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Ediw,'s Inrroductlon hen it was decided by vote among the 164 delegates at the International Congress of Milan in 1880 that sign language should be universally suppressed in deaf education programs , only one deaf delegate-James Denison, Principal of Kendall School at Gallaudet College-was in attendance. Denison was one of only six delegates who voted for the continued use of sign language (Van Cleve and Crouch, 1989). As was implied by Gallaudet University's president, I. King Jordan, in his keynote address, The Deaf Way was seen by many participants as an opportunity to reassert a Deaf perspective and to begin to restore to Deaf people some of the power lost more than a century earlier in Milan. Several of the papers in this section consequently express views that, at the time of The Deaf Way, were widely at variance with the policies and practices of the vast majority of deaf education programs around the world. Other papers demonstrate that acceptance of the premise that sign language should be used in classrooms is only a step-though an extremely important one-toward solving the many problems that face educators of deaf students. The first three papers argue that there is need for radical change in deaf education programs in the United States. Sam Supalla (United States) states that full access to the subjects taught in school can only be achieved by deaf students if they are given ample opportunity early in life to acquire a natural sign language and if teachers are enabled to use this language effectively to teach the students. Robert E. Johnson, Scott Liddell, and Carol Erting (United States) then present an overview of their paper "Unlocking the Curriculum." They argue that deaf education in the United States is failing to teach deaf students competently because teachers' communication modes tend to be based on spoken rather than signed language, even when (as in most total communication programs) signs are added to the spoken message. Janie Simmons (United States) contends that deaf education programs need to be reconceived as serving a unique minority cultural group and that the majority culture's language (in its written form) should be taught as the students' second language by teachers fluent in the children's first (signed) language. Britta Hansen (Denmark) reports on how linguistic research in the two decades prior to The Deaf Way had ultimately led deaf education in Denmark toward a bilingual approach. As of 1989, Hansen indicates, teachers and parents were taking intensive courses in Danish Sign Language, by then generally regarded in Denmark as deaf children 's first language and the primary language of classroom instruction. Danish was being taught primarily through reading and writing. Christina Edenas explains in the following paper that Sweden went through a similar process of research modifying practice, except that its government went so far as to declare Swedish Sign Language (SSL) deaf children's official first language, making knowledge of this language a requirement for teachers in deaf education programs. Edenas then discusses her method Editor's Introduction of using detailed analyses of videotapes as a means of improving educators' ability to comprehend and produce SSL in the classroom. In the next paper, Kathleena Whitesell (United States) describes how Glenda Zmijewski (United States), a deaf kindergarten teacher, employs a broad repertoire of signing skills as she discusses a story with deaf children. This paper, combined with the following one by Susan Mather (United States) on visual signals used to regulate class discussions, moves beyond abstract linguistic questions to concerns about effective strategies for managing groups of deaf children and about advantages Deaf teachers may bring to the task of educating these children. A paper by Vicki Hanson and Carol Padden (United States) explains how interactive videodisc technology can provide a technological answer to questions about how to enable deaf children to become truly bilingual-that is, fluent in both a natural sign language and in the written form of the majority culture's language. A paper by Ildi Batory (Denmark) describes how psychodrama helped deaf secondary students in Denmark increase their sense of positive options in situations that generally led to feelings of isolation and alienation-an important learning experience seldom made a part of deaf students' curriculum. In the next paper, Randolph Mowry (United States) discusses how the placement of deaf students in mainstream or residential settings may have a profound impact on these students' social networks and perceptions of identity, outcomes that need to be carefully considered...

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