04.09.01 Hein’s Castle
39th Clip - Title: Behind Oralism’s Facade - (05:35 mins - 3:47:15 hours)
This post is for all deaf people who experienced oral classrooms and knew what was behind the facade of oralism in those schools. Sign language could not be suppressed. It is like if you try to move the light on a plant which then would grow toward wherever the light is. Suppress sign language and it’ll pop up somewhere else.
Watch what the deaf child saw behind the facade in Hein’s Castle. Click away . . .
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Commentary: We know very little of what was was life like in oral schools during the 18th and 19th centuries. We do have some information of student life in signing schools like in Paris from the writings of Clerc and Berthier. Not so for oral schools. What was it like to attend the Braidwood schools in England or the Heinicke school in Germany? We could guess safely that the oral students did sign behind their teachers’ backs and in the dormitory rooms. What did happen when they were caught signing? Hands slapped and/or what kinds of punishment did they receive? All this is subaltern or “minority” history that probably is lost in the mists of time. Historians might come across accounts overlooked in the files of those oral schools. Let’s hope they do find them and enlarge our understanding of deaf history in the 18th and 19th centuries.