Responding to Butterfly's Challenge: Three C's

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Three C's stand for Clarity, Coherence and Consistency. Carl explains that he learned from early on how to be an effective bilingual in signed and spoken/written languages.

Walk Gently: A Wonderful Vlog by my Friend LaRonda

Yes, and yes!

An Open Letter to Friends of American Sign Language: Find Your Magic Wand

Dear Friends of American Sign Language (ASL),

There is much to learn about the language and culture of the Deaf and an eternity to learn it, but before you can learn ASL, you must unlearn what you already know about ASL.

Success in ASL does not come from ASL itself, but from using it and by using it. ASL is like a plan for a flower garden. All you need are the tools, the tasks, the sunshine, the water, the fetilizer, and seed enough for infinite plant life. You also need the instructions and procedures for the planting, hoeing and harvesting. However, the actual working, the acquisition of ASL, is eternally up to you as the individual.

As children, you had very few mental limitations. As you got older, you experienced realities which you closed down your mind. However, the openness of that child is still within you. It's what makes you dream of that magic wand which will make ASL appears easy and enjoyable. That wand is still out there, and you have to search it out.

Father Francis Thompson writes: "Know what it is to be a child? ...It is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear. It is to turn pumpkins into coaches and mice into horses...for each child has his fairy Godmother within his own soul."

Be adventurous in acquiring ASL. ASL is like a map to buried treasures within your minds. It leads to hidden places within your consciousness where you can find treasures and wonders in the language and culture of the Deaf. Peter Pan says, "The second star to the right and straight on 'til morning."

Good morning,
Carl Schroeder

My Mentor's First Advice at Gally: No Ownership of English

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl recalls his experience as a new English instructor at Gallaudet University. His mentor D A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl recalls his experience as a new English instructor at Gallaudet University. His mentor Dr. Phil Goldberg argued that Deaf people (hard-of-hearing including) could never acquire sufficient English. Carl believes this is still practiced at Gallaudet.

Deaf Schoolteachers? Too Strict!

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: I never had a Deaf teacher until I was in middle school, which was very typical. They were way too strict but they were responsible in introducing us to the world!

Another Package for Kula

An entertainment vlog by Kula's master Carl Schroeder. Carl thinks it was from Sondra (Cobra).

I have Another Pet from Tent City-Hawai'i

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Kula and Rock make fast friends.

That Was What My High School Principal Told Me

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl recalls a conversation with his high school principal about hard-of-hearing people. Deaf Education is about "listening and speaking," not the language and culture of the Deaf.

HoeyHemp and Nesmuth

This is PRIMUS INTER PARES (look up in the dictionary), best among the best! I love it!

Jamie Berke, Does a Cochlear Implant Cause Hearing Loss?

A challenge vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl asks Jamie Berke to give an honest assessment whether CI causes a permanent hearing loss.

Wear-and-Tear of Cochlear Implants

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl asserts that cochlear implants (CI) must have undergone through wear-and-tear (deterioration resulting from ordinary use). Wear-and-tear is a matter of fact for all technologies, and we have yet to hear about the deterioration of CI. Anyone with CI (of course) steps forward, please.

Teach Your Child to Use American Sign Language

It can be a bit challenging beyond the infant stage, but every child, deaf or hearing, can be taught to use American Sign Language (ASL). As for a hearing baby, there are different ways to get him or her signing with you. Choose the one that works best for your lifestyle and your child's need.

The Hard-Line Strategy.

You stop voicing and begin signing. Try your best to ignore vocalizing by responding in signs. This technique can be tough on both parent and child but often works well and quickly.

The Graduated Method.

You sign to your child and then tell him in voice what you mean in signs. Then, encourage him to sign to you and then tell you in voice what he means. Eventually, both you and your child will use only ASL.

The Gentle Approach.

You speak and sign words but avoid vocalizing for classifiers. You can say a word and your child can give you a descriptive classifier for it. If you say a verb or an adjective, your child can give you a facial or torso expression that modifies it.

