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

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Page nothing deaf people could teach them, and they had a lotto teach deaf people, so it was a one-way street" 5
Stokoe recalls the reaction to Sign Language Structure among many educators "If the reception of the first linguistic study of a sign language of the deaf community was chilly at Gallaudet, it was cryogenic in a large part of special educationat that time a closed corporation as hostile to sign language as it was ignorant of linguistics."6
Merv Garretson, a Gallaudet graduate who later served as a special assistant to the president of Gallaudet and became president of the National Association of the Deaf, recalls the immediate effect of Stokoe's work on him as a user of American Sign
Language.
Back in 1960 I was out West as a teacher and principal of the Montana School for the Deaf. Although we were somewhat isolated from the mainstream of happenings in deafness, we did get word that a gentleman by the name of William Stokoe had just published a "book on signs" . . As a profoundly deaf individual who had received all of his education in a residential school, I was keenly aware of the importance of signs in our daily communication activities. Because of this, I had long been concerned about prevailing attitudes toward sign language. Through my [Gallaudet] college days, this concern grew into a deep resentment toward those educators who perceived sign language as "back-alley" talk, fit "only for bathrooms" and other private places, away from the scrutiny of the public eye. These attitudes were passed onto parents of young deaf children and to the media in various subtle and not-so-subtle ways. So when I learned about the work of Bill Stokoe, I felt an inner excitement. I
ordered his book immediately. Somehow I had a feeling this man was going to light a fuse, bring to sign language a needed measure of recognition and dignity, and cause considerable controversy. . . . Here was someone, I dared to hope,
who might blast open the pretense and ignorance of how deaf people communicate with each other someone who would rock the boat and create waves in the field of deafness and in the Deaf community allover the world. I saw in Bill a potential

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