Can You Imagine This Deaf Individual?

Imagine a Deaf Samoan being told by our American society, "It's OK if you are Deaf and Samoan, but you can't act Deaf and Samoan. You can't use American Sign Language or look like a Polynesian. God made you Deaf and Samoan, but He doesn't want you to act on them."

What a waste for Deaf babies with cochlear implants (CI) to learn how to deny themselves potential life and using the language and culture of the Deaf for information, knowledge and communication.

Can you imagine? I do look forward to the day when our American society celebrates our being Deaf and ASL. Just imagine!

What Does ASL Often Imply for Implanted People?

American Sign Language (ASL) often implies the existence of a separate world of transcendental essences. It can not be denied, but it must be remember that ASL is primarily designed to refer to our experience being Deaf.

I would like to paraphrase Plato's famous allegory of the Cave by inviting you to imagine a huge cave chamber in which there is an openiong towards the light. In this cave are Deaf people, with their head implanted from babyhood in such a way that they hear everything inside the cave and have never seen ASL. Above and behind them is a team of specialists using a "listen and speak" way. The implanted people cannot understand each other but through mapping they understand only synthetic sounds.

These implanted people represent the majority of minority population, that remain all their lives in a state of synthetic sounds, beholding only sounds they couldn't comprehend or identify. Their view of the world is most inadequate, distorted by social "passions and prejudices" against the nature of being Deaf and ASL.

However, if one of the implanted people who quit the "listen and speak" way grows accustomed to using ASL, he or she will often a time be able to look at ASL in a new light, of which he or she had formerly been denied. He or she will be "converted" from the world of synthetic sounds to the world of the Deaf.

Morale: Sense-perception is not the object of intelligence.

Kula's Photo Opportunities

A specialist knowledge of my puppy Kula requires besides a thorough knowledge of Hawai'ian culture and history, a knowledge of the dog world. Kula is the name of the ancient Hawai'ian god who could communicate with all other gods. Kula's skills in ASL is improving, and he's getting a lot of treatment. He loves it!

Kula didn't whisper nothing into my ear, but I assumed he gave me a signal that photographing was over!

Deaf Economics and Opportunities?

This is a revisit vlog regarding economics and the Deaf world. It was originally taped last spring when I lived in Kula, a beautiful town on Maui. Yes, my puppy is named after this town as well as an ancient Hawai'ian god that could communicate with all gods.

Kula by Popular Demand

An entertainment vlog by Carl Schroeder: Kula is doing fine. He's still a puppy and is still learning ASL.

A Proposed Symbol for ASL by Merle Baldridge

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Merle Baldridge of NO HEAR came up with a symbol that represents American Sign Language (ASL). I like it! Your ideas and thoughts?

Deaf in Milwaukee, ASL Now and Be Careful

Dear Friends of Americal Sign Language,

Over this past week, I received numerous videophone calls about my vlog as it appears in Jack Barr's blogsphere. Some wished to know why I wasn't careful in my criticism of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Communication Services of the Deaf (CSD) for being passive toward efforts by a grassroot organization, Deaf Bilingual Coalition (DBC). Why be careful?

The Deaf world today is a very different community from what it was in the past. Many aspects of Deaf life had, and still have, suffered a greater extent from language and culture oppression: we the Deaf were told again and again the real reasons why there were several successful Deaf people. They could sign and talk at the same time, and those who were incapable of doing so were simply marginalized as tokens.

We were also told by our own people to "be careful" because there is always someone in government agencies, both state and federal, who is ever-vigilant and requires all options available to parents of the Deaf who know absolutely nothing about our needs and wants for language and leisure. In fact, there's never someone in these government agencies who is mean-spirited toward American Sign Language (ASL).

While a student at Gallaudet, for example, I was scolded by Deaf professors for being sloppy in signing. I needed to sign in the word order to show my ability to command English and, therefore, to respect those in power who didn't understand ASL. During my senior year, I applied and won the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship simply because I was not "careful" in my interview with the representative from the Watson Foundation that underwrote my fellowship award. I told during the interview that I would be mostly hypocritical and oppressive if I signed in the English word order.

If you notice anyone who signs in the English word order, then you will know the hypocrite and the oppressor!

What I understood from my videophone conversations was that there were some concerns about my reputation. I was told that I did not have a reliable reputation to make new meanings and that I was problematic. Some people got upset by my remarks in several vlogs and demanded that I be apologetic about them. I remain amazed by this Deaf-on-Deaf oppression that seems to remain pervasive.

We must fight on! ASL is not merely an "option"; being Deaf is THE matter of fact. For some who believe so, it's God's choice! ASL Now! I shall NEVER submit to anyone who tells me to "be careful" about ASL.

See you in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

Sincerely,

Carl Schroeder

Is Being Deaf Really the Problem?

DeafRead has become overpopulated, so to speak, with praises about cochlear implants (CI). Such praises have been issued regularly with consistently incorrect predictions. The Alexander Graham Bell Association's "listen and speech" was widely quoted. They predicted that by denying CI babies American Sign Language (ASL), they would succeed in the ways of the hearing world.