Teach your child ASL can be fun and rewarding. It will be cool one day when our American society will be like the 17th-19th century Martha's Vineyard Island where everyone spoke sign language.

Jerry needs no help playing with his ball.

This is awesome! Maybe I need this ball-throwing machine for Kula.

Respect Deaf People Who Want to be Hearing?

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl reacts to one of emails he received which tells him to leave Deaf people alone if they want to be hearing.

A Package for Kula

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Kula receives goodies from Aunt Meriam, Aunt Kathy, Oma Nelly, Meka (dog), and Lucko, Misso and Whito (three cats).

Deaf Parents and I

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl shares his professional experience about teaching in American Sign Language. It was over 30 years ago when Deaf parents were reluctant toward Deaf teachers working with their children in school.

For a Child with CI, I Became a Team Teacher

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl realizes that the great variety of spoken sounds of English can by their very nature not be satisfactorily taught; the sounds of English being learned must be taught through American Sign Language (ASL), not just a hearing teacher.

Kula Knows Two Signs!

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Kula has been very much part of my life for two weeks. He's getting bigger now and understands two sogns: NO and SIT.

To B or not to B . . .Deaf Bullies

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Deaf people must go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin this summer.

My Professional Experience with CI Folks

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: As a Deaf professional, Carl found himself in a very difficult situation handling parents of children with CI.

DEAF is PAH; ASL is LC

P is for pathology; A is audiogram; H is hearing-challengedness. L is for language; C is for culture.

For many years I have problems with the term deaf. It is coined and used by hearing people who define and limit our being Deaf (uppercase D!). When we try to define it from our perspective, hearing people become generally polite toward us. They don't really understand reasons why we use their term to elaborate our needs and wants.

In their English language, they have their ways of euphemizing our condition, that is, being Deaf, as hearing loss, hearing impairment, hard-of-hearing and so forth. For them, our being Deaf is a great calamity. They have been aiming at being remedial toward our Deaf being by dactylologizing our hands with letters of their words and, because of a preceding "manual alphabet" premise, matching signs with English words, and, ultimately, signing in the word order.

The language known to us as American Sign Language (ASL) belongs, along with Gebarentaal (Dutch system of signing), Mexican Sign Language, Quebec Sign Language (LSQ), to the so-called visual-gestural group of languages. ASL did not just come into being, but has had a long and interesting development. It had its origin in the speech community locating in the early 19th century northeastern United States when this sign language began to merge from Martha's Vineyard Island and France.

ASL can be said to be the product of political, social and cultural developments of the last two centuries. Toward the end of the second century of ASL, Deaf people began to be unified politically under the auspices of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Beginning after the publication of William C. Stokoe's Dictionary of American Sign Language, ASL is the language and culture of the Deaf in the United States and most Canada.

The role played by the Deaf in forming the language and culture is responsible for the fact that it is referred to the Deaf themselves as users of ASL. For the past 20 years, since the 1988 Deaf President Now demonstration at Gallaudet, Deaf people became more and more able to address oppression they've experienced in education and employment.

A person using the signs just as they are written runs the risk of "talking bookish." In the other words, ASL is many signs and they require language translation and cultural interpretation. We know the cleft between ASL and English is greater than we could ever realize.

We identify ourselves with ASL, not audiogram.

A New Euphemism for Visual-Auditory Agenda at Gallaudet

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder:

Carl suggests that there exists a new euphemism that uses the American Sign Language-Cochlear Implant (ASL-CI) banner for unwarranted visual-auditory efforts at Gallaudet University where Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC) is to progress toward a university mission. Knowledge and ideas and what is in Deaf child's head matters more to me than their "bimodalism," which is a term that implies that it's supposedly better if these children get implanted because it's (allegedly helpful for deaf children to focus on both visual and auditory skills. No, it's not helpful.

