Happy New Year

Dear cyber world, friends, neighbors and comrades,

Enjoy the last days of December by slowing down to appreciate any and all things you can.

Take some time to give something to others instead of spending your time and energy on what you can manipulate in your favor.

Be the best you can be, today. Be good to your family and friends by taking care of yourself.

Peace can be. Begin today.

Prepare for joy in 2011.

Yours for community building,
susan

December descends

I'm back and have been immersed again in activity. Currently, I am in Southern California meeting with a film maker who is inspired to tell the film version of Ildefonso's story of entering our world of language.

I have been able to see Ildefonso more than usual. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and a big heart. With years of language, he has attached labels - names and dates - to some memories. I made a mistake in the book, thinking he was an adult when he came to the U.S. and did apple-picking and other work. He was about 8 years old and alone.

This guy never ceases to surprise me.

Yours for preventing any baby from being raised with little or no language,

susan

Back after a sabbatical

Dear World,

I didn't retreat entirely or go live in a cave, but I did step down from a few projects, stepped back from planning and committing, and stayed a while in that uncomfortable place of not knowing. I am disheartened by so many people's inability to see deaf babies and Deaf people as human first, and different from the majority second. And, especially, parents who do not accept their visual babies as differently abled, but as deficient and needing to be fixed.

With my discouragement, often self doubts appear and questions about who am I to think I can write and speak and spark any change in a war, that has been waging against deaf babies ever since someone tried to educate a deaf child. In the past, I respond with more activity and more involvement and drive myself more. The last two months, I did not.

I decided to stay in the "I don't know" place. I squirmed, I chased away black clouds, I squelched my impulses to run away or jump into another battle, and I sat. It helped that my foot has been hurting and I couldn't walk most of the time, but, mostly, I was training myself to face uncomfortable truths, to look inside of me to improve my tolerance for differences, my receptive and acceptance skills, and my abilities to change. I discovered (surprise, surprise) that it is much harder than attempting to influence others to change.

And, that is why it is so uncomfortable.

It is absolutely necessary to face inward with honesty in order to move forward with honesty, to face inward with compassion to move forward with compassion, to face inward with forgiveness and love, to move forward with forgiveness and love, and to align our inner principles in order to move forward from an integrated foundation.

Onward, forward to the fray, but slower and more consciously,

susan "I don't know" schaller

what fun

How ironic! I, an advocate for visual language for visual people, am on national public radio.

Enjoy life. Accept and enjoy ironies.

why not

AUG! Those August AUdists!

What is the reaction to Deaf people who say "audists" for doctors, augiologists, teachers and parents who forbid visual language for visual people (I know,it sounds crazy, but that insanity is the message given by over 90% of Ear, Nose, Throat Doctors)?

They are called crazy - militant or fanatical.

For over thirty years, I've been wondering how I can share my experience of meeting a beautiful and rich culture and language, based on vision, that would change the perspective of parents and the medical world.

How can we appreciate what others have instead of what is different or missing?

I welcome any ideas, suggestions or descriptions of any successful projects. Until then, let's ask all our friends and neighbors to buy ASL Tales at ASLTales.net, and help bilingual storytelling take off. If you would like to send in a donation, I will buy one and put it in a doctor's office. Or, you buy one for your local pediatrician. There's an idea, let's organize pediatricians around this. I think they would see the need for language in babies, over the need to fantasize about making the baby "normal."

I look forward to any comnmunication.

July to July to July to Today

Dear All,

I am back home after traveling for a month,and feeling very appreciative of home, friendly faces and familiarity. Mostly, I loved seeing my kids, again. I am glad I spent so much time listening to their discoveries, bad jokes, silly stories and musings. My work today and for as many days as I have is to encourage parents and families to talk to and listen to their children, in all modes available.

My trip to the Rockies, Canada, New York state, New Hampshire and Texas was to spread the word about a great tool for connecting to our children - ASL TALES. Bilingual quality storytelling, in English and American Sign Language (DVD in the back of the book) is accessible through eyes and ears, including translations in 5 languages.

Please communicate to any young people in your lives - present them with an ASL TALES book - ASLTales.net.

Yesterday, my story of meeting Ildefonso, a languageless man appeared in Daily Good (linked above). Ildefonso changed my life, making me dedicated to the task of preventing any baby from growing up without language (or seriously delayed in learning language). ASL Tales is wonderful and valuable for ALL kids, making it more possible that it will actually reach deaf babies. Please write me and ask how you can help, in addition to visiting ASLTales.net

Or,just write me and say hello.

June to Denver, Toronto, New York, Texas,...

Welcome to June, more beginnings and endings. As another school year finishes, the summer ushers in change and more change.

I'm off to Colorado Springs and Denver next week, then on to Toronto. Through all the handshaking and talking, one theme will travel: language and literacy, literacy and language. My new task, expanding and building ASL Tales's programs and more tales, will connect me to many people working to bring language, literacy and a good start to little kids, in the home, at schools and in libraries.

