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

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Page teaching philosophies. There, they had formed the conviction that every student is worthy of unlimited respect and possesses high potential in keeping with his or her individual talents, individual learning skills, and individual goals. They developed their pedagogical views not in educational psychology and methodology classes but under the tutelage of Henry Myers, Detmold's graduate advisor and one of Stokoe's graduate professors. Detmold describes the effect of Myers's book, Are Men Equal An
Inquiry into the Meaning of American Democracy, on him and Bill Stokoe:
Myers argues that each man (please accept the term generically) is to himself the center of an infinite universe that each of us is to himself, therefore, of infinite worth and thatsince things equal to the same thing are equal to each othermen are indeed, in their infinite worth, equal. He develops this theme as it comes and goes throughout American history and literature, showing how we suffer when we forget it. Henry's book certainly guided me, especially at Gallaudet, and it guided Bill as well. He often refers to it. This humanistic view is in stark contrast to the philosophy of deaf education that prevailed when Detmold and Stokoe began teaching. The two men had never heard of Helmer Myklebust; they had never been instructed in the anatomy and physiology of the ear they hadn't learned how to administer hearing tests and distinguish among hearing aids they hadn't learned about the various types of audiometry as had their "properly trained" counterparts.
This is not to say that Bill Stokoe wasn't afraid of the move he was about to make. In 1955, although jobs in academia were scarce, and although his contract had not been renewed at Wells College, his credentials were excellent, and he probably could have found another position quickly. He recalls the difficulty of arriving at a decision:
Would working again with George Detmold outweigh having to recast my lecturing and class meeting and conference style into a manual mode Could I function where my voice would simply not be heard?

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