Many Opporrtunities Await People with Cochlear Implants

NO HEAR...WRITE...PAPER...anyone heard this before? Being Deaf is somewhat humane. It is one of the top misgivings in human life, and is second only to American Sign Language (ASL).

Similar to other foreigners, in that there will most likely be several contributing factors to cross-linguistic and cross-cultural negotiation, use of ASL involves language translation and cultural interpretation. Thus, the notion of one simple fix, such as just putting cochlear implant on Deaf babies, will limit ASL from flourishing naturally.

For the purpose of this blog I will rule out people with deficit thinking, such as ASL-CI and "listen and speak" enthusiasts. Poor flexibility and excessive laxity within Deaf Education, i.e., lack of proficient ASL skills among administrators, educators and interpreters, can all contribute to the overall educational mediocre among Deaf children.

Notice I did not say language weakness. In Deaf Edication, God-willing, ASL, for the purpose of acquisition and cognition, is mostly for teaching and learning. However, by means of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandatory, ASL is minimally used for the maintenance of the intellectual development. Although attempts to use ASL for education would result in better communication, the lone attempt at listening and speaking will have limited impact.

Adult Deaf people who have chosen to acquire and use ASL are at a firmly high risk of suffering from emotional insecurity. Deaf people will often wish that their parents, brothers and sisters would use ASL.

To those who doubt the usefulness of ASL, I would simply argue this: if you ever want to acquire ASL, you should enable yourself to pursue it.

Yes, many educational opportunities await children with CI. They could be taught to continue to dismiss both ASL and Deaf people by bullying them.

Guinness new ad - A Short Film Called Hands

This is cool!

My Professional Experience with CI Folks

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: As a Deaf professional, Carl found himself in a very difficult situation handling parents of children with CI.

Cochlear Implant Myths Leave a Bad Taste in Our Mouths

It has been aired that all a cochlear implant (CI) is likened to eye-laser surgery. Visit Rays of Raychelle's vlog. I am mortified by this erratic, irresponsible analogy, and I am therefore concerned about more than the quick and cheap propaganda. CI is NOT a corrective tool; it does NOT tend or intend to counteract or restore deafness to a normal condition. Eye-laser surgery does!

I am concerned about more than the quick and troubling speculation to debate whether the crux of the CI dilemma is the source of the money. Gallaudet University currently derives funds from federal agencies that are divided up. Are we OK paying another tax dollar in order for the CI program to get more firm footing?

The purpose of the money from federal agencies is to pay for crucial expenses. It pays for education that teaches Deaf children that it is wrong to be "Deaf" and it is all right to isolate Deaf people. See Kevin's vlog.

Gallaudet University needs fundraising to play a vital role in the upkeep and very survival of the Deaf Education that has gone awry. There is nothing beneath Deaf Education simply because it has not been honest in addressing what being Deaf entails and in conveying that CI is NOT a corrective measure. Gallaudet University is also unable to address American Sign Language (ASL) fully and without associating it with oppressive English.

I am simply appalled! Rays of Raychelle's vlogs on CI are dangerously irresponsible!

Saluting the ASL Flag

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder:

Hand Shapes: 1 and B
1
1,B
1,1
B
1
B
1
B
1
B
1,1
1,B
1

White Flowers Blooming

Hand Shapes 0 and 5
0 --> 5
0 --> 0
5,5 --> 5,5
5 --> 0
0,0 --> 5,5
5 --> 0
5,5 --> 5,5
0 --> 0
o --> 5

The Making of ASL Dragon Storytellers

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Who is before and after Gisbatzed?

ASL Dragon and Deaf Dragon

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Have you ever wondered how ASL Dragon is different than a deaf dragon?

Cochlear Implant Sounds and Shadows in Plato's Cave

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: The Allegory of the Cave in Plato's book, The Republic, helps understand how the cochlear implants sounds are like the shadows in the cave.

ASL Interpreters Need to Exercise

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl introduces an exercise tool for ASL interpreters. Visit www.dynaflex-intl.com for information. Please ignore my statement t-shirt; it's a line from Shakespeare ... II Henry VI.ii.

