The Super Bowl XLII Pepsi Ad: The Shame of Hearing Supremacy

To say that Deaf babies and children do not need American Sign Language (ASL) would have been an understatement. Hearing supremacy, on the other hand, is actively circulating sound arguments against ASL.

The AGBell letter to Pepsi did little to clarify the fact of being Deaf or to help our democratic society develop respect for ASL. No one can be for or against ASL. It exists. It is the language many Deaf people in the United States and most Canada use. I believe it is especially important that hearing supremacists carefully consider their arguments against the existence of our language and culture.

How our democratic society views ASL plays a significant role in creating respect and expectations for all the Deaf. Using ASL for information, knowledge and communication should not prejudice anybody's attitudes toward the Deaf, especially Deaf babies and children. But too often it does among AGBell people who practice hearing supremacy. The difficulty is particularly acute for those Deaf babies and children because many people fail to recognize ASL as anything other than a sub-standard mode of communication. As a result, our society may view ASL users as stupid, wrong or lazy.

Understanding that AGBell folks have little, if any, accurate knowledge about ASL and are likely to harbor negative attitudes about ASL, this blogger, Carl Schroeder, calls for the implementation of a campaign that would focus on the nature and history of ASL.

Hearing supremacy is directly responsible for internalized racism, for colonized consciousness within our American society. Earlier today, while trying to make sense of some so-called polite or diplomatic blogs and comments about the AGBell-Pepsi letter, I hereby offer my analysis: "We must contest the voices of hearing supremacy head-on!"

No hear = no shame!

How We Talk About Being Deaf

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Being Deaf is an inescapable fact every time we ask ourselves questions about it. So comes the central question of Greek philosopher Aristotle's Metaphysics, and there exist many possible dimensions of it that might be reduced to four: an accidential being; a true being; a potential being; and a substance (essential nature).

American Sign Language (ASL) in the Making

American Sign Language (ASL) is in the making. It is both a great challenge and one that can be met only by taking Deaf people in the United States and most Canada into account--their world without history would be orphaned and unhappy. The history of Deaf people should not paralyze the present: when based on understanding their language and culture it can help the world to forge a great respect, and guide it towards progress.

The making of ASL is the joint initiative of two peoples: native users and non-native users. Its aim is to shape the evolution of knowledge, presenting the challenges but not concealing the difficulties. In the efforts of the Deaf to facilitate their language and culture to achieve unity our world society has slapped them with language hegemony--listening and spoken language over acquisition and application of ASL. It is no purpose of this language bigotry to conceal these problems; those committed to the hearing supremacy will not succeed if their view of the Deaf is unencumbered by an understanding of the Deaf world.

In 1774, Francesco Soave wrote in "Riflessioni intorno all'instituzione di uno lingua universale": I would certainly never advise you to pursue the bizarre conceit which has taken hold of you to follow the dream about universal language. I'd like to paraphrase Soave's statement by not advising parents and educators of the Deaf, especially Deaf babies and children, to pursue the hearing supremacy which has taken hold of them to follow the spoken language. It is an obsession, the story of the confusion of lies and of the attempt to redeem the nature of being Deaf through the hearing restoration or invention of synthetic acoustics common in all spoken languages.

Although we have many stories, they all come from the Beginning. In The Bible, for example, we perceived that The Almighty spoke before all things which remains unknown to all of us. This speech was never translatable into human language, and the linguistic interpretation here is an extremely delicate matter. In the other words, we do not know what language was spoken to Adam at the beginning. Tradition has pictured The Almighty’s language as a sort of gestural language, and it can escape from the confusion of Babel.

The combination of meaningless gestures into meaningful signs rhymes very well with the way meaningless sounds are combined into meaningful words. Let me now turn to the most important fact of all: ASL is not easily translatable into the English language. ASL and English, both human languages, have to be interpreted to include their own cultural factors.

ASL is still in the making because it is real. It suffers the lack of solid first language curriculum needed for Deaf babies and children. It takes both hearing supremacy and language oppression that makes ASL extremely vulnerable in the term of respect. ASL is about language and culture of the Deaf.

