Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author

< previous page
page_12
next page >
Page that she had never completely lost the ability to speak. Unaware of the truth, Bell used his wife as an example of the success of the oral method, which he defended for more than forty years. As Winefield observes, 'His conviction may well have been weakened had he known the true nature and extent of his wife's hearing loss" Eventually, as the debate between the proponents of sign language and oralism grew more heated and divisive, Edward Miner
Gallaudet and Alexander Graham Bell came to be seen as the primary representatives and supporters of their respective methods. It was almost inevitable that, despite occasional attempts to come to some sort of compromise, the two men ultimately stopped communicating with each other their philosophical differences were simply too great for them to coexist. As Winefield explains,
Bell and Gallaudet disagreed over what constituted normal behavior and normal society and how deaf people fit into that society. Bell believed normal meant being as much like hearing people as possible. Deaf people could become active,
fulfilled members of society if they could communicate like hearing people. Gallaudet equated normal with educational attainment and moral development. With the proper intellectual and moral training, deaf people could find themselves happy and productive members of society.5
The differences in the two men's interestsand influencecan most clearly be seen through their activities. Edward Miner Gallaudet never wavered in his advocacy of the use of sign language one of the first teachers he hired upon assuming directorship of the
Washington, DC, school was James Dennison, a deaf man who had been educated at the American School for Deaf-Mutes in
Hartford. Gallaudet devoted enormous time and energy to the school itself he recorded in his memoirs having once sought medical treatment "growing out of the pressure of my many cares and responsibilities."6
One of his primary responsibilities was to ensure that Congress continued to fund the school. In his memoir, History of the
College for the Deaf, 1857-1907, Gallaudet reprinted the following description of his activities that appeared in the Washington

Download 2.48 Mb.

Share with your friends: