Wednesday, April 25, 2007

"Deaf Education" Day

We ought to proclaim every May 1st as "Deaf Education" Day in honor of "Unity for Gallaudet" protestors and concerned parents and school facilities/support staff of the deaf.

That is kinda a positive way of celebrating the first anniversary of "Unity for Gallaudet" protest. So everyone could participate in the proclamation of "Deaf Education" Day regardless of their personal philsophies toward deaf education and lingusitic usage.

Every year, we ought to strive for the betterment of Deaf Education within the deaf/Deaf global society at large in proactive ways than dwelling and bickering over deaf issues repeatedly. We need REAL ACTION on Deaf Education to be comprehensively accessible to pre-college deaf youngsters with the real foundation of high-standard educational studies.

Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
rlmdeaf@hotmail.com

Copyright Protected Under Law

11 comments:

  1. Setting up the annual day to recognize the deaf education is a wonderful idea but choosing May 1st for the Deaf Education Day is a ridiculous idea. There are no good things coming from Unity for Gallaudet that can promote the Deaf Education Day.

    Also, May 1st is really late for school year. September is the month when most schools start and it makes more sense to pick a day in September for the Deaf Education Day. Or, October or November may be a better month for the Deaf Education Day because open house is held usually during these months.

    In any way, there should be absolutely no relationship between the Deaf Education Day and Unity for Gallaudet.

    Joseph Pietro Riolo
    josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com

    Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Joseph Pietro Riolo,

    The Deaf Education Day should be the day that the government make it illegal that any organization can deny or prevent any deaf child to learn ASL as a primary learning language... but can legally encourage deaf children to learn orally if so desire.

    Let's be fair to all parents that they can chose their deaf child to learn orally but must learn ASL first as a cognitive tool to learn speak verbally...that is if it is achieve-able for that deaf child... which has proven that most deaf children fail while ASL has the much higher success rate (nearly 100%) of having a cognitive language to learn anything else...including speech.

    John F. Egbert

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  3. In 10 to 20 years, the up-and-coming deaf generation will be in charge and they will celebrate May 1, Oct 6, Oct 11 and Oct 29 as being incredibly important and landmark days in deaf history.

    People who are blind to the reality of the situation today are going to be ashamed of themselves in the future.

    Inevitably, Deaf History Month will switch to October in approximately 15 years.

    Our opponents will not be able to stop us. Within about one or two years, people like Riolo will stop posting such inaccurate statements as what appears above.

    We can already see this process happening at the present time. The anti-protesters are quickly, quickly on their way to becoming intellectual dinosaurs if they do not change their positions.

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  4. Joseph Pietro Riolo:

    If you think about it, saying nothing good comes out of Unity for Gallaudet could really mean nothing bad comes out of Unity for Gallaudet. Like everything else, there's always a bit of each side.

    I think Unity for Gallaudet did a world of good in spite of drawbacks here and there. What protest in history lacks drawbacks? It appears that you are set in your way of thinking negatively of Unity for Gallaudet at whatever cost. While it is your perogative, I feel sad about it.

    Last but not the least, I agree with you that it would make sense if Deaf Education Day would happen in September.

    Katherine

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  5. Joseph,

    I humbly disagree with you that Gallaudet Unity did not come out with good things. We can come up with a plenty of list that Gallaudet Unity inspired us to do more to improve Deaf people's lives. Thank you.

    RLM - Deaf Education Day is an excellent idea and we need to discuss more about this to select a date. It needs a lot of collective discussion among many Deaf people before making a decision.

    Thanks for bringing up an excellent idea!

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  6. I agreed all above of comments. Deaf Education Day is good idea to bring forth to our new generation to come and promote the public awareness about our culture, language, folklore, and others.
    Unity for Gallaudet is essential to remember how we save our future of generations to preserve Gallaudet campus.

    Nick Vera

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  7. Joseph,

    With due respect, I understand your perspective on the so-called improper connection between "Deaf Education" Day and "Unity for Gallaudet" protest.

    I am trying to find some way for many of us to celebrate the significant deaf event like the "Unity for Gallaudet" protest which originally erupt on May 1st with all positive feelings and appreciations of WHY and HOW the protest did occur in the first place.

    The "Unity for Gallaudet" protest was mainly about the quality of deaf education and governance issue within all educational facilities of the deaf which led to the major protest in the best interests of deaf education.

    The idea of "Deaf Education" Day is just a friendly reminder of the "Unity for Gallaudet" protest that we do not tolerate any "dumb-down" deaf education or sweep resolvable issues under the rug.

    May 1st would be the perfect time for evaluating the academic progress of every deaf students within the near-end academic year.

    I just throw some brainstorms for how we could celebrate the anniversary of the "Unity for Gallaudet" Protest without appeared "militant" or "absolutionist" to the general public.