A Surprise Email from my Former ASL Student at Maui Community College

Hi Friends,

I had no idea it snowed here last night. Well, not "here", but a few miles up on Haleakala. See attachment. My friend just sent me this picture from this morning. It was chilly last night, so I sort of expected it. I knew there was black ice up there yesterday. Should I bail on work and take a drive up up UP? I went up last time it snowed, 6 years ago. Saw a Nene footprint in the snow. So magical.

Exciting day! :)
Jeannine

Testing DeafRead's Neutrality

Let's see if DeafRead Editors are indeed neutral in publishing my vlogs. This is now my thrid attempt.

First attempt was on 11/22/06, and I got suspended for a few weeks for it.

http://carl-schroeder.blogspot.com/2006/11/woman-jew-and-deaf-ask-god_22.html

Second attempt was on 12/9/07, and it was not published in DeafRead.

http://carl-schroeder.blogspot.com/2007/12/woman-jew-and-deaf-ask-god-revisited.html

Today is my third attempt to have this joke vlog published in DeafRead.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3157978637861868241&hl=en

Enjoy!

Hearing Supremacy Is Contagious

Hearing supremacy is about not being tolerant and accepting of being Deaf. Hearing supremacy is about being afraid of acquiring and applying American Sign Language (ASL). Hearing supremacy is about violating basic human rights by denying ASL for Deaf babies with Cochlear Implants (CI).

It has come to our attention that there are a number of you out there who do not clearly understand who we the Deaf are and why we have undertaken our present course of action. We insist that all Deaf babies learn ASL in as early a stage as possible. Contrary to the assumptions of the media, CI, for example, does not exactly restore the sense of hearing.

It is not natural to hear more than before. Those who lost normal hearing and got implanted could vouch that they hear more with CI than they normally did, which is, in the broadest sense, abnormal. Deaf people with CI, on the other hand, are but a group of individuals united by a strange awareness that it is better to hear than to be Deaf. They thought that someone must hear, that someone must stop being Deaf, that someone must "listen and talk."

In our community, the Deaf world, you will find individuals from all walks of life--professors, lawyers, parents, university and graduate students, and more. We the Deaf are everywhere. We do have enemies who refuse ASL by telling us that our being Deaf is not a whole being.

We want you to be aware of the very real dangers of hearing supremacy. We want you to know that some people, especially babies and children, died from CI. We want you to know about the basic human rights violations collaborated and committed by hearing supremacy. We want you to know about all of those things that have been swept under the rug for far too long. The information must get out there. It is our responsibility to protect our being Deaf and to arm ourselves with knowledge about our language and culture.

Be very wary of hearing supremacy. We invite you to join us in act of solidarity. We invite you to take up the banner of free speech because ASL is our form of speech. We invite you to be heard with us. It's worth a try.

International Library of Photography: Editor's Choice Award

A few months ago, I entered this above photo in a contest underwritten by http://www.picture.com/ and I won the Editor's Choice Award for the International Library of Photography. I thought you'd like to see it. It is Silversword, a plant found only in Haleakala on Maui, Hawai'i.

A Letter about my October 19, 2007 Blog

Hi Carl!

Following message copied from the website that I tried to send this through:
RE: Friday, October 19, 2007 Hearing Informants, Please Step Forward!

This is what I tried to send (but did not go through).

This is an older blog, I know, but I just stumbled across this tonight on deafread.com.

Don't know "My Friend's Email Address" as they require, so don't think this will even go through...But I was SO intrigued to read about this Hearing Informants idea, as that is exactly what has been going through my thoughts lately... I believe we should all be working to come together as an enhancement, an enrichment of each other's lives, and am eager to help with that. As was stated, I feel that's one of the BEST ways to learn any other language/culture.

Then I saw it was written by YOU, Carl! Thank you, thank you.

I'll send this as is, not knowing if it will go through to you.

Blessings! Linda

Unfortunately it is late tonight, and I still must go to the grocery store... but I will most certainly keep looking for good writings (as Merle always told me to do).

Warmth to you,
Linda

Dolphin play bubble rings (Non-ASL!)

This is amazing!

ASL Translation from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An entertainment/educational vlog by Carl Schroeder: This short fictional story by Ambrose Bierce has been Carl's favorite for many years. There is one sentence in this story he always uses to teach American Sign Language (ASL)translation and interpretation. It reads: "Death is a dignitary who when comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him." Enjoy!

