I'm soon off to Chicago where EHDI - early hearing detection and intervention- folk are having a conference, discussing how to cure deafness. I, and many other people who advocate for visual language for visual babies as the obvious way to give deaf babies equal access, submitted a paper abstract. My abstract, and many others advocating Sign or bilingualism, was rejected. The hundreds of medical professionals attending believe they are doing the right thing. They believe speech is language, and hearing even a tiny bit or a garbled signal is better than being deaf. Their good intentions, unfortunately, are destroying many babies' chances for a better relationship with their parents and families, for education, and for a connection to the human community.
I need any help you can give: How does one show a doctor, audiologist, teacher or parent that by concentrating on ears and mouth only, they risk losing the human child. Waiting months or a year for intensive brain surgery, then years of training at the expense of language is inhumane. If you were a mother and believed you were doing the right thing by not signing to your deaf baby, what could I say or do to help you open your mind to questioning the wisdom of your action? Any suggestions I will carry to my first meeting in Chicago, with the bilingual coaliton.
Monday
The Great Great Lakes Tour
This last week was so full I didn't have a chance to post. I was busy studying, enjoying and wondering about James Castle's work being exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum. All the commentators are hearing. Many are in the art world and/or academia. Some are family members. Only one old man was Deaf and had a tiny segment of a film where he tried to educate hearing people on what the young James Castle probably experienced as a deaf boy one hundred years ago in a school for the deaf.
James Castle lived 78 years without language.
I want to tell you all about what I learned from another man who had no language whom I interviewed last week, but first I have to pack.
I hope to finish this before I leave for Chicago and Michgan in a few days.
James Castle lived 78 years without language.
I want to tell you all about what I learned from another man who had no language whom I interviewed last week, but first I have to pack.
I hope to finish this before I leave for Chicago and Michgan in a few days.
Tuesday
empathy, humor and language
February 2 - the eve of the anniversary of my dead brother's birthday
Philip W Schaller died young, many years ago, and still I grieve deeply for him this time of year. Philip was amazingly humorous - always surprising me with his wit and creativity. What I loved most about Philip was his empathy. Even though he had a macho exterior and had two older brothers ready to pounce at even the smell of any vulnerability, Philip took in and stood up for underdogs, played with babies, and talked to his younger sisters as if they were legitimate human beings.
Empathy and humor have a common denominator: imagination. If I want to emulate Philip's empathy, I must expand my imagination. To teach or encourage empathy -raise awareness that we all are together - I must write and speak so as to nurture the growth of imagination.
Were I to care more about money or prestige or power, I would not be advocating for languageless deaf people and for Deaf language rights. A few years ago, when pressured by a relative to get a "real" job, I did some soul-searching, asking myself why I cared so much about promoting visual language to visual babies. I saw that it helped me to become more human, that is, more aware that I am connected to all humans. I, individually, could not stop torture, war, or the greedy hubris of a few rich corporations. I could, however, tell my story of how I met an unimagined visual culture, and how Deaf people introduced me to myself - my face, my hands - and made me more fully human.
The best way I can keep Philip's unique contributions alive is to remember how he tried to see and understand other points of view, to feel for and with another person no matter how different from him. The best way I can show my appreciation for the gifts he gave me is to give them to others. It is extremely difficult, for a hearing person, to imagine profound deafness before language. That is why it is so important to think of ways to grow that imagination, so that every parent, doctor, teacher and the whole village works at giving visual gifts to our fellow humans, our deaf babies.
In memory of Philip who would now have added some great comic relief which you will just have to imagine,
susan of www.susanschaller.com
Philip W Schaller died young, many years ago, and still I grieve deeply for him this time of year. Philip was amazingly humorous - always surprising me with his wit and creativity. What I loved most about Philip was his empathy. Even though he had a macho exterior and had two older brothers ready to pounce at even the smell of any vulnerability, Philip took in and stood up for underdogs, played with babies, and talked to his younger sisters as if they were legitimate human beings.
Empathy and humor have a common denominator: imagination. If I want to emulate Philip's empathy, I must expand my imagination. To teach or encourage empathy -raise awareness that we all are together - I must write and speak so as to nurture the growth of imagination.