Introducing Kula to American Sign Language

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: It has been a week since Carl inroduces his Yellow Lab puppy to the world of American Sign Language.

Why ASL Education

The school that fails to teach American Sign Language (ASL) fails in everything.

It is true that like all gifts of nature, the ability to use ASL cannot be imparted; it can only be developed, and one of the oldest complaints against Deaf education is that they turn the Deaf child into a learned speaking-dunce.... Determined users of ASL are few. For most hearing teachers of the Deaf, using ASL is dreary uphill work; their mind is set in motion by only a spoken stimulus.

In Deaf Education, children are encouraged to act stupidly because they are bored. By filling up their days with dull repetitive listening and speaking tasks that make little or no claim to their attention or demands on their intelligence, most Deaf schoolchildren are answer-centered rather than problem-centered.

Being able to hear in Deaf Education is an acquired habit founded on practice, like playing the piano. How well Deaf children with cochlear implants (CI), for example, depends on how much of listening and speaking they have done, and it is never autonomous. They start to think about hearing: they enter into a body of thought and try to hear. The ability to listen and speak is passive, and I have yet to read about how children with CI seek the habit of respectful skepticism -- respectful in the sense that it rests on evidence and carefully established argument but is never asking questions such as "Why did the bus driver drive to a wrong place?" and "Is there another way of communicating?"

Using ASL captures our minds more readily than memorizing how to listen and speak correctly. What Deaf children most need to learn in schools is how to use ASL. This is the position I am taking...the emphasis is on the how of using ASL rather than the what of learning in a spoken language.

Like so many students before him and even those of Deaf children today, Socrates' student Meno is exasperated by his teacher's refusal to "just tell him" what to do, what truth is, and in their dialogue, whether or not virtue can be taught. Socrates makes a point of asserting his own ignorance by refusing to confirm what Meno believes he already knows. The school that fails to teach thinking in ASL fails in everything.

How Does ASL Mean?

"Blitzer," said Thomas Gradgrind, "your definition of a horse."
"Quadruped, Gramnivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four

grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat

in the spring; in marshy countries sheds hoofs too. Hoofs hard,

but requiring to be shed with iron. Age known by marks

in mouth." Thus (and much more) Blitzer.

"Now girl number twenty," said Mr. Gradgrind, "you know

what a horse is."

Charles Dickens, Hard Times

In this above short story, Mr. Gradgrind presided a school that requires fixed answers. Today Mr. Gradgrind would agree with linguists who claim that American Sign Language (ASL) is a language in which many parts of signs operate at the same time and that in analysis, each part must be examined separately. Mr. Gradgrind would have assured himself that he was a leading critic, of ASL as of horses. "Now girl number twenty," he would have said in his linguistics class, "you know what ASL is."

Yes, there are two kinds of scholars, those who classify things and those who don't. Since Mr. Gradgrind might belong to the first group, he would tend to classify students according to those who learn from reading books (passive learning) and those who developed their own learning style (active learning). As professor of ASL, I know that the student is the most important part of the learning process, and I found there are many grounds on which textbooks about ASL can be disputed. None of them looks like "Blitzer's definition of a horse."

If good learning is a dialogue, then why does textbook teaching continue to dominate? I expect my students to be active in learning: clarify their answers, test their answers for supporting evidence, resolve conflicting answers with evidence, and listen for more opinions. The test of ASL, for example, is reason and evidence, not professor authority. It's a learning liberation.

I like to challenge my students to think independently and to become responsible for their ideas. Their responsibility for learning is placed in my own hands and along with it, the joy and personal satisfaction of empowering my students to learn how to learn ASL.

Do not misunderstand. My classroom is a safe place to learn. It is not teacher-centered and is based on the assumption that I am the primary agent in learning. My classroom is problem centered and is based on the assumption that the student is the primary agent in learning. I always ask why the students come to me.