The Real Power Behind ASL

The real power behind American Sign Language (ASL) is imagination. Every now and then some fool imagines a better mode of communication and a bunch of flocks follow, but the power structures pervert that image into a hearing supremacy to enslave us with over time. I'm all about imagination though. If you truly want to use ASL or hate it, there are plenty of choices. I think our imaginations would probably be better served Deaf people than whatever the reigning hearing supremacy is.

Feel free to create a new mode of communication here, there or anywhere. There will always be ASL that comes out of these communication torture traps once Deaf people are freed from their communication illusions. Our language and culture are waiting to enjoy navigating through the next thousand years of their twisted communication traps: Maybe something new will come up in the ASL education or some drunken fool will shout something better tomorrow, but it seems that hearing supremacy will continuously devour Deaf children for profits until we give them a better imagination games to play. It's kind of a shame though; somebody should bring ASL to the table that shows how linguistics works and use it to elevate the Deaf world.

ASL is as malleable as I am. I envision ASL that consists of brilliant strategies, and addresses those who are really confused. I envision ASL that reflects itself as we are using it, and wants to make it better. I see ASL that plants seeds and eggs and stars and clouds because ASL does not exist in a vacuum. I see ASL greatly troubled by those who despair at modes of communication and call them a diversity of some sort. ASL gives us every opportunity to feel differently and to allow us to transmit how we learned to deal with our culture. I see ASL that is basically reflecting you, me, or anyone who is capable of acquiring it.

I see ASL as our collective community. This collective community turns on pieces of it and puts them in a box where we get to talk to each other and figure out how to rethink out of the box. If you could see a horse in your imagination, then that's all I got to say about the real power behind ASL.

With Aloha
Always From
Ka'lalau

Deaf School Children Should Be Tested in ASL

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl has to rant a bit about how misleading people, Deaf and hearing alike, can be about American Sign Language (ASL) and English. They keep on citing about the fourth grade levels of reading and writing among Deaf high school graduates. This score is based on various tests conducted in the English language, not ASL, which is unfair and inappropriate. Are they afraid that tests in ASL may be better?

Some Lessons Learned from Miss Deaf Oregon

An essay vlog by Carl Schroeder:

As Professor of American Sign Language (ASL), I am always challenged in trying to introduce my students to the Deaf community. Local news articles about the Deaf can be helpful. Last fall I ran across an interview Miss Deaf Oregon Ashley Beghtel had at the University of Oregon College of Education, and I copied it for my students to read and react.

There are three important lessons Ms. Beghtel shares in the article, and I will quote them and then post a vlog with my thoughts and ideas.

On Managing an Interpreter

She [Ashley Beghtel] begins this interview by coaching her interviewer on how to communicate during an interpreted interview. She faces te interviewer directly while the interpreter ... sits behind the interviewer's right elbow, out of peripheral vision, so the interpreter can be heard in the interviewer's ear__with full attention on Ashley. The concept of the signed interview is that the sign interpreter is visible only to Ashley. The interviewer--unable to see the interpreter--must direct conversation to Ashley. Holding long eye contact with Ashley helps reduce the impulse to address the interpreter.

On Role Models for Deaf Youth

"Educational experiences are key to a person's lifetime of development. For Deaf education as a whole, we need to really reinforce positive behaviors to overcome so much of the negativity that Deaf youth experience: a sense of hopelessness may start very early for them in terms of having so few role models. There is a real lack of young adult or adult Deaf mentors who can model positive growth...."

On "Being Deaf"

"...I had no idea that there was a Deaf world view--I had the experience of being Deaf, but no sense of it as a culture of its own social connection and interaction."

All in all, Miss Deaf Oregon Ashley Beghtel taught us that the eye contact we have with people we are communicating is an asset in our Deaf life. Interpreting in schools where Deaf children are mainstreamed is not just one thing when they are learning. They have to look at what they need in order to grow up normally--adult Deaf role models. Being Deaf without knowing ASL and its culture is a national shame our society is suffering. I only wish Miss Beghtel would mention and elaborate ASL in her interview because it would be a true lesson to learn.

