A Deaf Adult Speaks Out

Preface to Second Edition

I Preface to Second Edition The Gallaudet College Board of Directors established the Powrie Vaux Doctor Chair of Deaf Studies in the spring of 1972. This Chair was established in memory of Professor Powrie Vaux Doctor, a member of the Gallaudet College faculty for 43 years, who died in Paris in the summer of 1971 while attending meetings of the World Federation of the Deaf. At the time of his death, Dr. Doctor was serving Gallaudet as a professor of government, chairman of the Department of Government, and acting dean of the Graduate School. A committee of Gallaudet alumni, faculty, student, and administration representatives selects an appointee to the Chair for each academic year. Such appointments are reserved for resident teacherscholars in the field of deaf education (or educational programs for deaf students) who show potential for or have made significant contributions to the field. I had the honor of being the first recipient of the Chair for the academic year 1972-1973. I saw, in the offer of the Doctor Chair, a chance to "tell it like it is" about the world of deaf adults-which has been my world, too. As a person, horn deaf, who has also spent 42 years working with deaf children and interacting with the adult deaf community as a volunteer worker and leader, I have seen many failures and met comparatively few successes in the traditional educational methods used with deaf persons. viii The average deaf child usually has hearing parents who are unable to communicate with him or her. When I was younger, I was distressed by the seeming inevitability of inadequate education for such children. But, as I grew older and more aware, my feelings turned to disgust and indignation, because I began to realize that the inadequacies in the education of deaf children were not inevitable . Instead, they were being preserved by hearing educators who seemed to know too little about the end-products of their system. What follows may not possess the degree of objectivity nor the pedantry that might normally characterize such a contribution. Instead, concern, anger, and genuine feeling for the shortchanging that deaf people have been receiving are predominant. ix ...