy to bring it to your attention. It is about anti-American Sign Language (anti-ASL). In her email, she included a link which is about anit-gay being racist.

In her email, with her permission, I am quoting her in part:

There is an enlightenment that goes with using ASL, an understanding of the language. Not all people avail themselves to this enlightenment. Some are blinded to it by momentary attractions of the sounds. Some are blinded by the guilt and confusion instilled in them by people opposing the use of ASL. And some are blinded by the misinformation perpetuated by institutionalized medicine. Yet this enlightenment of ASL is there for us, if only we open our eyes.

Carl, you had claimed previously that there exists racism against ASL, but you got criticized in some comments. Linguisticism and linguisticide are among several examples found in comments, but there is no existing law prohibiting language bigotry or killing another language. Language racism would be the best platform for protecting our language and culture.

I would now like to bring your attention to a recent incident in the Army recruitment, published in Advocate entitled "Army recruiter suspended for antigay e-mails" in which Sgt. Marcia Ramode is accused of making racist remarks about being openly gay.

I couldn't disagree with her that anyone who opposes the use of ASL is intrigued and motivated essentially by language racism. Because they are conditioned to step outside the assumptions of society to see ASL in a more xenophobic way, ASL is cursed with this vanguard vision. For example, babies with cochlear implants in Canada are NOT exposed to ASL, the language and culture of the Deaf, for whatever reason it must be racist to the core.

Is anti-ASL racist? My answer is YES! OUI! SI! JA!

Acoustic Bombs and The Deaf People Movement (DPM)

Difficulty is difficulty, loss is loss, grief is grief,

and it is important simply to describe it.

--Roberty Bly

When I transferred from Maryland School for the Deaf (Frederick) to Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) in 1970, I remember our principal Merv Garretson talking about acoustic bombs deployed and explosed to cause unbearable white noises all around the world. Deaf people would appear the most sane in every aspects of life, politics, economics and communication. I began to imagine what it would be like if we the Deaf take the helm of the world.

A positive era for hearing people would come to a close and a positive era for Deaf people would arrive. Western culture would become more Deaf-friendly and less "oralist"; the great transformation would be underway for well over a century. Every major institution, from the military to the academy and from politics to religion, would be experience the change from spoken language to signed language. Privileges of hearing people would be disappearing. The respect that Deaf people seeked in the past would be finally realized.

After the acoustic bombs, there would be a new movement out there. Though it started at the grassroots Deaf level, this phenomenon would begin to appear on the radar screen of media and the popular consciousness--articles, TV interviews, a few books, a bunch of Deaf vlogs, and a flurry of newspapers and journals. It would be the Deaf People Movement (DPM), and it would promise to become one of the strongest forces around the world.

The burgeoning DPM would be many things to many people, and would combine divergent interests. At its most extreme, it would represent the angry reaction of a few Deaf people fed up with the excessive oralism; these activists would be suspicious of hearing people's effort to promote oralism and are determined to fight it. The vast majority of DPM people, however, would be driven not by a reactionary hostility toward hearing people, but by a host of concerns about the well-being of American Sign Language (ASL) and its signing counterparts around the world.

In strong contrast to this diffidence to the post-acoustic bomb atmosphere, it began to dawn on me, even as a young child, that the Deaf people I knew who spent a lot of time working and playing almost always had a very appealing of air of wisdom about them, a sense of belonging to ASL. Merv Garretson, for example, said wise things about Deaf life.

After I graduated from MSSD, I coasted toward a typical case of conflicted and alientated Deaf experience until two unexpected things happened. First, I encountered two hearing professors, Carol Erting and Woody Woodward, of Gallaudet University in 1974. Until then, my sign language had consisted entirely in meeting hearing people's expectation. But I saw in these professors people of a totally different language convictions, people of great generosity, intelligence, humor, and kindness who openly expressed their love of ASL and enthusiasm for it.

Something even more wonderful happened a short time after I received my master's degree from American University in 1988. I began to take courses in linguistics at Gallaudet University and Georgetown University and to have what can only be called mystical experiences, powerful feelings about ASL. I had no idea what this all meant at the time; looking back on it, I could say now that, back home at MSSD, I had just experienced first-hand the language and culture of the Deaf after listening to Merv Garretson's story of acoustic bombs.

