Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race (1883) / Chapter Skim
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
Pages 41-48
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From page 41... ...
Indeed, the graduates of our institutions now commonly organize themselves into societies or associations ior the promotion of social intercourse m adult life. Societies of deaf-mutes are to be found in all large cities and in many of the smaller ones.
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From page 42... ...
They are able to understand a good deal of what they see in our daily newspapers, especially if it concerns what interests them personally, but the polilacal speeches of the day, the leading editorials, &c., are often beyond their knowledge of the English language. 'These must not be confounded with the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, a journal of a very different character, not intended to be read specially by deaf-mutes themselves This journal is a quarterly magazine, devoted to the discussion of subjects connected with the edncation of the deaf and dumb, and forms the ofSci.il organ of communication between teachers It is one of the most admirably conducted special journals in existence, and contains within its pages almost the complete literature of tbe world relating to the education of the deaf and dumb
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From page 43... ...
His gesticulations excite surprise and even sometimes alarm in ignorant minds. I n connection with this subject I may say that as lately as 1857 a deaf-mute was shot dead in Alabama by a man who was alarmed by his gestures.t I n fact fallacies concerning the deaf and dumb are so common as to touch us all and to suggest the advisability of seriously examining the fundamental ideas we hold concerning them.
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From page 44... ...
If, for instance, a number of the large deat-mute families of the United States -- families in which we know deafness to be hereditary -- were to settle in a common place so as to form a community largely composed of deaf mutes, then the deaf children born in the colony wonld be thrown into association with one another and would probably intermarry m adult life, or marry hearing persons belonging to the deaf-mute families. Though fewer in number than the original deaf settlers, they wonld probably be more prolific of deaf offspring; and each succeeding generation of deaf-mutes ^onld increase the probability of the deaf-mute element being rendered permanent by heredity.
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From page 45... ...
So long, however, as deaf-mutes of both sexes continue to associate together in adult life, legislative interference with marriage might only promote immorality. But, without entirely prohibiting intermarriage, might not the mar riages of the deaf be so regulated as to reduce the probabilities of the production of deaf offspring to ft minimum.?
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From page 46... ...
The grand central principle that should guide us, then, in our search for preventive measures should be the retention of the normal environment during the period of education. The natural tendency towards adaptation would then co-operate with instruction to produce accommodation to the permanent conditions of life.
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From page 47... ...
See Table X lu the Appendix tSee American Annals of tbe Deaf and Dumb, vol xxviii, pp 47-61, also, Table V, m the Appendix -- from which it will .ippear that of 7,155 American deaf-mutes, only 584, or less than 9 per cent, were to be foand m oral schools, whereas of 19,318 deaf-mutes lu foreign schools, 12,662, or more than 65 per cent., were taught to speak in purely oral schools t See Appendix to Sixteenth Annual Report of the Clarke Institution See, also, Table Y in the Appendix. Complete returns were not obtained, but the cases noted number 6,232, thus comprehending the vast majonty of the pupils under instruction in May, 1883.
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From page 48... ...
The segregation of deaf-mates, the use of the sign language, and the employment of deaf teachers produce an environment that is unfavorable to the cultivation of articalation and speechreading, and that sometimes causes the disuse of speech by speaking pupils who are only deaf. Having shown the tendency to the formation of a deaf variety of the human race in America, and some of the means that should be taken to counteract it, I commend the whol^ subject to the attention of scientific men.
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