my views of pa bell have changed since watching "through deaf eyes". prior to watching that documentary, i had no idea of his negative place in deaf history. (i highly recommend "through deaf eyes", btw.)
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I never knew that Bell had such strange ideas about not wanting to propagate a "deaf race". I'll definitely have to watch that show when it airs on our local PBS. I'm looking forward to learning about Newton's wackiness in the Tuesday episode of NOVA.
what doesn't make a lot of sense to me, teresa, is how he could believe in eugenics and insist on oral only education (no sign language allowed) in schools when both his wife and mother were deaf!
perhaps (and sadly) he was a product of his times but i don't see how he could have justified those particular views of his given his exposure to disability. it certainly doesn't excuse it. his involvement with the american deaf community essentially stopped progress for decades. i'm having a hard time coming to terms with it.
a lot of people are arguably canadian, striatic. and quite a few of my best friends are. ;D
I know we're all human and have our faults, but when one is as big a name as he was, one needs to carefully consider one's actions because they can sure have a huge impact on many people. I'll never think of him in the same way again, that's for sure.
4 comments:
I never knew that Bell had such strange ideas about not wanting to propagate a "deaf race". I'll definitely have to watch that show when it airs on our local PBS. I'm looking forward to learning about Newton's wackiness in the Tuesday episode of NOVA.
Nice Graham Bell Pepper, BTW. :)
he's arguably canadian!
p.s. best blog ever.
what doesn't make a lot of sense to me, teresa, is how he could believe in eugenics and insist on oral only education (no sign language allowed) in schools when both his wife and mother were deaf!
perhaps (and sadly) he was a product of his times but i don't see how he could have justified those particular views of his given his exposure to disability. it certainly doesn't excuse it. his involvement with the american deaf community essentially stopped progress for decades. i'm having a hard time coming to terms with it.
a lot of people are arguably canadian, striatic. and quite a few of my best friends are. ;D
thanks!
I know we're all human and have our faults, but when one is as big a name as he was, one needs to carefully consider one's actions because they can sure have a huge impact on many people. I'll never think of him in the same way again, that's for sure.
I'm (arguably or not) Canadian too! :>
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