The "listen and speech" doomsayers usually offered ASL as the solution of natural or organic communication. Ironically, where there are CI babies, the problem usually is not these babies but these hearing people, who reject ASL, which leads to gross language hegemony and misuse of resources as corrupt dictators seek power and wealth (batteries and CI mapping) more than the welfare of Deaf babies.

Just what is "being Deaf"? How does one determine when being Deaf is the problem? There are no clear demographic indicators for this fuzzy notion. If being Deaf is used as the criterion, then Gallaudet University, National Technical Institution of the Deaf, and California State University, Northridge would be crisis zones, while mainstreaming programs armed with mediocre and certified interpreters should be paradise.

But isn't being Deaf directly related to intellectual inferiority? Absolutely not. The oral education folks are now embarrassed by the light of linguistic study into the relationship between being Deaf and sign language acquisition. Moreover, a wide variety of Deaf Education studies have shattered the myth that ASL is bad for CI babies.

Being Deaf is not really the problem. The future of CI babies could be bright, unless we actually surrender DeafRead to CI myths and predictions. CI babies need sign language more than ever!

Are You My Mother? LITERAL

A vlog by Charles Katz.

Lexington School for the Deaf, Maida, and a Phone Room

A news vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl tells about his trip to New York City to conduct an all day workshop. He talks about his child A news vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl tells about his trip to New York City to conduct an all day workshop. He talks about his children's aunt Maida and a strange room in Lexington School for the Deaf.

Thinking about My Being Deaf

Thinking about things is a journey that has no timetables. I stop at will to ponder the broad and strange horizon. I'm but a thinker who happens to be Deaf.

I couldn't understand my being Deaf without understanding where I came from. Deaf parents. The Netherlands. And the United States.

My parents met at Effatha, a school for the Deaf in Voorburg, The Netherlands. They got married after their "school af," a Dutch phrase for the completion of schooling. A few years later my sister Meriam and I enrolled in their school, and we were told about many stories about our parents, aunt and uncle who also went there. Our father loves to read, and our mother is very dotting to make sure we understood many things about the world. One day they told us to make an announcement at school that we were to move to the United States.

I experienced something strange when I first told my school teacher that we were moving out of The Netherlands. Let me help you imagine that experience. For months at Effatha, I was taught to rely on hearing people for information, knowledge and communication. I was told that they knew before we the Deaf did. They had first-hand information and knowledge, and we the Deaf must follow them.

When my parents told my sister and me to announce to our school that we were going to America, I began to sense something powerful. We had first-hand information; our school didn't know about our parents' decision to live in the United States. Yes, they got very upset and told me that the English language is hard to learn.

The Netherlands is a small country. It is the monarchy democracy. Democracy with the royal figurehead. The Dutch republic materialized after winning the war against Spain in 1572. Free thinking began to flourish and, by language and culture, Dutch people are fiercely independent and probaly stubborn. We pride in saying that the Almight created the universe but we made Holland.

Coming to live in the United States was a big, huge, enormous steppingstone in my life. I underwent language change and culture shock. ASL is easy to master but the English language is so oppressive it keeps changing. Language acquisition and planning has been my forte for so many years I'm going to celebrate my 30th year of teaching by this summer (7 years in Deaf Education and 23 years in colleges and universities).

Thinking makes me deliver some unpopular messages, often at my own peril. I learned from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" that the more I deliver my thoughts, the less I'm in contact with the standard of "holiness." Socrates questions Euthyphro: "They have differences of opinion, as you say, about good and evil, just and unjust, honorable and dishonorable. There would have been no quarrels among them, if there had been no such differences--would there?"

I think, and therefore I differ in my thoughts. ASL is different from Gebarentaal (the language and culture of my birth); the Dutch language is different from English (the language I continue to master); Gebarentaal from Dutch; ASL from English. In my college years, I got straight A's in French. Je t'aime!

Play with American Sign Language

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Dr. Seuss taught us a great deal about language play. We can play with American Sign Language the way hearing people (not all of them, of course!) play with English.

American Sign Language and Change Politics

The politics of American Sign Language (ASL) can be called "THE ART OF THE LANGUAGE CHANGE." But the political eras and the educators of the Deaf who supported the use of ASL introduced changes that would have been impossible before.

The Gallaudet University mission statement that includes the ASL-English bilingualism would have been impossible only two years earlier, in 2006. The Deaf President Now protest would have been considered madness a decade earlier. Just a few months ago, anyone who predicted all the changes set in motion at North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton would have been urged to seek psychiatric help.

Most of us are preoccupied with what is politically feasible right now. Even the NAD leader takes ideas for Deaf babies that have been around for a while and prefers to get enough acceptance to be proactive. Although there is an argument that many people who plan to attend the Deaf Bilingual Coalition demonstration in Milwaukee, Wisconsin are the members of the NAD, they will be there without the NAD's position statement on AGBell and the Deaf babies.

What are some of the political ideas we should be thinking about today, in hopes that they would become possible for Deaf babies and their parents?