Signing in Word Order Won't Help

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl talks about his storytelling "bag" theatre. One day, he had two young children read an entry in the unabridged dictionary to each other. They signed everything but they were unable to tell what was being said or meant. Carl led discussion and translation. This applies to Deaf children speaking, using cued speech, and signing the English word order.

Why Deaf Babies Need ASL First: Intralingual Skills for English

The Greek Philosopher Aristotle said
that when new facts and ideas merge,
we should be willing to coin fresh words
to convey the unfamiliar information.
--Unknown

If it is true that in the beginning was the word, then from the beginning something got lost in translation. Or rather: there is in that beginning a problem of translation of the very word that Deaf babies never hear from Day One.

I am, of course, referring to the Biblical word, though, it was not at first such a problem. When it got translated into the Greek term 'logos' and it was later translated into the Latin term, 'verbum' by Saint Jerome, the Bible translator. It remained unchallenged for a thousand years. Until the Dutch philosopher Erasmus persuaded that the Latin 'sermo' (speech) was more adequately appropriate than Jerome's 'verbum.' Luther was the first to refer to Erasmus for his rebellion against The Church by translating The Bible into the German language and giving it to people for general readership.

So what am I trying to point out here is that we all are but a language animal. We are capable of referring to general or abstract concepts, or to the future. The Greek 'logos' extends into terms like 'concept' and 'law.' The Latin 'verbum' inclines toward a notion like 'speaking.' Erasmus's 'sermo' (speech) is understood as 'language' shared by a community. American Sign Language (ASL), as we understood, is our form of speech that facilitates our community.

Since we the Deaf are living in the general society in which people speak what they hear, English. ASL-English translation is now just around the corner.

Deaf babies need ASL first to develop intralingual skills for the acquisition of English as a second language. They need to acquire all components of ASL by thinking about and mastering them so that they can apply them to the English language. Without ASL, whatever is sounded in English is not immediately intelligible.

It is well known and well claimed that ASL is not being dependent on word order. In ASL, we have the visual representation of concepts in a spherical space, not a linear progression of words. ASL uses spherical dimension and makes meaning of spatial relationships, movements, and classifiers of signs, which are very evolving and expanding.

When one attempts to dissect ASL into a linear progression of the English language, he or she becomes not only unintelligible, but also dry and boring. The ASL-English interpretation has always caused heated arguments with the relation of two separate languages. For those of us who take the ASL-English relation seriously, there is no easy way out of these predicaments. But we can learn from them.

The awareness of the pitfalls of "cultural interpretation" will not make the problems go away, but it can guard against ignorance and oppression. Now is a good time to give ASL to Deaf babies.

Oralism Hinders Education (No Hear)

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl had an interesting encounterance of two classroom assistants at Clackamas Community College. As their discussion ensued, Carl comes up with the proposal that oral education is in its worst shape of all times. Visit www.nohear.com for the t-shirt with "Oralism Hinders Education."

Why We the Deaf Betray Our Own

"It was because I heard father and mother,"
he explained in a low voice, talking about

what I was to be when I become a man."

He was extraordinarily agitated now.

"I don't want ever to be a man," he said

with passion. "I want always to be a little boy

and to have fun. So I ran away to

Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time

with the fairies," (Peter Pan, p. 29).

The Deaf (with capital d) is an archetype within the conscious of all the Deaf that contains our awareness of our being Deaf. It is the psychological component that we still think and react to our society like Deaf people, and it is the same component that we're fully aware that the society continues to keep from being able to embrace American Sign Language (ASL).

Of all the betrayals that we the Deaf suffer, perhaps the most poignant of all is the betrayal of ourselves. No example of this is more striking than when we remain committed to our being Deaf, that archetypical force which will hinder us from becoming fully empowered users of ASL.

To better understand why we the Deaf betray ourselves, let me present the most common patterns of this archetype found within the Deaf community. These patterns include behaviors, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes of the Deaf. This exploration is intended to help us identify how this archetypal force is still in control, and to understand how the Deaf adversely affects our daily lives. They keep us stuck, disempowered and isolated.

• The Role Model
• The Actor/Actress
• The Hearing Supremacist
• The Troublemaker
• The Oppressor

Within each of us the Deaf can be found varying degrees of some, if not all, of these patterns. Some patterns may appear to be more "positive" than others, but don't be fooled. All of them, however seemingly benign, are dangerous in a Deaf being's life. Unless we are able to identify which particular pattern(s) most often control our life, we will be unable to live as a mature, initiated Deaf beings. Some will identify mostly strongly with one of the patterns; others may relate to aspects of many or all of them.

The Role Model

"I can hear and talk, and it is the proven road to reward." The Role Model is arguably the most visible part of our being Deaf, most likely because it was one of the main survival strategies that many of us learned early on in order to deal with our society. The Role Model does what hearing people tell him/her to do, thinks the way others want him/her to think. He/she does to great lengths to get hearing people to like him/her--by being nice, polite, obedient, cooperative and well behaved. He/she often uses his/her voice to intgratiate himself/herself to others. He/she strives to please hearing people.

The Actor/Actress

"I can pretend to understand everything." On the surface the actor/actress is brash, exhibitionistic, self-assured, single-minded, often exuding an aura of success in relationship with hearing people. In fact, the personailty of the actor/actress is based on a defensive false self that he/she must keep inflated, like a balloon, in order to forget that he/she is Deaf. He/she has great difficulty connecting to the society.

The Hearing Supremacist

"I am comfortable with my mode of communication because I am Hard-of-Hearing." The Hearing Supremacist is that aspect of being Deaf that controls the Deaf being's life through superiority. A hearing superiority is related to a behavioral and/or psychological process that has to do with any pathological relationship with auditory-altering experience that has self-depreciating consequences. Our society is told and taught that an ability of any Deaf individual to listen and speak reflects his/her intelligence. Any Hearing Supremacist will tell you that those who can not hear or speak are really in a huge trouble.

The Troublemaker

"I don't know ASL. I speak and sign at the same time so everyone can understand me." Troublemaking is one of the main characteristics of being Deaf. One of the main ways a Troublemaker is problematic. By denying the truth about his/her use of ASL, he/she believes that if people in his/her society really knew his/her use of ASL, they would actually question his/her intelligence. One of the big problems this Troublemaker faces is that he/she believes that in order to deny ASL he/she must be smarter or better than Deaf people. If being Deaf is somehow wrong, then there's no way he/she can reveal his/her use of ASL. Better to stay in denying ASL than risk being looked down.

The Oppressor

"Many Deaf people do not know what ASL is." The Oppressor is that part of who we the Deaf are. Having forgotten about our early wounding and specifically how ASL is suppressed by others, we have become one of those people who now oppresses others. Deaf people, who have not found a recovery process through which to heal their early wounding, will often become as severe an oppressor as those who once oppressed them. There are certain bloggers in DeafRead, for example, who practice language bigotry, hegemony and oppression by promoting modes of communication and advocating hearing implants.

Whichever pattern we most strongly identify with should be the indicator of how our allegiance to ASL and out being Deaf plays out, and thus we are most stuck in the archetypal energy. Just two cents of my thought.

I Once Took Care of a Deaf-Blind Puppy

A journal vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl used to live in Richmond, Virginia before he moved to Hawai'i in 2005 and then Oregon in 2007. There was a family in Richmond who adopted a new puppy and discovered that it was both deaf and blind. Here's my vlog about it:

2nd Attempt: My Schoolmate Has Been DEAD

A second reaction vlog by Carl Schroeder: The translation of Martin Luther King's speech by Ella Lentz makes Carl think about his schoolmate who became suppressed and oppressed by school into dead-like submission.

My Schoolmate Has Been DEAD

A reaction vlog by Carl Schroeder: The translation of Martin Luther King's speech by Ella Lentz makes Carl think about his schoolmate who became suppressed and oppressed by school into dead-like submission. (please pardon the quality of this video.)

Our Culture and the Philosophy of ASL Dragon

I come to this ASL Dragon project as an unabashed partisan. I believe in the power of stories told in American Sign Language (ASL). I believe ASL literature enriches—and even saves—our culture. I tell not to create difficult stories but often, at least, to convey something I figured out during a life of struggle and sacrifice, trial and error, excitement and boredom, fear and bravery.