Bob Davila Was Right in the Year 2000

In the final edition of the June 22, 2000 of The New York Times, there is an article Among the Deaf, Ubiquitous Sign Language Faces a Challenge written by Lynette Holloway. Bob Davila, then Vice President of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, was quoted:

"Many deaf individuals are bilingual in ASL and English just as manyHispanic children are bilingual in Spanish and English. It is wrong to blame ASL for having poor English. We don't blame Spanish for having poor English."

Why is our society blaming ASL for what Deaf people lack in the English language that is sound-based (intonation, for example) and sound-oriented (alliteration, another example). ASL is completely different from English, and it has nothing to do with poor English.

We the Deaf have our cross-linguistic/cross-cultural obstacles between ASL and English to overcome. I am not a hearing person, nor am I 100% fluent in the English language. To blame ASL is ludicrous in my eyes, for we all make our own beds or allow others to make it for us.

ASL is blameless.

(Carl's note: A special thanks to our mutual friend Brian Riley for forwarding this June 22, 2000 article to me, asking me to look at JKF's outrageous comment.)

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
June 22, 2000, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
Correction Appended
SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 2; National Desk
LENGTH: 1686 words
HEADLINE: Among the Deaf, Ubiquitous Sign Language Faces a Challenge
BYLINE: By LYNETTE HOLLOWAY
BODY: After decades of intensive lobbying, deaf Americans have gained a place in the national consciousness. American Sign Language interpreters seem to be everywhere, from the State of the Union address to the Miss America pageant. Many universities and high schools now offer sign language as a foreign language course.

But some advocates for the deaf say that a fervent devotion to the exclusiveuse of sign language by many of the deaf has helped foster a little known and surprising problem: The average 18-year-old deaf American reads at a fourth-grade level.

Whether the problem is because of reliance on sign language, as they say, orstems from other causes, these advocates are seeking to lead a revolution indeaf education through a 34-year-old method called cued speech. The supporters of cued speech say the overreliance on sign language fosters a kind of falsepride in deaf separatism.

Others counter that the poor literacy of the deaf does not stem from reliance on sign language but from the fact that the vast majority of the deaf are born to hearing parents who do not know how to guide their deaf children academically. About 90 percent of the quarter-million Americans who were born deaf or became deaf early have hearing parents.

Crisscrossing the nation like evangelists, the advocates of cued speech, both the deaf and the hearing, are splitting deaf Americans, their families and other advocates in a way that is reminiscent of an earlier battle within black America over whether integration was the best course.

"Some people say using cued speech would make someone more hearing in the mind, like a black person trying to be white," said Alina Engelman, 18, a deaf student of Brooklyn who uses cued speech.

American Sign Language, called signing, bears no relationship to English, its spelling, syntax or grammar. On the other hand, cued speech, which advocates want to be a supplement to sign language, breaks words into syllables and conveys them with hand signals and lip reading, so that a deaf person can link visual signs and sounds to the language as it is written and spoken. For example, rather than milk being rendered as the act of milking a cow, as it is in sign language, cued speech spells it out letter by letter through lip reading and hand movement, so that when children begin to read and write, they do not have to learn a new language.

Cued speech is being used in a few public school systems across the country, including in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.

And in some cases, its advocates say, it has helped floundering students move to grade level quickly.

"In the first six months of using cued speech, we made a smooth transition from signing to cueing, and my son learned 500 new words," said Sarina Roffe, executive director of New York Cued Speech Center.

Ms. Roffe is a hearing parent whose 24-year-old deaf son, Simon, graduated from one of the city's most selective high schools, Stuyvesant, and then NewYork University. He began using cued speech when he was 3 1/2 years old.

The deaf felt they had won a degree of autonomy with the official adoption of the American Sign Language, but some now see that autonomy threatened by what they say is an attack on sign language. Others say it is time to face the academic failing of the deaf and focus on their individual learning needs of the children.

The push for broader teaching and use of cued speech comes at time when vocational jobs often filled by the deaf, like printing and data entry, are being replaced by high-technology jobs that require greater literacy, and when technology is making it increasingly possible for deaf children to gain partial hearing through cochlear implants, a surgical procedure that makes verbal communication easier and facilitates cued speech. The implant resembles a thumb-nail-size piece of Play-Doh with a narrow wire that runs behind the earand an attachment in the hair.