I am always conscious of the Socratic paradox: The students of ASL are generally active, questioning, critical, and discriminating--learning to trust their own judgement and to think independently. Based on my twenty-three years of college teaching, I've concluded their ultimate goal: wisdom is viewed as an informed ignorance--knowing what they do not know.

I do not like passive students. I like that they are learning; learning is a conflict of ideas: a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis that results in new knowledge. I believe that they must learn how to use ASL by discovering and developing the habit of independent and critical thinking.

My role as the professor is to uncover the question that the answer hides. I'd like to ask a student to define the manual A: Fingers completely flexed, thumb adducted. I would then ask to compare it with the hand-shape A: Fingers competely flexed, thumb abducted. How would you define the manual (and hand-shape) S? Fingers completely flexed, thumb folding on them? One small change in the thumb configuration is a big time change in meaning, which requires critical thinking.

You do know what ASL is. How about a horse?

ASL Dragon, Gisbatzed, Sooket, and Kula

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Kula gets to meet ASL Dragon, Gisbatzed and Sooket.

Ain't Nobody's Business If Kula Supports ASL

Meet Kula.

Yes, he's Yellow Lab!

He's named after a town on the slope of Haleakala,

the House of the Sun,

on this beautiful, rural island of Maui.

Kula's still a baby!


Of course, Kula will learn American Sign Language!

With Aloha
Always From
Ka'lalau

Grasshopper and Ant and the Deaf World

Just as the movies and TV shows had their sequels, so should some old classic fables. Here is the sequel to a well-known fable that might be about the Deaf.

Once upon a time, a grasshopper and an ant lived on Kendall Green. All summer long the grasshopper sang and played, while the ant worked hard under the sun to prepare for the winter.

When winter came, the grasshopper was hungry. One cold and snowy day, he went to ask the ant for some food.

"What are you, crazy?" the ant said. "I've been breaking my back all summer long while you ran around singing and laughing at my friends and me for missing all the fun.

"Did I do that?" the grasshopper asked meekly.

"Yes! You said we were one of those old-fashioned guards who had misssed the whole point of the diversity of communication."

"Gee, I'm sorry about that," the grasshopper said. "I didn't realize you were so sensitive. But surely you are not foing to hold that against me because I am Deaf, too."

"Well, I don't hold a grudge--but I do have a long memory."

Just then another ant came along.

"Hi, Gis," the first ant said.

"Hi, Sook."

"Gis, do you know what this grasshopper wants me to do? He wants me to give him some of the food we worked for all summer."

"I would have thought you would already have volunteered to share with him, without being asked," Sook said.

"What!"

"When we have disparate shares in the bounty of nature, the least we can do is try to correct the inequity."

"Nature's bounty, my goodness," Sook said. "I had to carry this food uphill and cross a stream on a log--all the while looking out for ant-eaters. Why couldn't this lazy bim gather his own food and store it?"

"Now, now, Sook," Gis soothed. "Nobody uses the word 'bum' anymore. We say 'the homeless.'"

"I say 'bum.' Anyone who refuses to use American Sign Language--."

The grasshopper broke in: "I didn't know ASL was language. The hearing people said 'Listen and speak.'"

"Listen and speak?" Sook laughed. "That's why they failed the Tower of Babel at the first place."

Gis looked pained. "I'm surprised at your callousness, Sook--your selfishness, your greed."

"Have you gone crazy, Gis?"

"No. On the contrary, I have become educated."

"Sometimes that's worse, these days."

"Last summer, I followed a trail of cookie crumbs left by some students. It led to a classroom in National Deaf-Mute College."

"You've been to college? No wonder you come back here with all these big words and dumb ideas."

"I disdain to answer that," Gis said. "Anyway, it was Professor Ykrum's course on Social Justice. He explained how the world's benefit are unequally distributed."

"The world's benefit?" Sook repeated, rolling his eyes. "The world didn't carry this food uphill. The world didn't cross the water on a log. The world isn't going to be eaten by any ant-eater.

