In Response to NTID President on the ICED Statement

"Save Our Deaf Schools" E-Contributor, Brian Riley, sent out his own reply to the current National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID) president when Dr. DeCaro made the comment regarding the International Congress (Conference) of Educators of the Deaf known as the ICED's statement:


Commentary on the DeCaro memo:

A memo issued by James DeCaro of the National Technical Institute of the Deaf implies that the mission of a college or university should be: "expanding options" in order to "meet the needs of students." The full context of the quote is this sentence:

"In the educational enterprise, this translates into our need to conduct the business of expanding options: to meet the needs of students; not limit them; and support them in expanding/determining their own options."

This sentence, however, contains many problematic notions. First of all, it seems to presume a "consumer" model of education where the job of a university or college president is seen as being similar to grocery store manager. Under this type of model, the job of university or college president is simply to make sure that the metaphorical "shelves" in the "store" are stocked with enough items to satisfy any potential "shopper" (i.e., student).

This notion, however, represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the academic enterprise. The fundamental purpose of academia should be to pursue truth. This type of "consumer model," however, implies that there is no truth to be pursued.

There is nothing "open" about a dialogue in which the participants all agree from the beginning that no conclusions can be made at the end of the dialogue. Such type of dialogue is not an actual dialogue at all, but is a mere occasion for verbal jousting and bantering back and forth without there being any ultimate purpose to the dialogue. This is an untenable view.

Is the world flat or a sphere? It cannot be both. The purpose of academic freedom is to set the stage so that professors and students can make conclusions on the issue. There's no such thing as "expanding options" on the question of whether the earth is flat or spherical, and any philosophy of education that incorporates such a premise of "expanding options" is a pseudo-philosophy.

Let's hope that James DeCaro does not actually subscribe to the philosophy that seems to be indicated by the meaning of the words he used in his July 25 memo.

Perhaps he was writing too quickly and sent out a quick e-mail and wasn't expressing himself clearly. Let's hope that is the case.


[End commentary]



CLICK HERE to read the full DeCaro memo.


RLMDEAF's response to the Dr. DeCaro which he purposefully omitted the origin of creating the NTID was to embrace the concept of oralism under Dr. William Castle:

The United States Congress back in the mid-1960s, refused to allow the NTID to exclude the signing students in any way with the use of federal dollars. The concept of NTID's path to oralism turned real failure within the philsophy of the Alexander Graham Bell Association (AGBad).

HOW DARE OF ABGBad (AGBELL) USE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS' MONEY TO IMPOSE THEIR UNWORKABLE AND UNAMERICAN WAY OF SEGRETATING THE DEAF POPULATION INTO TWO CAMPS, INSTEAD OF REALLY UNIFYING "DEAF AMERICA" AS THE INDEFENSIBLE ONE!

How typical of the AGBad's mindless schemes of oralizing the deaf students to be the human parrot or unintellectual zombie! GET OUT OF OUR DEAF COMMUNITY FOR ALL OUR GOOD! You, AGBad are a piece of s*%#!

WE NEVER FORGET WHAT AGBad DONE TO US, DEAF AMERICA and OTHER DEAF INDIVIDUALS AROUND THE ENTIRE GLOBE! LET US GO BACK TO THE ROOT OF REAL INTELLECTUALISM AND EQUALITY AMONG US, DEAF PEOPLE TO REBUILD OUR DEAF COMMUNITY INTO HEALTHY ONE.

ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog