What AGBAD doesn’t want you to know

The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf is NOT restricted by its original certificate of incorporation to promote only the oral method of instructing the deaf.

The original name for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf was: “American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (AAPTSD).” The AAPTSD was established by articles of incorporation in the State of New York in 1890. In 1908, it merged with the Volta Bureau, then later, in 1956, changed its name to “Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf”.

From the book:

“Notes and Observations upon the Education of the Deaf”, by Joseph Claybaugh Gordon, published by the Volta Bureau, 1892.

QUOTE from page xlv (emphasis added):

…the announcement of the organization of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. The purpose of this society was set forth by Mr. Z.F. Westervelt as follows: “It is not a pure oral society: its purpose is to include every one who desires to promote the teaching of speech to the deaf, and it hopes, on this ground, ultimately to take into its numbers all teachers of the deaf and all persons who can be interested in deaf-mute education.”

The society was incorporated in September 16, 1890, under the laws of the State of New York, with DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, of Washington, President, and MR. Z.F. WESTERVELT, of Rochester, N.Y., Secretary.

UNQUOTE

Link to quote above:

http://www.saveourdeafschools.org/agbad_1892.pdf

The proceedings of a meeting of the Twelfth Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf gives more of Westervelt’s statement, and shows that the original purpose of AAPTSD (now AGBAD) the was to cooperate with all teachers of the deaf, and also that the original purpose was NOT to forbid sign language from being used the classroom:

QUOTE (remark in square brackets added):

It is not a pure oral society…This association has been inaugurated…to enable its members, by organization, to work effectually in harmony with their associates [i.e. other teachers of the deaf] in the profession…It is not the purpose of the association to attempt to induce the schools of the country to become distinctively articulation schools, or in any way to change their character…

UNQUOTE

Link to quote above:

http://www.saveourdeafschools.org/agbad_1890.pdf

The book: “Histories of American Schools for the Deaf, 1817-1893″, gives more information about the founding purpose of the AAPTSD:

http://www.saveourdeafschools.org/agbad_1893.pdf

In 1908, the AAPTSD merged with Bell’s Volta Bureau. The agreement specified that the new merged organization must keep the original purpose of AAPTSD that was listed in AAPTSD’s certificate of incorporation. (See also call number: MSS 162 in the Gallaudet archives, and also: Volta Bureau.)

LINK:

http://www.saveourdeafschools.org/agbad_1908.pdf

Thirteen years prior, in 1895, Edward Miner Gallaudet made a public denunciation of Alexander Graham Bell and the AAPTSD:

QUOTE

Further animosity developed over Gallaudet’s proposal to merge their respective organizations: Bell’s American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (AAPTSD) and Gallaudet’s Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (CAID). Bell initially seemed agreeable to the union and showed an interest in pursuing the matter at the AAPTSD meeting at Chautaugua, New York, in July 1894.

By the end of the meeting, though, no agreement had been reached and several members had spoken openly against a merger. Gallaudet was especially irritated by Bell’s enthusiasm to allow as members wealthy promoters who had no affiliation or expertise in deafness. Bell suggested committees be formed by the respective organization to discuss a proposal by the AAPTSD that would allow the creation of three distinct groups. Gallaudet considered the proposal absurd. He perceived these machinations by Bell to be deliberate attempts to lead him on, when in reality Bell had no intention of merging the two organizations.

Gallaudet decided to speak out openly against Bell and oralism and chose the July 1895 CAID meeting at Flint, Michigan, as his battleground. In his paper, read before the whole convention, Gallaudet summarized his dealings with Bell during the past five years. He accused Bell of fanaticism over the pure oral method and called him an outsider who had succeeded only in undermining the professionals working in deaf education. He stated openly that union of the two organizations failed due to Bell’s autocratic manipulations of members of the AAPTSD. Gallaudet maintained that Bell’s organization was unprofessional in character and “essentially a body of promoters,” the majority of whom were not actual instructors of the deaf. Bell was given an opportunity the next day to respond, but Gallaudet viewed his statements as “lame and impotent.” Bell and Gallaudet made no further attempt to speak to one another until five years later.

UNQUOTE

http://blog.deafread.com/pote/2008/05/29/em-gallaudets-full-address-at-caid-re-ag-bell

See also the book:

“Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language”

“Forbidden Signs explores American culture from the mid-nineteenth century to 1920 through the lens of one striking episode: the campaign led by Alexander Graham Bell and other prominent Americans to suppress the use of sign language among deaf people.”

QUOTING review on Amazon.com (emphasis added):

Forbidden Signs intelligently explores the cultural aspects of deafness, laying out the naturalness of a gesture-based means of communicating by deaf people, exploring the unique aspects by which meaning can be conveyed without the spoken word. In this context, the pseudo-scientific arguments for preventing the use of sign language which predominated for nearly a century are laid bare as the arbitrary and capricious biases of the hearing world. The rise of a quasi-biological notion of eugenics and genetic determinism as well as the construction of a standard of “normalcy” against which deaf people were measured explains both the means and the rationale for the suppression of sign language. The incredible story of the extensive attempts to isolate deaf people and to break up communities of signers that Douglas Baynton has recorded will likely be difficult to imagine by those who know little of the history of deafness in America.

UNQUOTE

(Amazon)(Worldcat)