Were I to care more about money or prestige or power, I would not be advocating for languageless deaf people and for Deaf language rights. A few years ago, when pressured by a relative to get a "real" job, I did some soul-searching, asking myself why I cared so much about promoting visual language to visual babies. I saw that it helped me to become more human, that is, more aware that I am connected to all humans. I, individually, could not stop torture, war, or the greedy hubris of a few rich corporations. I could, however, tell my story of how I met an unimagined visual culture, and how Deaf people introduced me to myself - my face, my hands - and made me more fully human.
The best way I can keep Philip's unique contributions alive is to remember how he tried to see and understand other points of view, to feel for and with another person no matter how different from him. The best way I can show my appreciation for the gifts he gave me is to give them to others. It is extremely difficult, for a hearing person, to imagine profound deafness before language. That is why it is so important to think of ways to grow that imagination, so that every parent, doctor, teacher and the whole village works at giving visual gifts to our fellow humans, our deaf babies.
In memory of Philip who would now have added some great comic relief which you will just have to imagine,
susan of www.susanschaller.com
Friday
Visual babies need Visual Language: Sign!
I am soon traveling to speak out for Deaf Language Rights.
We, the United States, have signed the UN Charter for the Rights of Disabled People. Now we need to integrate those rights and principles into our policies. The charter states that EVERY deaf person has the right to a signed language. This seemingly sane and sensible idea - visual language for visual babies - is foreign to most of the "experts" advising new parents of deaf babies. They are often told "Do not sign to your baby" while we are told in many books and articles to sign to our hearing babies. This ludicrous irony must stop.
Please help me in encouraging all parents to sign to all babies. Babies love signing. Why? Because all babies are visual, if born with working eyes.
The promise of some electonic connection to the auditory part of the brain via cochlear implant surgery does not have to come at the expense of no or little linguistic input while testing, discussing, cutting, healing and training (1-2 years of precious-essential- language learning time).
Idea: BILINGUALISM Give the baby a visual language for an equal chance to language from the crib, while discussing additional (not alternative) avenues for language or language reception/expression. Many Deaf people would not be against cochlear implants if they were offered in the spirit of bilingualism instead of an alternative to deafness, as if the baby could be "cured."
Idea #2: Let us learn from each other by letting people be fully who they are. For example, we could learn how to see better from our deaf babies, and celebrate a beautiful visual language.
For vision and an amazing visual world,
susan schaller at www.susanschaller.com
We, the United States, have signed the UN Charter for the Rights of Disabled People. Now we need to integrate those rights and principles into our policies. The charter states that EVERY deaf person has the right to a signed language. This seemingly sane and sensible idea - visual language for visual babies - is foreign to most of the "experts" advising new parents of deaf babies. They are often told "Do not sign to your baby" while we are told in many books and articles to sign to our hearing babies. This ludicrous irony must stop.
Please help me in encouraging all parents to sign to all babies. Babies love signing. Why? Because all babies are visual, if born with working eyes.
The promise of some electonic connection to the auditory part of the brain via cochlear implant surgery does not have to come at the expense of no or little linguistic input while testing, discussing, cutting, healing and training (1-2 years of precious-essential- language learning time).
Idea: BILINGUALISM Give the baby a visual language for an equal chance to language from the crib, while discussing additional (not alternative) avenues for language or language reception/expression. Many Deaf people would not be against cochlear implants if they were offered in the spirit of bilingualism instead of an alternative to deafness, as if the baby could be "cured."
Idea #2: Let us learn from each other by letting people be fully who they are. For example, we could learn how to see better from our deaf babies, and celebrate a beautiful visual language.
For vision and an amazing visual world,
susan schaller at www.susanschaller.com
Monday
A new year, a New Chance to Celebrate Diversity
Happy New Year!
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to speaking to some High School students in Richmond, California, about community and environmental activism. Embracing the entire community and all of nature is a first step toward sustaining and supporting life. We don't know what we need to learn from whom, even to know ourselves, so we need to be open minded and tolerant of every person, regardless of how different from us they appear to be. Likewise, the environmental web is intricate and complicated. If we kill off some fungus somewhere, it may lead to completely unpredicted consequences some place else. I personally dislike the term activism as it has been used in specific political ways, as if it belongs to one group.
We all are active all the time, in both the community and the environment. The question is how conscious are we of our actions and how they affect others. The more we have our eyes open as we act and live, the more we will automatically improve community and all of life around us.