ASL Dragon is now there not only to give kids "the answer," and certainly not to deliver a message. ASL Dragon stories trigger questions and discussions. A story about ASL Dragon, Sooket and Gisbatzed might stand witness to the fact that lessons in being Deaf are not so easy. They are meant, to borrow from John Berger, "to make the familiar strange." They allow you to look at their enhanced valley where two rivers meet and the neighboring towns in a new, wondrous, and engaging way. ASL literature reminds you of a new innocence, a new discovery.

As the creator of ASL Dragon stories, I believe ASL literature and being Deaf are connected. A good story told in ASL might introduce you to fictional people so similar to who you've known that you unconsciously believe their actions because they resemble those of your friends. Another good story might bring to life a dragon that is so different from any other dragons you've known, and yet so real, that ASL Dragon, along with its fictional protégés, Sooket and Gisbatzed, become something you get to know and care about. ASL literature allows us to be creative and to try on possible selves.

I entitled this blog “Our Culture and the Philosophy of ASL Dragon” because I mean it. ASL literature I'm writing about here deserves the label "culture." All of ASL Dragon stories have something that makes us extraordinary to people who love ASL Dragon, Sooket and Gisbatzed. What ASL Dragon stories have in common is that they all generate extraordinary reactions in people we trust.

By "ASL literature" I don't mean what some traditional cultural critics mean by the term literature (written and read only). I don't subscribe to the scolding approach of some “groupthink” American Republicans: Colin Powell, William Bennett and E.D. Hirsch, Jr. And our frustrated Republican-pianist friend, Mike McConnell, too! ASL literature is not the same as the "mandatory literature" demanded by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) warriors, for example, and I certainly don't see it as telling neatly packaged moral stories.

I simply offer my enthusiasm and empowerment for the ASL Dragon literature project.

ASL Dragon for Kids

Another entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder for kids: Test yourself and see how much you know about ASL Dragon. You can give your answers in the comment section, and I will make some comments, too.

ASL Dragon: A Song of Our Own

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: A story of ASL Dragon is like a song of ASL Dragon. When Sooket and Gisbatzed are telling a story of ASL Dragon, they are telling a song of ASL Dragon, letting people know what ASL Dragon is about. The greatness of Sooket and Gisbatzed has a twofold: their wealth of knowledge, and their willingness to share that knowledge. ASL Dragon is a song of our own!

American Sign Language: Our Language and Our Culture

I for one don't think that I could describe in writing culture that American Sign Language (ASL) generates. I think it's in the person who uses ASL. I think you are blessed with ASL or you aren't.

We have to straighten out this language and culture mess that we're in today. The overthrow of sign language in the 1880 Milan Resolution has never been justified. It might take forever. It may not be my time before we realize the end results. Right now ASL and all other sign languages have been interfered with.

We lost our birthright, that is, being Deaf meant for our right to sign language. I didn't even realize it until I grew up and learned about my language and culture. They never taught us ASL in school and at Gallaudet (in my days spanning from 1971 to 1983). But now that I know ASL, you get a little upset.

I can't turn my back on this ASL-using community. If we don't keep up the culture of ASL, we would really be in trouble because we would have nothing to hold us to our identity.

You and I have to fight like hell to survive and to be recognized as ASL users. We have to always be on the alert and look out for ASL. But they can't rob us of ASL--this is our language, our culture.

With Aloha
Always From
Ka'lalau

Naming Hearing People HEARING

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: All languages change. ASL is unique because, for example, we use it to name hearing people HEARING (a gloss with all uppercase letters to indicate the sign meaning specifically people talking through their mouth but not necessarily people being able to hear). Yes, in ASL, we do have political correctness for numerous signs.

Yes, My Brain Is Deaf

For this blog with an embedded vlog, I will present physiological and philosophical approaches to the question whether my brain is Deaf. Studying in detail about the brain that is Deaf is enormously important for our society. Our knowledge of Deaf people and American Sign Language (ASL) has changed dramatically in the past 50 years, and we all need to know as much as we can about ourselves. It is critical that we understand as much as we can about our brain.

