04.11.01 - The Second Experiment
41st Clip. Title: The Second Experiment. 6:18 minutes long. Total: 3:58:17 hours.
This clip is posted in gratitude to Brian Malzkuhn who was instrumental in making it possible for me, in the spring of 1994, to teach a deaf history course at Ohlone College where the myth was used for the first time in a college course. I wrote this sentence in the second edition (draft) of the Deaf Child Deafhood workbook: “to Brian Malzkuhn, an avid fan/instructor of deaf history, for falling in love with the myth and pulling me into Ohlone College.”
This was also when I began observing the role the mythology played in the effortless learning of deaf history by hearing and deaf people. Read below for two excerpts of students’ responses to the idea of using the myth to learn about the history of the deaf experience.
Click away and enjoy the second horror the Deaf Child experienced in Hein’s Castle . . .
Click here for youtube if above is undownloadable, too slow, or if you want to view the clip in larger screen. Thank you.
Commentary: Please go to the 04.08 post to read the commentary on the history of experiment in curing deafness.
Here are two written responses by hearing students who used the Deaf Child mythology to learn about deaf history. Soon to be part of a new page - see the top row of this website.
Throughout this course, “Deaf History,” I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge regarding the evolution of deaf culture, the deaf community, deaf education, and influential deaf individuals. Initially, I had difficulty translating the mythology into true historical events. By mid-term, however, I began to understand the symbolism presented in the myth. Actually, when I experienced the “ah-ha” and the light came on, I began to really enjoy studying deaf history from this perspective.
I must admit that at first I really had my doubts about learning history through the myth. I vividly remembered the ear-mouth soldiers, the gruesome experiments, and the hands getting chopped off. I thought I would prefer to just have the names and dates thrown at me, and learn it all through memorization. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I can honestly say at this point after going through it that the myth made the learning process more interesting and much less dry. One of the most important aspects of the myth as a learning tool, I think, is the way more than one real-life characters can be combined to form a mythical character; for example, Dr. Hein, Gen. Volt, and Abbe Siepee.