Other methods for helping the deaf communicate have also been advocated over the years. One is oral-auralism, which is essentially lip reading with the help of hearing aids, and was the main teaching tool for generations when sign language was banned from schools in an effort to make them more like hearing children. Another is signing exact English, which is using a type of sign language to depict English just as it is spoken. Still another method is auditory verbal therapy, which teaches the maximum use of hearing aids without lip reading.

Some schools are using American Sign Language for instruction and conceptual understanding of material and one of the other methods to teach reading and writing.

No studies exist showing that one method works better than another, said Jane Fernandes, provost of Gallaudet University, a college for the deaf in Washington.

"After all these years, people are finally realizing that deaf children can't read, and this is the way they can learn," Mrs. Roffe said of cued speech. "We aren't saying that deaf people should not learn American Sign Language. We are saying that the deaf should know both. Sign is not spoken, has no written form and thus has its own syntax. It is incompatible with spoken or written English, making it difficult to learn to read and write. Cued speech helps the deaf to get around that."

Earlier this month, about 100 families spent a weekend at a campsite beside a sun-dappled lake in Warwick, N.Y., to improve their skills in cued speech. Older students trained toddlers on grassy knolls and parents sat in hot classrooms for hours learning the finer points. Several more camps, run by different advocacy groups for the deaf, are scheduled this summer around the nation. Learning the basics of cued speech takes about 20 hours.

Neither the National Cued Speech Center in Rochester nor the New York Cued Speech Center in Brooklyn has figures on how many people use the system. But Mrs. Roffe estimates that more than 3,000 people have been trained in it.

Opposition to cued speech is strong. Susan M. Mather, a professor of American Sign Language, linguistics and interpretation at Gallaudet, said the poor literacy rate had nothing to do with sign language but was the result of low involvement from hearing parents with their deaf children from the very beginning.

"These children are not getting the attention they need from the start," Professor Mather, who is deaf and has deaf children, said through a translator."Hearing parents are afraid if their kids learn A.S.L., they will never see them again. They will only be involved in the deaf world. That is not true."

The deaf children of deaf parents perform slightly better in school than deaf children of hearing parents, experts say, because they learn American Sign Language earlier. While they still encounter the problems of reading and writing, they have the confidence to overcome it because they have been socialized differently than children of hearing parents, the experts say.

Robert R. Davila, vice president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, said methods like cued speech should be used to improve literacy because they required the entire family to get involved. But Dr. Davila disagreed that American Sign Language was the cause of poor literacy among the deaf.

"Many deaf individuals are bilingual in A.S.L. and English just as many Hispanic children are bilingual in Spanish and English," said Dr. Davila, who is Mexican-American. "It is wrong to blame A.S.L. for having poor English. We don't blame Spanish for having poor English."

Cued speech was invented by R. Orin Cornet in 1966 shortly after William C.Stokoe Jr., a linguistics professor, successfully pushed for signing to be recognized as a language and helped end a century-long banishment of signing from classrooms.

Cued speech was dwarfed by the focus on signing, but Dr. Cornet, a physicist and mathematician with hearing, pressed on to improve literacy among the deaf students. Even then, deaf educators realized that something needed to be done about the literacy rate of the deaf. So Dr. Cornet developed a system wherepeople could see the spoken word.

Dr. Cornet set up a department at Gallaudet and the technique spread slowly. Small programs were started in Washington and adjacent Montgomery County, Md. Studies showed that deaf children using cued speech had comparable language skills as their peers with hearing. Today, Montgomery County has one of the largest cued speech public school divisions in the country, along with Minnesota and North Carolina. Today, however, many doctors are recommending that cued speech be used with the cochlear implants, which increase hearing and help people with lip reading.

In cued speech, the cues are quick strokes of the finger across the cheek, the neck and chin. And it encourages users to use their voices. Carol Sereda, 39, a hearing parent, said: "If I want to say, 'If you want to go out to play, you have to eat your crackers first,' in sign language, 'I would sign, cracker, eat, finish, play, can. With cued speech, I would cue it in plain English. It's great."

Teaching children to write through cued speech is easier, said Karen Doenges, a speech-language specialist in Rosemount, Minn. "If I want to teach a child to write milk in cued speech, it would not be difficult," Ms. Doenges said. "But in American Sign Language the symbol for milk looks like you're milking a cow. When they are trying to figure out the 'm' on the page and the 'i' and 'l' and 'k,' there is no code to match it up with. What cued speech does is try to match the sounds of the language and turn it into avisual thing."

