BREAKING NEWS

Saturday, September 1, 2007

The following translation of a speech given in ASL by David O. Reynolds has been authorized by him for immediate release. This inspirational speech on the topic of implementing bilingual programs in the field of deaf education was made near the conclusion of an educational workshop at a conference now taking place in downtown Los Angeles:

DAVID O. REYNOLDS:

I have to say, you all are doing good work. And yes, it’s sad that for so long we’ve been stuck in a rut with the same thing happening over and over again. It’s been going on this way my entire life, the same old story over and over again.

Allow me to add this observation: When you’re talking about the deaf education system and systemic standards, I say that the education system itself is oppressive. Other people keep telling us: “Be super-careful. Make sure that…”–We’ve been trying to approach it the hearing way–”…make sure that you analyze the issue and present all available choices and try to adapt yourselves…”–But we’ve already tried this and we’ve been doing it this way for 50, or even 100 years or more, and it hasn’t gotten us anywhere. We’re still losing!

We’ve got to take a clear stand and say that for deaf children there really isn’t any other viable alternative. It’s got to be ASL as the only main language, as part of a bilingual, ASL-English approach. That’s the way it’s got to be! Just those two languages. That’s it!

Enough with the endless debate and talk about how we should try to carefully adapt everything we do and how we should continue to worry about how we can avoid every potential conflict. We’ve already tried that.

I’ve been involved for over 20 years in deaf education as a teacher at the Indiana School for the Deaf where we implemented a radical change over to a bilingual curriculum. In Indiana I’ve heard that song being sung many times about how we shouldn’t be too radical or too aggressive in making changes. We tried everything, from being totally radical in some situations to being totally compromising in others, until we thought we had something that we could move forward with. But still, since 1990–that’s 17, almost 20 years now–It’s been a struggle. The program is strong, but the state government acts as part of an oppressive system, continuing to require change after change, and continuing to haggle and demand more and more data–and then even more data on top of that.

Really, honestly, that’s enough. We’re overflowing with an abundance of data, as well as information gathered, including many documented “horror stories” collected from deaf people as well as hearing people. We’ve got all kinds of information and data that’s been collected and organized.

It’s time to take action! How? By being very bold.

It’s good to be radical. It’s been said that it’s wrong to be radical, but actually being radical is very right.

I married Alyce and moved here to California with my three sons eight months ago. We were excited about the move and we love it here. My twin deaf sons are attending college here. But the same situation exists in every state in the union. We must all speak out to our various state governments, but we’ve also got to go to the federal level. We’ve all got to all get behind and support the NAD [National Association of the Deaf] so that we can put pressure on the federal government. I think the time now is ripe for that.

Things have been happening throughout the country. People are becoming more empowered. Don’t keep telling us that we’ve got to be super-careful and that we need even more research. That’s enough of that talk. We’ve got plenty of research. We must move forward and act!

[Sustained visual applause]

[End speech]