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Andrew Foster was a teacher, missionary, and pioneer, He dedicated his life to helping Deaf people learn ASL, and working to assure that Deaf people in Africa had access to education. He was passionate about helping the less fortunate, and felt compelled to go to Africa to do mission work. He stated in some of his writings that he was, “moved by this vast educational and spiritual void among my people.” Andrew Foster was born in June of 1925 to Wiley and Veline Foster. They lived in Ensley, Alabama, where his father worked as a coal miner. He did not become Deaf until the age of 11 when he and his younger brother were stricken with spinal meningitis, leaving both of them Deaf. He learned ASL at the Talladega School for the Colored Deaf, …show more content…
Foster moved to Flint, Michigan where he lived with his aunt and attended Michigan School for the Deaf through the eighth grade. After he finished school there, Andrew worked odd jobs and took nigh classes and correspondence courses to further his education. In 1950 Andrew Foster earned his diploma in accountancy and business administration from the Detroit Institute of Commerce. He earned his high school diploma through correspondence courses in 1951, when he was 26 years old. In 1951 Andrew Foster became the one of the first three Colored Deaf people to be admitted to Gallaudet University, in Washington D.C. He was also awarded a full scholarship to attend Gallaudet. He became the first Black Deaf student to graduate from Gallaudet in 1954. He graduated with a degree in education. While he …show more content…
Berta was from Germany and she was also Deaf. Together Andrew and Berta had five children, four boys, Andrew, John, Tim, and Dan and one daughter, Faith. With the help and support of his wife, he went on to establish 29 other schools for the Deaf. In all, Andrew Foster opened 31 schools for the Deaf across 13 countries including Ghana, Benin, Congo, Chad, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and
Although both his parents could sign, he was raised without learning how to because his doctors told his parents and grandparents that they were afraid signing would interfere with his speech and interfere with his learning and education because he would no longer try and use his speech and hearing skills. Mark talks about his struggles faced while attending different schools and just not being able to understand people because all he can do is read lips which was especially difficult when he wasn’t familiar with the movement and pattern of the person’s lips. He also talks about the schools he attended and how they affected him in different ways and how kindergarten at the Henry H. Houston School made him feel out of place because he wasn’t able to sing along or hear any of the music in class. Then, in third grade he switched schools and attended the now Plymouth Meeting Friends School and thought it was going well until another boy kicked a football at him and knocked him to the ground causing him to lose his hearing aid battery. Another school experience he didn’t enjoy was at Germantown Friends School where Mark states 95% of the time he had no clue what was going on and that when the teacher was done lecturing he would scramble around asking for the assignment and had to learn how to do it on his own. He was so ashamed of being deaf considering that’s all his grandparents wanted to believe that
Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again is a biography about his life between two dimensions of the Deaf world and the Hearing world as well as the implications he faced throughout his journeys’. Mark Drolsbaugh was born from two deaf parents and was basically forced to adapt to the hearing world even though his parents are deaf. When Drolsbaugh was born he was hearing, however, by first grade his parents and teachers discovered he was losing his hearing. As time went on Mark realized the issues he faced from trying to adapt to the hearing world. Mark Drolsbaugh quotes in his biography, “Deafness is bad. I am deaf. I need to be fixed. I must be like them, no matter what, because deaf is bad.” However, no matter what his family believed that he
Spradley, T. S., & Spradley, J. P. (1978). Deaf Like Me. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University.
In the autobiography Deaf Again, Mark Drolsbaugh writes about his life being born hearing, growing up hard of hearing, to eventually becoming deaf. By writing this book, he helps many people view from his perspective on what it is like for someone to struggle trying to fit in the hearing society. Through his early years, his eyes were closed to the deaf world, being only taught how to live in a hearing world. Not only does the book cover his personal involvement, but it covers some important moments in deaf history. It really is eye-opening because instead of just learning about deaf culture and deaf history, someone who lived through it is actually explaining their experiences.
Alice Cogswell - The Beginning of American Deaf Education - Start ASL. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2016, from https://www.start-american-sign-language.com/alice-cogswell_html
After reading Deaf Again I learned a lot of new things about Deaf culture and was drawn in by the story of Mark Drolsbaugh. "The hardest fight a man has to fight is to live in a world where every single day someone is trying to make you someone you do not want to be" e.e cummings. I was brought into the book immediately from this quote and realized how difficult it must have been for Mark to find his identity. He was trying to hang on to his hearing in fear of going deaf as if there was something wrong or not proper with being deaf. It took him a long time, twenty-three years to realize that the Deaf culture is receiving and it was there for him to embrace the entire time. It would be difficult to be able to hear and then slowly lose your hearing while having to communicate in the world we live in. Both his parents Sherry and Don were Deaf and I enjoyed reading the part where Mark was brought into this world through childbirth and the signing and conversation that was going on inside while the process was taking place. Like the anesthesia machine not working, which had to have been painful.