Please write me at susan.schaller (at) gmail.com to let me know anyone who would like to collaborate on early education literacy and language projects. Let's all show up for our children.

And, if you haven't looked, check out asltales.net

Yours for language and more language for all kids,
susan

May Multilingual Flowers

Happy May and Happy News:

ASL Tales is springing into action with more wonderful fairytale and fable books, written in English and accompanied by a wonderful Deaf storyteller, signing in ASL, with voice over in many languages.

One Hispanic boy reported that he followed the ASL with the help of the Spanish translation, and it made him want to learn the English so he could read the book.

Yes and yes and yes to ASL Tales. Please tell all your friends, start buying birthday and holiday gifts for all your little friends and relatives.

Language and more language blooming all over.

Go ASL Tales, go.

Chicago to Sacramento to Berkeley

Traveling also upsets schedules and routines and blog habits.

Good day, all. So much has happened, I will begin at the end and fill you in at my next blog. I have just finished an article on James Castle. Here is the beginning (draft). The editor of Works & Conversations is editiing it this week - I will get the final version to you soon.
Keep Talking, James Castle

My 19-yr-old son is enjoying not having an everyday mother, and sometimes pretends he is in a different city from me. I was grateful, therefore, when he called and informed me that BAM, the Berkeley Art Museum, was exhibiting the work of a languageless deaf man, knowing I would be interested since meeting such an unimaginable person changed my life. I wrote about meeting the languageless, adult Ildefonso in A Man Without Words (UC Press, Berkeley).

I was also grateful to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, BAM and many others who brought James Castle to us. I read the latest (January/February 2010) “BAM/PFA Art & Film Notes” introducing me to James Castle, born deaf in 1899 into a rural, hearing family, in Idaho. I read: “Although he attended the Idaho School for the Deaf and blind, Castle did not learn to read, write, speak, sign, or lip read, perhaps by chose.” And, “Castle’s fascination with images…– postcards, magazines, and advertising flyers – certainly was fueled by the Garden Valley years when every sort of matter and printed paper passed through the family post office and general store. Packaging, calendars, and comics all caught his eye. He would copy images precisely and then use them in part and whole in various other drawings and handmade books.” [Lucinda Barnes, p. 6 BAM/PFA Art & Film Notes]

A film by Jeffrey Wolfe at BAM, my next stop, showed artists comparing his art to other art and James Castle to other artists. Family members described a boy who took his drawings to family gatherings and to every visitor. One relative said the mother did everything for him, allowing him to draw all day. An old Deaf man appeared, signing that his research showed that “James Castle” appeared on the books of the Idaho School for the Deaf, for five years. The Deaf man explained that the pedagogy James would have been exposed to, oralism, focused on speech: “ his hands would have been hit with a ruler, and he would be forced to sit on them” In my imagination, I saw the languageless, deaf boy attempting to ask where he was, why had his parents abandoned him. The answer was the ruler hitting his hands. Speech therapy techniques for deaf children were pictured: hands on throats, candle flames to show the puff of air from a p and a teacher’s mouth inches away from the deaf student’s eyes. There was no comment or question on the difference between language and speech or any inquiry about the consequences of oral deaf education in 1910 (or, indeed, today).

Jon Yau, an artist and a poet, seemed braver than the other speakers, venturing a little closer. He found looking at the drawings “incredibly painful.” I left the film and ran two flights up to see James Castle’s drawings, dolls, animals and many bound books – all made out of scraps of paper, cardboard, string, twine or thread, and painted with sticks, his saliva and soot.

At the first stop, I read that James Castle had “refused to learn.” ...

Anyone who can, go see his work,and see how much he teaches us about how much he CHOSE to learn.

I am speaking at the Bread Workshop, University av, Berkeley, Su, Apr. 18, 7:30

Helen Keller, Ildefonso, James Castle: Self with No Language

soon, susan schaller

Grateful to be back, Grateful to all who Helped in Chicago/Mich.

Traveling often expands time - I feel I've been gone for a month.

Thank you, Debra, for your comment, insights and information. I am glad you brought up bonding. Loving one's child, seeing the child's needs naturally includes communication in the easiest and most natural ways. Visual communication for visual babies makes sense and encourages the natural bonding. Coincidentally, I met with a cognitive science lab of Susan Goldin-Meadow, who has done research answering your question about language acquisition relating to early visual input. She and her lab have shown in many studies that deaf babies who have gesture (not signing) do better at learning language,even with a late start, than those who have no home-signing (less sophisticated signing -gestures).

And thank you, Debra, for the point about bilingualism. Sign from the cradle, when it is easy and natural for a visual baby, then add French or English. How rich we all would be if we had all of your languages and windows into different cultures.
The more signing is truly accepted as equal, then the easier it will be for parents and families to learn to communicate with their deaf babies.

A public thank-you to DBC for all of your hard work and, especially, Tami, for your perserverance and great generosity. Excuse the brief blog. I will write more when I have caught up on my sleep.
As always - language for ALL babies,
susan

Deaf Bilingual Coalition, not welcomed at EHDI

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.

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.

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

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

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