"That's the narrow way of looking at it," Gis said.

"If you're so generous, why don't you feed this grasshopper?"

"I will," Gis replied. Then, turning to the grashopper, he said: "Follow me. I will take you to the government's welfare, where there will be stamps for food."

Sook gasped. "You're working for the government now?"

"I'm the public service," Gis said loftily. "I want to make a difference in this world."

"You really have been to college," Sook said. "But if you're such a friend of the grasshopper, why don't you teach him how to use ASL so he could obtain an employment for the winter?"

"We have no right to change his lifestyle and try to make him like us. That would be cultural imperialism."

Sook was too stunned to answer.

Gis not only won the argument, he continued to expand his program of feeding grasshoppers. As word spread, grasshoppers came from miles around. Eventually, some of the younger ants decided to marry the grasshoppers.

As the older generation of ants passed from the scene, more and more ants joined the grasshoppers, singing and playing in the fields. Finally, all the ants and all the grasshopers spent all their time listening and speaking--all summer long. Then the winter came.

The Nature of Being Deaf

If we are to understand the nature of our being Deaf, we must see it against the background of our hearing counterparts. As Deaf people, we are so preoccupied with the world of learning and changing, that we are apt to preserve our language and culture, namely, American Sign Language (ASL). This is not surprising. We are, to put it mildly, in a mess, and there is a strong chance that ASL shall be ostracized and oppressed. Our only consolation will have to be that, as a diversity, we have had protests.

We the Deaf fight against mass ignorance of our language and culture. Like our animal counterparts, we fight for one of two reasons: either to establish our dominance in ASL, or to establish our rights to ASL. Our language and culture have no fixed territories. ASL, as language and culture, can travel far and wide across the nation and around the world.

This basic fact obviously has to materialize somewhere. Deaf history informs us that residential schools and Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., had to become territorial to defend ASL as their fixed bases.

In addition to language and culture defense of residential institutions, the prolonged dependency of the students who are Deaf, forcing us to account for ASL, demands yet another form of activism. Each Deaf person becomes involved in defending his or her ownlanguage base inside these residential institutions.

So for our Deaf community there is a fundamental form of protest. As we know to our cost, it is still very much in evidence today that we must protect ASL and our nature of being Deaf.

The Practice of Crab Theory at NCSD

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Last week Sunday, NCSD used the school chapel as "the basket of crabs" to punish some students and staff for speaking out about American Sign Language (ASL) at NCSD.

Unreasonable Searches at NCSD (Edited)

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The North Caroline Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) thinks otherwise and embraces the practice of performing unreasonable searches and seizures, as was done by Linda Lindsey (LL), who is being transferred back to DHHS to continue her craft.

Last week, LL and some other abetting administrators launched unreasonable searches. They trapped the students in the school chapel, deprived them of food and pried them for information they needed to be able to blame some staff for an alleged insubordination. As the result, the students became frightened about their education and future. Seven students (all of them Deaf) and five staff (Deaf?) were seized and their rights were sabotaged.

NC DHHS appears completely indifferent toward the problems the students suffered by embracing LL as the greatest thing ever happened to the state of North Carolina. DHHS did not place LL on an administrative leave for investigation. It is therefore evident that DHHS is covering up a big time.

American Sign Language (ASL) is the form of speech of all the Deaf, which is part of, in the broadest sense, the pursuit of happiness. The makers of our Constitution understood how important it is to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness by recognizing the significance of our nature, of our language and culture and of our intellect.

NCSD did not perform a proper "search and seizure" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and it clearly violated the constitutional rights of individuals who were suspended from either school or employment. It is so unAmerican we need to say: "NC DHHS, good morning!"

In Defense of NCSD: A Case Study in The Bill of Rights

How many people do identify American Sign Language (ASL) with North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD) in Morganton? How many students are taught about the Bill of Rights? Why are Deaf children not taught that the law has its own language and its own rules? Is our democracy a difficult concept to teach the Deaf? Does one's ability to speak clearly "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech" really hard to do? Can we translate it into ASL preserving the meaning of the law? Why then should our American society tolerate and grant free speech rights to people in power, but would deny ASL to the Deaf?