While reading Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again where he wrote about his experiences with becoming postlingually deaf, I realized that I was able to relate to some of the situations he encountered, especially when he spoke of his frustrating childhood due to his disability. As he grew older, he needed to find new ways to cope with and accept his deafness. Because of his unique viewpoint with deaf parents who were not allowed to sign around him, the book gave readers a different perspective to look at deafness with. Drolsbaugh’s personal account of his life was inspirational as he grew up with a truly exceptional situation, yet was able to overcome his obstacles and become successful after he quit denying who he really was.
Throughout the ITP program and the lower level ASL classes the name Gallaudet is driven into our heads. We know of the University named after him and how he was the man to bring education to the Deaf in America. What was not before mentioned is that there were two Gallaudets. The first thing I learned from this book is the importance of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his son Edward Miner Gallaudet. I fact I had believed for some time now that E.M. Gallaudet was this extraordinary man that everyone loved and the named a university after him. It is unfortunate that this was not made clearer in the past. Now all I see is a man who took the only path that he knew how to take.
The Gallaudet University was founded in 1864 when Amos Kendall donated two acres in Washington D.C. for deaf and blind students seeking aide. He became involved in the children's lives and convinced the government to let them be his wards. He received aide from the government and started the Columbia Institute for the Instruction for the Deaf and Dumb. Kendall appointed Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet's son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, as superintendent. In the twentieth century, the university shifted more towards the technical fields of study, but Percival Hall, the second president of the school, changed the curriculum again to a more liberal field. In 1954, an act of congress the Columbia Institute for the Instruction for the Deaf and Dumb was changed to the Gallaudet University. In 1970, Gallaudet was bein...
The Gallaudet School for the Deaf is a school where deaf and hard of hearing people can go to collage and get a degree. This school has been around for more than 100 years and has quite a history. Through the years, it has been recognized by Presidents and dignitaries.
Padden, Carol and Humphries, Tom (1988). Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Robert DeMayo is a Deaf actor, educator and ASL consultant. He was born in Connecticut but currently lives in Philadelphia. DeMayo grew up in a hearing family. It was hard for him growing up in a hearing family. He often felt like he was being left out by his family, who never bothered to learn ASL so that they could better communicate with him. This being the case DeMayo decided to leave his home since his family seemed like they did not care about how he felt being Deaf when the rest of his family could hear. DeMayo often struggles to make ends meat. Being a Deaf actor makes it even harder to find work while trying to pursue his dream. According to DeMayo there are not many jobs for Deaf actors that have flexible enough hours for him to also be an actor. He often had to take short term jobs like translating for other actors or musicians as they sang and performed. These jobs did not provide enough income and because he could not make enough money to support himself he eventually became homeless until one of his friends let him stay with them until he got back on his feet. These are just a few of the struggles DeMayo faced being a Deaf actor, TL Forsberg also faced many struggles as a hard of hearing singer.
Dr Jim Cromwell has also found that those deaf children who are being educated in mainstream schools are not getting the education that they be worthy of. There is not enough support for them, they are being helped by teaching assistants with level 2 BSL, which is less than an O-Level.
With that knowledge the deaf character gained more confidence when communicating and was able to achieve bigger goals in their life then when they had little to no knowledge of how things worked in society. Reading about these characters just gave me a small insight into the deaf community but with the documentary ”Through Deaf Eyes,” has open my mind and eyes that they are people who can thrive in and change the world just as anyone can when they put their mind to
From a deafness-as-defect mindset, many well-meaning hearing doctors, audiologists, and teachers work passionately to make deaf children speak; to make these children "un-deaf." They try hearing aids, lip-reading, speech coaches, and surgical implants. In the meantime, many deaf children grow out of the crucial language acquisition phase. They become disabled by people who are anxious to make them "normal." Their lack of language, not of hearing, becomes their most severe handicap. While I support any method that works to give a child a richer life, I think a system which focuses on abilities rather than deficiencies is far more valuable. Deaf people have taught me that a lack of hearing need not be disabling. In fact, it shouldn?t be considered a lack at all. As a h...