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Message: <blockquote data-quote="x1heavy" data-source="post: 2550165" data-attributes="member: 97095">Yes SEE takes forever to convey information. ASL was awesome when we learned it back then. It did throw some of the Teachers off track in those days sometimes. Almost like the old slang word "Ain't" from Baltimore City which was sort of banned in their schools. Or the use of "Try-na" (Trying to do) here in Arkansas.However DD, He smashed the institutional habit of punishing deaf who used signs in the really early time. I think that Columbia for me was a place of gaining a bright future. I will explain that my first day in September of 1973, we had me and one teacher a Sandra Brown go over the alphabet and numbers 1 to 100. Once i grasped the written roman system it was easier to consider the numbers all the way up. That took a hour total. Then I was told good luck with everyone in the dorms and school that week to learn the rest of it. I would be remiss not to mention that there were certain forbidden curse words and those that applied to girlfriend-Boyfriend stuff was the first taught by the others. Not necessarily the approved language in those days.Speech was a bit more difficult. The State invested in a Speech Pathologist for four years there and she patiently had me add words, many words in spoken form. I always took joy in signing in ASL with the deaf church because you can convey a great deal of information to people there.I would be somewhat afraid to use SEE with any deaf unless as you said, that person requested that particular langauge. The reason being it is so rusted out from disuse. Not to mention regional diffrences between the east coast (Maryland) and the deep south here in Arkansas where even today some deaf in Little Rock were protected from Society and were too sheltered for their own good in some cases.I must add on the MSB which is the Maryland School for the Blind on Taylor Ave in Baltimore City (NE section, next to Parkville just beyond the city line) was also a user of sign langauge as well. They were also part of a system then to teach coloreds as well who were deaf and so forth however that far back in time up to the 50's they were not intergrated until the mid 60's which I would consider a barbaric practice among other things. Having seen in the 70's on how any one of any race or sex could engage in one or more languages freely without punishment is probably a greatest step forward for the Deaf Community. Dr Denton was a influential part of that, if not the foundation to move it forward. (Galludet was the first in America however to go into him would be to be beyond the subject of this post.) Galludet saw that in the UK for example signs were kept secret at the state level for strict control of deaf workers in shops. To possess signs or a complete language in those days hundreds of years ago was to be danger to the State. So Galludet brought it to America.</blockquote>

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