As a regular reader of the Mishka Zena blogs, I found stories about NCSD highly disturbing. The staff is made to shut up. The parents are in complete oblivion of the school operations. Students are frightened by threats (no graduation, no employment, no future). The NCSD stories define the oppression we as Deaf Americans have known for many, many years. The NCSD stories are just the tip of the iceberg, and the principles of the Deaf oppression have taken shape in the lives of the Deaf for many years.

Today both NCSD and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS - the very department that is covering Linda Lindsey's ass . . .) make a good study case in numerous graduate schools across the nation to shed new light on this oppression, which remains as vital and as controversial today as Deaf Education began in this country.

What we are about to learn is a secret--a secret that the American society couldn't identify the Bill of Rights with the Deaf. We will forever be in debt of the NCSD community. ASL Now!

The Oregon Trail in ASL: The Cow That Started a War

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl retells a short story from Fantastic Facts about the Oregon Trail in American Sign Language.

ASL NOW in Mikwaukee 2008!

An announcement vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl is jumping on the bandwagon traveling eastbound to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to police American Sign Language around! He will accompany Merle Baldridge of the NO HEAR fame.

Suppose God Is Deaf and Uses American Sign Language

Can you think outside the box?

Let's see . . . .

I grew up in a household where there was always communication available. Now the professor of American Sign Language (ASL), I strive to make ASL academically friendly.

I personally just love the language and culture of the Deaf. My renewal is using ASL exclusively. It makes sense that we should try and take care of our own language and culture.

Despite the apparent greatness of ASL, Deaf Education comes with its own set of erratic priorities, including speech training and amplification that have inevitably hindered education, Deaf children and the Deaf community. With this in mind, I strive to use and promote ASL that is rich in its culture. Although ASL Education can imitate the effects and actions of the general education, it should not be compromised as a smaller part of its bigger language plan; for ASL is a type of language in its own right.

When I was young I admired and followed Senator Robert Francis Kennedy. When he went to South Africa, he challenged white supremacists by asserting and supposing that God is black. I was totally impressed by his activism. He was the most daring politician I could ever remember. He made me think about Deaf people everywhere and their language and culture.

Hearing supremacists, be they hearing or Deaf, let me be as daring as Bobby Kennedy: What would you do if God is Deaf? I often tell people that God is so immaterialistic that cochlear implants (CI) would be totally impractical. ASL is simply perfect for both heavens and humanities. The more you use ASL, the better our world community will be.

Think outside the box now!

Waging Culture Wars against the Deaf

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: There are many stories to generate culture wars against the Deaf. We must raise the banner of American Sign Language (ASL), our flag.

Not All Deaf People Are Like Cats; Not All Cats Are Like Rats

A news vlog by Carl Schroeder:

Not all Deaf people need cochlear implant (CI)

just because their speech needs improvement (NI).

A Car Horn in the Deaf Folklore

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: John Lestina of ABC told about a Deaf perfectionist being stopped by the police because of a car horn being stuck. Carl remembers about his parents' car many years ago.

A Prospective Hearing Supremacist

The text of this blog

was removed by the author.

I am sorry.

Beware
of

hearing supremacists!

Hilter's Ultimate Downfall: Sign Language

This is a good piece by daveynin. I laughed so hard I had to pee.

Residential School for the Deaf and ASL Education

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Deaf children with and without cochlear implants will benefit greatly from residential schools for the Deaf.

Confession from A Former Teacher's Pet

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: As a former teacher's pet, Carl knows that American Sign Language (ASL) can be articulated and facilitated through any educational system. Demand ASL now!

Deaf Education Stinks! Get ASL Education!

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: No free speech at North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD) means ill-informed citizenry. Deaf Education MUST go! ASL Education works!