I am reading Steven Pinker's book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, and there is a paragraph on page 95 about the physiology of what I would dub as a Deaf brain. Let me quote it for your readership and discourse:

"With deafness ... one of the senses is taking over the controls suitable circuitry, rather than just moving into any old unoccupied territory. Laura Petitto and her colleagues found that deaf people use the superior gyrus of the temporal lobe (a region near the primary auditory cortex) to recognize the elements of signs in sign languages. They also found that the deaf use the lateral prefrontal cortex to retreive signs from memory, just as hearing people use it to retrieve words from memory. This should come as nosurprise. As linguists have long known, sign languages are organized much like spoken languages. They use words, a grammar, ans even phonological rules that combine meaningless gestures into meaningful signs, just as phonological rules on spoken languages combine meaningless sounds into meaningful words. Spoken language, moreover, are partly modular: the representations for words and rules can be distinguished from the input-output systems that connect them to the ears and the mouth. The simplest interpretation, endorsed by Petitto and her colleages, is that the cortical areas recruited in signers are specialized for language (words and rules), not for speech per se. What the areas are doing in deaf people is the same as what they are doing in hearing people."

My own nerdiness about my being Deaf and ASL is hard won. I am the worst writer you could ever imagine. Fortunately for me, my mother still believes that I'm smart. For my philosophical discourse, I will do a vlog here.




To sum up, to figure out whether there is a Deaf brain, we need to "pick the brain apart" in the hope that we will have a sneak preview of Deaf mind. Actually scientists usually picked apart the brains of animals for clues as to how the human brain worked. As a dog's man guy myself, I'd opt for observing Deaf people who use ASL for important breakthroughs.

The Ten Rules of Being Deaf

1. You will be Deaf.

You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons about being Deaf.

You have a full-time informal education called Life. Each day in this Deaf life you will learn lessons whether you think them relevant and doable.

3. There are no mistakes about being Deaf, only lessons.

Being Deaf is a process of trial and error: experimentation. There are many road signs that are not clear, too, but your being Deaf shall always be obvious.

4. A lesson about being Deaf is repeated until learned.

A lesson about being Deaf will be presented to you in various modes of communication. If you repeat the lesson, then it may be because of a wrong mode of communication. Once learned, you then move on to the next lesson.

5. Learning about being Deaf does not end.

There is no part of Deaf life that does not contain American Sign Language (ASL). If you discover ASL, a real learning process shall begin.

6. There is no easy answer for being Deaf.

When you have an answer, it usually becomes a question, you will simply obtain another answer that will again come up with another question.

7. You will use ASL to describe your being Deaf.

You cannot love or hate something that another person describe you unless it is told in ASL.

8. What you make of your being Deaf is up to you.

ASL is here but the choice is yours.

9. The answer to questions about your being Deaf lies inside you.

All you need to do is to be honest about your being Deaf and your use of ASL.

10. You will either agree with or deny being Deaf.

However, ASL is here and there and everywhere.

With Aloha
Always From
Ka'lalau

I Met ASL Dragon

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Happy New Year from The Valley of ASL Dragon!

Denying American Sign Language Is ...

The denial of human nature has spread beyond

the academy and has led to a dissconnect

between intellectual life and common sense.

--Stene Pinker,

The Blank Slate:

The Modern Denial of

Human Nature

Being Deaf is a human nature, and its natural resource is sign language. In our American society, the essence of American Sign Language (ASL) is the existence of being Deaf.

There is no denying that the spearhead of our general society to implant Deaf babies with digit-enhanced hearing devices and to deny them ASL is something that is savage and horrifying. This denial of both being Deaf and ASL has a certain air of paradox.

How can our American society allow it? Are not being Deaf and ASL the same thing?

Whenever we encounter a paradox, we need to come up with a philosophical problem, that is, a problem of meaning. Philosophy is the study of words and their meanings. This above paradox is engendered by inexact definitions simply because it is explained in euphemism of the English language, writing off both being Deaf and ASL as undesirable and offensible terms. This observation is chauvenistic.

That being Deaf and ASL are not the same thing is evident in the fact that there exists a savage culture that is practicing the crafts legally to eventually create a holocaust of not only being Deaf, but also its natural resource, ASL.

If social philosophers look on animal societies as models for human society, then our society must be animalistic, beastly and cruel when it comes to denying being Deaf and sign language. We could easily agree that this observation of denial is, to borrow from Steven Pinker, "a disconnect between intellectual life and common sense."

:-)