Page 73 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

58 Reading Between the Signs

40 percent of the teachers at the state schools for the deaf were
Deaf themselves, compared to only 14 percent today (Gannon
1981). (This dramatic drop can be traced to the infamous Con-
gress of Milan, 1880, when oralism became the official policy in
both European and American deaf schools. One result was the
firing of Deaf teachers [Lane 1984].)
Unfortunately, many Deaf people are not taught about their
heritage in school.
While community memory is long, Deaf people’s aware-
ness of their history [and] their heritage is vincible and
often fragmented. Its continuity depends on commu-
nity and the memory of elders. Yet while many details
have been lost the sense remains. Deaf history exists
not in books, but in stories, in events at the residential
schools. (Smith 1996, 194)
An interesting anecdote that points up the past orientation of
Deaf culture is the following story, which was told to me by a well-
respected leader in the Deaf community. A meeting was held at a
Deaf-run service agency that had applied for and received a large
grant of money from the state. Various leaders in the Deaf com-
munity were invited by the head of this agency to contribute ideas
for the five-year plan, which was required by the grant. It seems
that the Deaf community members had a difficult time coming
up with plans for the future. When pressed by the agency director,
their ideas all seemed to relate to the past—things that they didn’t
want to repeat or projects in the past that proved successful.
Of course the Deaf community wants change and progress in
the areas of equal rights and improved access for its members,
but that is change in the context of the majority hearing culture.
Within the Deaf culture, traditions are cherished. This includes
traditional forms of folklore such as jokes and storytelling as well
as the Traditional Name Sign System (see chapter 5 for a fuller
description).
Hearing Americans, by and large, are future oriented. We be-
lieve we can always improve on the present through action and
hard work. Any attempt of futurists to try to effect changes on a
past-oriented culture, however, will be met with puzzled dismay if
not angry resistance. This is why American Deaf culture does not
look kindly on attempts by outsiders to invent new ASL signs,
new traditions, or new name signs.

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