    Everybody usually get pretty busy during the month of September anyway.

    "Deaf Education" Day on every May 1st will give us reasons what we really could look back on our deaf education what we really could improve the academic standards and expectations within deaf youngsters.

    RLM

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  8. Joey,

    You are very welcome to help yourself with the collective discussion about setting the date for "Deaf Education" Day. I will not have any objection at all.

    I am really trying to think and find the suitable symbol for all the involved parties with the educational facilties of the deaf to celebrate the "UFG" Protest without any strong feelings whether someone have objections with the "Unity for Gallaudet" protest.

    I am kinda putting the idea for "Deaf Education" Day to get more and more people celebrate and appreciate the anniversary of "Unity for Gallaudet" protest in diguise.

    Help yourself to lead the discussion and set the date for "Deaf Education" Day. :)

    RLM

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  9. Many people celebrate the "May Day" as part of celebrating the achivements and successes of labor movement(s).

    The culumation of labor unrests on May 1st which led to the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, IL on May 4th. The Pinkerton detectives (rented thugs) ignited the explosives at the public square to find some excuses of arresting labor workers involved with the peaceful protests. The bloody riot followed after the unexpected explosives went off.

    The earlier May Day is originally celebrated as pagan-oriented celebration in pre-Christian Europe. The holiday became more secular to be observed in schools and churches.

    "May Day" celebration was also an important official holiday in Soviet Union.

    Everyone did not really know why and what to celebrate "May Day" out of its origin.

    That's what I intentionally find some way for the majority of deaf/Deaf America to get together to celebrate and appreciate the "Unity for Gallaudet" protest with the diguise of "Deaf Education" Day. So people would not make any objections for celebrating the anniversary of "UFG" protest every May 1st.

    RLM

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  10. When I think of the Deaf Education Day, I expect it to cover all deaf programs anywhere in the U.S. and in the world. They include the successful mainstreaming programs and other successful approaches in the education for the deaf students.

    How can the Unity for Gallaudet contribute anything to the educational field for the deaf students? The means used by both sides were horrible and dishonorable. Both sides used the methods of vilification. Both sides used the methods of propaganda. Both sides spread half-truths. Both sides used coercion. I certainly do not want the deaf students to adopt the questionable means. I want them to adopt excellent models, excellent habits and excellent attitudes. The Unity for Gallaudet stood nothing for excellence in education.

    The Unity for Gallaudet just showed the failure of Gallaudet University while so many other deaf programs all over the U.S. were successful. The Deaf Education Day should shine on the successful programs. If the failure of the educational programs offers any lessons, the Deaf Education Day could use them.

    Joseph Pietro Riolo
    josephpietrojeungriolo@gmail.com

    Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Joseph,

    You could see what I am trying to do like proclaming the "Deaf Education" Day on May 1st to emphasize on the importance of excellent deaf education with high standards and expectations.

    Several reasons for choosing May 1st for the "Deaf Education" Day.

    #1 Easier to remmy the First of May (May 1st)

    #2 Perfect timing for deaf students and parents of deaf children and faculty members of the educational facilities of the deaf to evaluate the academic progress during the near-end academic year.

    #3 Deaf youngsters and proponents of Deaf Education could go on the field trips to the state legislatures and U.S. Captiol during the springtime to lobby for the legislative proposals on deaf education intitatives.

    #4 The springtime academic semester tend to be less hectic with limited school activities unlike fall and winter academic semesters from fall/winter sports schedule and other related school events, etc.

    Deaf students and parents of deaf children and faculty/staff members of the educational facilities of the deaf would look more forward to the celebration of "Deaf Education" Day to remind themselves how fornuate for having a decent education at taxpayer's expense (including private tutitons wherever they are).

    That's why I use "educational facilties of the deaf" which apply to every school programs provided to deaf students regardless of residential or oral or mainstreaming schools.

    Well, nobody is perfect during the battleground period. We could not avoid any unpleasant rhetorics.

    President Woodrow Wilson was very horrified after learning about the U.S. federal agencies including the Department of War (Pentagon nowaday) resorted to propaganda tactics like painting the Kaisers as Huns. Wilson objected to this kind of method for government-sponsored propagandas.

    The official from the Office of U.S. Propaganda gently reminded President Wilson that we had no choice about mobilizing the American general public to support the World War One (WWI) by appealing to their own fears and prejudices.

    In the end, the U.S. agencies successfully persuaded the American people to support the WWI out of patriotism.

    Our own government had done same thing during the WWII on Japanese miltarists. We surely done race-baited tactics to moblize people into frenzy and action against the Imperial Japan.

    "Deaf Education" Day is a real necessity to focus on the importance of deaf education everywhere. We could educate the general public especially the state legislatures about the educational facilities of the deaf.

    RLM

    ReplyDelete