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

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Page The quickest path to becoming a nonentity was to downgrade oralism. Young men, like myself, might just as well forget about becoming important in the field and wielding any influence at all unless we at least arrived at an accommodation with oralism. Even though we believed that "manual communication" ought to play apart in the education of deaf children, we nearly broke our backs bending over backwards to make it plain that we were in noway suggesting that oralism should be accorded a lesser status. We were the great compromisers, and he who could outcompromise the next fellow was the one who rose to the top of our profession. 34
Stokoe's behavior was deemed so outlandish that the faculty demanded a meeting to hear an explanation. Just what was he doing, and who was paying for it Today, more than thirty years later, it's hard to find anyone who remembers that meeting. It has become convenient, now that the logic and truth of Stokoe's discoveries are accepted, to say "I don't remember such a meeting" or "I remember that there was some sort of gathering, but I didn't attend" or "If there was a meeting, I don't think it was held to attack Bill."
Bill Stokoe remembers that meeting well. Initially he was flattered, believing that he was being asked to present his findings to the facultyhe even prepared a talk. But within minutes it became apparent that he and his ideas were under attack. George
Detmold, who was also present and seated next to his best friend, describes the event:
Bill stood up before them and tried valiantly to explain what he was doing, and what he had discovered, and valiantly replied to the angry questions that were hurled at him (you can really hurl a question in signs. The deaf faculty were furious with him. He was a hearing persona newcomer how did he dare to publish anything about the deaf It was absolutely ridiculous to analyze sign language everyone knew that it could never be analyzed Underneath all the imprecations you could detect a proprietary feeling among the deaf people that their most treasured and closely guarded secret was being brought out into the public view, to public shame.

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