Let's begin with eye-opening exercises. Learn how to see better while expanding our mind: study signing and Deaf Culture and your vision will improve. You will begin to see how much you cannot see.
Or, learn from another group: how to hear better from the blind, argue better from the French, tell stories better form an oral tradition. Please write me and tell me what you discover - help me expand my horizons. And have a great start to the new decade. susan from www.susanschaller.com
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to speaking to some High School students in Richmond, California, about community and environmental activism. Embracing the entire community and all of nature is a first step toward sustaining and supporting life. We don't know what we need to learn from whom, even to know ourselves, so we need to be open minded and tolerant of every person, regardless of how different from us they appear to be. Likewise, the environmental web is intricate and complicated. If we kill off some fungus somewhere, it may lead to completely unpredicted consequences some place else. I personally dislike the term activism as it has been used in specific political ways, as if it belongs to one group.
We all are active all the time, in both the community and the environment. The question is how conscious are we of our actions and how they affect others. The more we have our eyes open as we act and live, the more we will automatically improve community and all of life around us.
Let's begin with eye-opening exercises. Learn how to see better while expanding our mind: study signing and Deaf Culture and your vision will improve. You will begin to see how much you cannot see.
Or, learn from another group: how to hear better from the blind, argue better from the French, tell stories better form an oral tradition. Please write me and tell me what you discover - help me expand my horizons. And have a great start to the new decade. susan from www.susanschaller.com
Thursday
December Craziness
As we enter the crazy season of commercialized holidays, too much traffic, too many commitments, I wish everyone some serentiy. Pause and enjoy what is, especially your children or the people close to you. Every child and every person is just another packaged bit of life. See and appreciate what is special in them.
For example, if a deaf child has eyes, learn how to see better from him or her. Expose visual children to visual language. Learn from a difference rather than shun it. Pausing, listening, observing and appreciating are the ways to slow down the craziness of this busy season.
If you are a parent or relative of a deaf child or student, books and DVDs are 1/2 price. Find and print the order form at www.susanschaller.com and just send a check for 1/2 of what is stated. I will send you a book and/or DVD (signed if you would like - tell me) the day I receive it.
Yours for all children,
susan schaller (more about me at conversations.org - Spring issue)
For example, if a deaf child has eyes, learn how to see better from him or her. Expose visual children to visual language. Learn from a difference rather than shun it. Pausing, listening, observing and appreciating are the ways to slow down the craziness of this busy season.
If you are a parent or relative of a deaf child or student, books and DVDs are 1/2 price. Find and print the order form at www.susanschaller.com and just send a check for 1/2 of what is stated. I will send you a book and/or DVD (signed if you would like - tell me) the day I receive it.
Yours for all children,
susan schaller (more about me at conversations.org - Spring issue)
Deaf parents/students - Free DVDs/ Books-$10
Warning - not the usual BLOG - please check back, for a less practical entry, soon.
I just read a book review and at the end it sent you - parents of Deaf children to my blog to order books for only $10 - whoooops!
So, if you landed here after following that advice - go to www.susanschaller.com and find the right page for ordering books.
[or, send $10 to me at 1442A Walnut St. #139, Berkeley, CA. 94709]
If you are a parent of a D/deaf child, tell me on the order form, and send in only $10, and, of course, your address.
If you would like to help me continue to buy and give away the book, and are able to pay more, please feel free ot pay anything above 10 dollars.
Students of education, medicine or _____ (make a good case), write me at susan@susanschaller.com and request a discount.
DVDs for those who will use and share it with others, and parents or families of D/deaf children are free, plus $5 for shipping and handling. Write me for more information, if you want them for a class or a workshop.
I just read a book review and at the end it sent you - parents of Deaf children to my blog to order books for only $10 - whoooops!
So, if you landed here after following that advice - go to www.susanschaller.com and find the right page for ordering books.
[or, send $10 to me at 1442A Walnut St. #139, Berkeley, CA. 94709]
If you are a parent of a D/deaf child, tell me on the order form, and send in only $10, and, of course, your address.
If you would like to help me continue to buy and give away the book, and are able to pay more, please feel free ot pay anything above 10 dollars.
Students of education, medicine or _____ (make a good case), write me at susan@susanschaller.com and request a discount.
DVDs for those who will use and share it with others, and parents or families of D/deaf children are free, plus $5 for shipping and handling. Write me for more information, if you want them for a class or a workshop.
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