In this Book
- I Fill This Small Space: The Writings of a Deaf Activist
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: Gallaudet University Press
Lawrence Newman became deaf at the age of five in 1930, and saw his father fight back tears knowing that his son would never hear again. The next time he saw his father cry was in 1978, when Newman received an honorary doctorate from Gallaudet University, his alma mater. Newman was recognized for his achievements as a life-long advocate for deaf education, including receiving California’s Teacher of the Year award in 1968. Perhaps his greatest influence, however, stemmed from his many articles and columns that appeared in various publications, the best of which are featured in I Fill This Small Space: The Writings of a Deaf Activist.
Editor David Kurs has organized Newman’s writings around his passions — deaf education, communication and language, miscellaneous columns and poems on Deaf life, and humorous insights on his activism. His articles excel both as seamless arguments supporting his positions and as windows on the historical conflicts that he fought: against the Least Restrictive Environment in favor of residential deaf schools; for sign language, Total Communication, and bilingual education; and as a deaf teacher addressing parents of deaf children. A gifted writer in all genres, Newman amuses with ease (“On Mini and Midi-Skirts”), and moves readers with his heartfelt verse (“Girl with a Whirligig”). Newman ranges wide in his ability, but he always maintains his focus on equal tights for deaf people, as he demonstrates in his title poem “I Fill This Small Space:”
I fill this small space, this time
Who is to say yours is better
Than mine or mine yours
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. iii-iv
- Acknowledgments
- p. xi
- The Ballet of the Hands
- pp. 1-2
- Part One - ON DEAF EDUCATION
- Teacher Training19
- pp. 44-49
- Bilingual Education
- pp. 52-55
- Part Two - ON SHARED MESSAGES—COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGES
- See! See! See! See!
- pp. 76-78
- On the John Tracy Clinic
- pp. 93-100
- Total Communication
- pp. 101-105
- Talk at Registry of Interpreters Workshop
- pp. 106-109
- The Medium Is the Message
- pp. 110-113
- Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
- pp. 114-119
- Part Three - ON PARENTING DEAF CHILDREN—COMMUNICATION, EDUCATION, RELATIONSHIPS, AND EXPERIENCES
- Cherry Blossoms Come to Bloom
- pp. 122-129
- Girl with a Whirligig
- p. 131
- The Best Gift—The Gift of Yourself
- pp. 132-134
- A Talk Before Parents
- pp. 135-139
- IPO Resolution
- pp. 146-150
- Dinner Talk at San Diego, California
- pp. 152-157
- Talks Before Parent Groups
- pp. 158-162
- On Reading Once Again
- pp. 163-166
- A Total Communication Family
- pp. 167-171
- President’s Remarks
- pp. 172-175
- Part Four - ON A MIXED BAG—COLUMNS AND POETRY ON (A) Deaf LIFE
- Our Public Image
- pp. 186-189
- Who Represents Whom
- pp. 190-194
- The President’s Corner
- pp. 195-196
- President’s Corner
- pp. 197-199
- The President’s Corner
- pp. 200-202
- Lady with Mandolin
- p. 204
- To Bernard Bragg
- pp. 205-206
- The Arid Desert
- p. 207
- My Four Senses
- pp. 208-210
- I Searched
- p. 211
- Times Past
- p. 213
- The Big “If”
- p. 213
- I Fill This Small Space
- p. 214
- Black and White
- p. 215
- Hard of Hearing
- p. 216
- The Cave Man
- p. 216
- To Err Is Human
- p. 218
- Untitled—1948
- p. 219
- Part Five - ON THE LIGHT SIDE—HUMOROUS APPROACHES TO DEAF EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
- Reality Is Sometimes Funnier than Fiction
- pp. 222-225
- A Brave New World
- pp. 226-228
- On Mini- and Midi-skirts
- pp. 229-230
- My Hernia Operation
- pp. 231-233
- An Encounter Group
- pp. 234-236
- Gestalt Learning
- pp. 237-240
- Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
- pp. 241-244
- President’s Corner
- pp. 245-247
- The Violins
- pp. 248-251