The Achillles heel of democratic societies has been their short-sightedness. Stupid and even dangerous policies have been promoted by AGBell leaders who knew better, but who were responding to fashionable political moods or to the pressures of the lies.

Some people think "an informed citizenry" is the answer. It would help. But there is no way that anyone can be really informed about all the Deaf if ASL is not identified in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates.

What we need in education are people who can use ASL to make better communication for the Deaf, rather than to present them with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). That is, we need to replace ADA people with people from the Deaf community to give our society the benefit of their experience and wisdom that we identified in the 17th-19th century Martha's Vineyard Island where everyone used sign language. Martha's Vineyard Island is an American experience in which communication was available to everyone.

If we want a change in our political lifetime, we are going to have to make it possible for Deaf babies. We must always remind ourselves that Deaf people have been around for a long time. If a billion seconds is more than 30 years, then a trillion seconds ago, no Deaf babies on this planet would need cochlear implants. If Socrates sees signs to represent Deaf people's intelligence in Plato's book Cratylus, then Deaf babies are fine with ASL.

We Are Not Bullies; We Support Deaf Babies

Ka'lalau Is a Happy Wanderer

I marveled at my good fortune as I got on the Alaska Airlines Flight #312 en route to San Jose, California. I am to tell stories in exclusive American Sign Language (ASL) at ASL Expo in Santa Clara tomorrow.

The title for my first story will be "From Socrates to Stokoe," citing that Socrates was the first hearing person who questions whether signs by the Deaf be replaced by words in Plato's book, Cratylus and that Stokoe was the last hearing person who answers to the oldest question about our language and culture. It's going to be a philosophical adventure for my audience who will think about who we are, what we do know, and what we should do.

A few hours after that, I will tell about "The Making of ASL Dragon." I will explain how I first came up with ASL Dragon, which was told at the 9th Annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival back in 1988, and how it had undergone evolution and revolution in my storytelling art.

Now my airplaine is leaving, so I will stop here. My travel as Ka'lalau, my Hawai'ian identity meaning a happy wanderer, is in keeping with a strategy of storytelling innovation that has aimed at capturing as many people as possible and has also inspired the slogan: "Use ASL to tell stories and to create some change."

The Ancient Greek Word EIKOS to Describe ASL Education

The suggestion that I write a blog about being Deaf and American Sign Language (ASL) came from Ella Mae Lentz, a Deaf woman who projects copious amounts of power and persuasiveness. Although we've known each other from our college days where we performed on a stage together, I soon discovered, as I had feared, that being Deaf does not begin and end in this vast universe.

In a spoken or written language, being Deaf is decidedly daunting. It touches on the most profound aspects of language, psychology, and economics. ASL, for example, is viewed as an uphill battle; the science of Deaf mind remains auditory; the eonomics of being Deaf remains unexamined. Consequently, I have had to be selective.

For this blog, I have been far more dependent on my own personal experience than I had been reading in my earlier forays into pursuing applied linguistics for my doctoral. My informants as well as many former colleagues have provided invaluable assistance combined with criticisms and creative feedbacks.

Now I need to ask this question: What is it that distinguishes so many years of Deaf Education from what we think of as ASL Education? The answer goes way beyond the progress of linguistics, technology, and democracy.

The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between ASL Education and Deaf Education is the mastery of Deaf Mind. I do not mean to suggest that we have no thought about the nature of using ASL. The ancient Greek word EIKOS, which meant plausible or probable, had the same sense as the modern concept of probability: Thinking about ASL and using it are probably separate activities. William C. Stokoe who published the first Dictionary of American Sign Language, for example, thought a lot about ASL, but he couldn't use it fluently.

Hearing technology aims at developing electronic or digital products and systems, especially to industrial or commercial objectives. Cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aids, for example, become available to general use of practicing spoken language, not to our nature of utilizing ASL.

In our democratic society, we the Deaf understand that the ability to hear is the probable. Aristotle writes in De Caelo, "To succeed in many things, or many times, is difficult; for instance, to repeat the same throw ten thousand times with the dice would be impossible, whereas to make it once or twice is comparatively easy." Simple observation would have confirmed that a Deaf baby is Deaf from the beginning. CI is the game of chance that makes no sense in our intellectual life.

Imagine yourself as a communication advisor trying to decide whether to recommend ASL to parents of the Deaf. If all goes well, the prospects for the start-up communication would be dazzling. But we must stand aside for the moment, as my blog should begin at the beginning. With odds and probabilities, for Deaf people, ASL comes first. But where does it come from?

10 Reasons to Have Kula

1. Kula is photogenic.
2. Kula is popular.
3. Kula is kid-friendly.
4. Kula has a swell tail.
5. It is easy to groom Kula.
6. Kula is ready for anything.
7. Kula will be a good size dog.
8. Everybody loves Kula.
9. Kula is a good listener.
10. Kula brings life to us all.

Help Me Make Friends: A Scream from a Boy with CI's

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Carl shares this story about a boy with cochlear implants that was told to him by one of his ASL students. Some damages were done to this boy.