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Shelby Colville

Professor Minor

ASL 1111

26 September 2017

The Path to Bring Back Signs

In the year 1880, the deaf community had a big obstacle to overcome relating to sign

language being used in schools compared to oral method. The oral method is banning the use of

signing and fingerspelling and only relying on speech and speechreading. The oral method used

many mechanical devices to help students stop the use of signs. Alexander Graham Bell and

other rich influencers advocated the elimination of sign-based learning in all schools, and wanted

strictly to use the oralist approach.

The Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf in Milan, Italy, in 1880

was the start of this fight for sign learning in schools. Milan had two schools who used what they

call the French or Combined method. This method was a flexible approach to teaching using

signs and fingerspelling and used the invented methodical signs, that still made French

grammar show up in context. It was nice to have those two schools because it was the first time

that sign language was used and was normal to communicate with.

The articulation method, also known as speech training was the main problem the deaf

community had because everyone received this training and it was brutal for everyone that had to

learn it. Since all signing and fingerspelling were never to be used. Laurent Clerc later certified

this. The first school for the deaf to use the german method known also as oralism was

founded by Samuel Heinicke in Leipzig in 1778. This school got government backing, and
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because of that more oralists were showing up to making oralism the main way of teaching.

Another person who practiced oralism was Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, he was the first in France to

practice oralism.

Oralism did bad for the community for many reasons. One is just was not practical. Some

students who were taught simply could not learn how to speak as well as others, and it was

inconsistent. Another reason is that students were caught outside of the school building still

signing, an offence at an oralist school. How can something as signing, something so incredibly

important and the main way of communication just die? It cannot happen. No matter how hard

people in the past have tried to get rid of signing and fingerspelling, it will always be in the deaf

culture and no one can take that away from them, and it never should be.

In 2010, the Vancouver ICED Organizing Committee and the British Columbia Deaf

Community got together to make a statement which would finally address the things that were

happening with the Milan Congress. This statement was emotional for the deaf community, as

the statement finally promoted healing to the community and for everyone to come as one and

work together to fix this major problem going on for years. During the end of the session,

Markku Jokinen, the President of the World Federation of the Deaf and Executive Director of the

Finnish Association of the Deaf stated Education, which is much more than just scores,

curriculum, and pedagogies, means nurturing deaf children to become full human beings with

rights, knowledge, and skills. I means enabling them to their maximum potential as individuals

in todays society. (43).

This statement is extremely important because even though oralists thought that having

deaf people speak instead of their more comfortable communication of signing would help more

in society, it didnt. Signing has been in the community for years and no one will just let that go,
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and as stated before, some people just do not get the concept for speaking while deaf, and that is

completely okay. Speaking is okay as well, as long as it is your own personal choice in what you

want to do to communicate, ot something you are forced to do. Even being forced, it will never

get rid of the importance signing has on the community.

The New Era, being able to sign in schools and for oralism to come to an end had begun

in 2010. The New Era had gotten over one thousand signatures, and growing. It is still an

ongoing civil rights issue, as it is not completely gotten rid of. There are many petitions to help

with this ongoing problem, and his story was one step further in making things right for the deaf

community again. All we can do is support these great causes, and keep using for what is right.

Works Cited

DeafLife. ICED 2010s New Era: Righting an old wrong. ICED 2010 repairing the

damage of Milan 1880, no. 178, 2010, pp.28-45