In the classroom, cued speech requires a person to translate, or cue, what the instructor says. Ms. Engelman, the deaf student, has had translators since kindergarten. "I would be at a disadvantage without cued speech because I would learn only American Sign Language and everyone would be communicating in English," she said. "That is not to say that I don't like A.S.L. But I would be like, where do you put the 'a' and 'the.' It would be hard."

Who Needs Some Easter Laughter?

A Favorite Passover Cartoon of Mine

H-Deletion in ASL

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder demonstrates the H-deletion formulated by Scott Liddell and Bob Johnson to show that ASL is not an abbreviated language. It is like an algebraic formula of ASL; it is magical almost!

Bad (or Discharged) Notes from My Writing

Your comments are welcome....

The great variety of parameters in American Sign Language (ASL) can by their very nature not be satisfactorily described on paper; the parts of the signs being learned must be examined at as early a stage as possible. Not only are ASL users to be found in all parts of the United States and most Canada, but an increasing variety of videos is available. The following brief summary is therefore intended only as a rough guide to the “pronunciation” of the principal parts of the signs. Such a summary of signing parts must necessarily be inexact as well: even though many parts can best be identified through comparison with corresponding gestures, we can say that practically no hand shape or palm orientation looks exactly like any gesture generally expressed. The newcomer to ASL needs to be aware especially of the misleading cases in which signs in ASL represent a gesture entirely different from the one they represent in general.


Most of the pronoun signs have two forms. The first is the empathic or stressed form, used regularly with the index finger/palm down, but used in talking only about particular emphasis on the person. The second is the non-empathic or unstressed form with the index finger/palm sideway or up, the one used in talking where the emphasis is usually not on the pronoun but on the accompanying verb. The non-empathic forms are often used in less formal conversation.


Natural colloquial usage in ASL conveys not just factual information but also a variety of attitudes such as urgency, casualness, politeness or uncertainty. Of the many different ways we do this, one is using signs that do not so much add a meaning to the utterance as an attitude. They can never be defined or translated as straightforwardly as nouns and verbs in English. But they are just as important, because they not only add shades of meaning but contribute to the rhythm of ASL. Five of the most common of them are glossed here: WAIT, KNOW, OH-I-SEE, SOMETHING SAY, THAT.

Deep Structure: DEB, MIKE, MEET

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses Noam Chomsky's theory of transforming lexemes from DS (deep structure) to SS (surface structure) of ASL and English.

The following English sentences have the same lexemes of Deb, Mike and meet:
Mike will meet Deb.
Mike met Deb.
Mike is meeting Deb.
Mike is going to meet Deb.
Mike thinks about meeting Deb.

ASL, too, can entertain numerous sentences using the same lexemes of DEB, MIKE and MEET.

From Deep Structure to Surface Structure: The Fish Story

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder explains that although both ASL and English share the same lexeme (fish) in the deep structure (DS), they undergo different transformational rules for the surface structure (SS).

From Deep Structure to Surface Structure: ASL and English

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder presents an argument that ASL and English undergo different transformational rules from deep structure (DS) to surface structure (SS).

Oral Education: Always Be Prepared for Visitors

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder recalls how his class in Effatha School for the Deaf was prepared for regular classroom visitation.

Silence and Speech, not Incestuous Relationships

Mike McConnell, our pianist friend, questions in his blog whether there are incestuous relationships in the Deaf community.

It is not simply to be taken for granted that Deaf people have the privilege of living among other Deaf people. Innumerable times a whole Deaf community has broken down because it had sprung from an ideal dream, namely "all modes of communication" or "diversity and inclusiveness." Deafness is not a condition of the emotions but the condition of truth. It is not an ideal but a reality.

Because Gallaudet University is deeply implicit in American Sign Language (ASL), it is a linguistic and not an auditory reality. In this, it differs absolutely from all other academic communities. I'd call it "atmospheric quality" which is created only by ASL, the language and culture of the Deaf, which, in turn, makes Gallaudet University very extraordinary and exceptional.

Many Deaf people do seek to create their own community because they need each other. No one can stand loneliness, and we all are driven to seek the company of other people. Only in the Deaf community do we learn that our silence does not mean dumbness, as speech does not mean chatter. Dumbness does not create ignorance and chatter does not create intelligence. In the Deaf community, the latin term, primus inter pares, should not be construed as incestuous relationships at all.

Every day brings to Deaf people around the world many hours in which they will be alone in the hearing environment. These are the times of self-realizing. At Gallaudet University, this is the self-realization of true language, that is, ASL. Has ASL at Gallaudet University served to make Deaf people free, strong, and mature, or has it make them vulnerable and dependent? Has ASL at Gallaudet University taken Deaf people "by the hand" for a while in order that they may learn to hear and speak, or has it made them human and natural? This is one of the most searching and critical questions that can be put to any Deaf population.

All this can occur in the most polite or even oppressed environment. But the important thing is that we can no longer escape the reality of ASL that brings Deaf people together.

USDOJ: What Is the Difference between ASL and SEE?

In this vlog, per request from USDOJ (United States Department of Justice), although Carl Schroeder has absolutely no authority in describing or discussing SEE academically, he compares ASL with an ad hoc system called Sign Exact/Essential English.

Delete The Democratic Implicits of Gallaudet University

It is not necessary to be a Poet to write a poem,

but whoever writes a poem becomes a Poet.

--Theatre of the Oppressed

Readers,

I was saddened by a friend's request that the blog about democracy at Gallaudet University, "The Democratic Implicits of Gallaudet University" be deleted because it contained some information from the email sent to me. Although the friend's email to me became my possession, I continue to respect the request to keep it secret and to remove the blog. Very undemocratic, indeed!

Basically I wrote that as long as American Sign Language is compromised, there is no democracy--a form of human self-realization--at Gallaudet University. I concluded the blog with this statement: Gallaudet University is implicit in American Sign Language. It received an invaluable comment, pointing out that since Gallaudet University is a quasi-governmental institution, it is to comply with the community that creates it--Deaf community.

I thought it was a well-written analysis of how undemocratic Gallaudet University has been toward ASL. I have been practicing the democratic approach in my blogspot with my thoughts and ideas about Gallaudet University. The university has evolved around this social traditional system that denies the use of American Sign Language. The use of ASL is completely different from the support of ASL. Maybe you will misunderstand when I said that, but the truth is that they will not express themselves freely as the users of ASL. They thought that by signing in the English word order, the truth prevails. We need a revolution.

This kind of revolution that I am talking about is not so frequent in history, maybe it never happens. It doesn't mean that we don't have to have as goal to try to open to people the possibility of being users of academic ASL, of communicating in a conscious and collective manner in order to be able to create their intellectual lives as they want and not as they have been told to in English. The second idea of this sentence, "language of revolution," is for me the idea that academic ASL is not the revolution in itself, the transformation in itself. Academic ASL is just a step of the language that must keep going much further after something is spoken in that language. Like my father uses Gebarentaal (Dutch Sign Language) in this picture entitled by me: "A small idea about a language will teach you a lot of things, the language itself will teach you more."

That is one of the main question of democratic implicits of Gallaudet University: how to make a piece of ASL that would not be a substitution? The logical solution seems, for me, to link academic ASL and its use in a way it is never done before: one becomes a moment of the other, a preparation of the next generation of the Deaf. (There are a great number of Deaf children visiting these blogs and vlogs.) That is the revolution that I am talking about here.

We must act together to promote both the use of academic ASL and the democratic self-realization at Gallaudet University. It's too bad that my friend does not see through the same light I do. And that's maybe a clue of how to try to break the culture of silence and secrecy: to come over and over to the same audience/readers to try to establish the confidence that is needed to have a real dialogue and to pay so much respect to what they have to say about academic ASL. I hope we will be able to continue this type of democratic dialogue for the sake of the tranparency of Gallaudet University.

ASL Dragon and April Fool's Day

In this very special vlog, you are invited to translate Gisbatzed.

Yes, I Heard Paul Talk

In spring 1962, in Effatha School for the Deaf, Voorburg, The Netherlands, Irene Barneveld and I were made to hear our classmate Paul Pont talk. There was always a huge gap between "concepts" of amplification made for Deaf children and oral method that required us to fold our hands on the desk. "Yes, I Heard Paul Talk" introduces audience to important basic concepts about the nature of April Fool's Day because it provides the critical foundation upon which complex facts and ideas can be forced to hear...but we actually forgot what they were. I am terrible sorry, Paul, but I forgot what you said or how you sounded. I am pretty sure that Irene also forgot. Well, we tried very hard these days! In our school days, with amplification, it's April Fool's Day everyday!

Here's the only picture of me with my hearing aid on. And, no, you're not fooled!