While a student at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), I submitted an opinion piece to the university student publication, “Reporter“, regarding a NTID building that bore a plaque honoring Alexander Graham Bell.
“Reporter” April 14, 2000; Page 4 Giving Faulty Praise by Tayler Mayer
The building housing the Margaret’s Day Care Center is named after the inventor Alexander Graham Bell and a bronze plaque on a wall in this building honors him for his feats. Not only is Alexander Graham Bell famed for telephony invention and patent, he is also noted for his “role” in education of the deaf.
Bell strongly urged oralism-the use of speech and lip-reading- to his deaf students. The issue lies not in the method of communication he promoted, but that in he believed it was the one and only one way to teach and train deaf pupils, whatever their needs were. Had he been alive today, Bell would report that ASL, Cued Speech, PSE, SEE, etc. are ineffective and that oralism should be adopted and practiced by all Deaf people.
A conflict resides in NTID’s philosophy of communication usage in their classroom. Because there are several languages and methods to teach the deaf, NTID purports to be eclectic, thus NTID is “supportive” of communication diversity.
The communication philosophy contradiction aforementioned should be sufficient in providing the grounds for consideration of the removal of the name Bell from the NTID building, however if this issue does not receive the attention it deserves, there is more to the history of the American inventor we consider a “hero”.
As head of the Eugenics Section at American Breeders Association (now known as American Genetics Association), Bell stood before the nation’s legislatures with a model “sterilization law” targeted toward the deaf. He, for the majority of his life, was also strongly against the marriage between deaf people.
Thomas Jefferson once stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….“
Bell, the famed inventor, philanthropist, and humanitarian has violated these cherished American rights by advocating for the use of ONLY oralism among Deaf people; denying Deaf people the right to use ASL in an educational and social setting; striving to prevent Deaf people from marrying other Deaf people; and aspiring to close down schools, publications and organizations of, by and for the Deaf.
In consideration of such a person who clearly did not believe that all men were created equal, endowed with unalienable rights, should RIT honor Bell by having a building prominently bearing his name? Should there be a plaque pledging that NTID not only honors this man but also seeks to emulate his ideals as stated in the bronze?
Email This Post
Posted on October 23rd, 2007 by tayler
October 23rd, 2007 6:04 am
Thank you for sharing your article from your RIT days. It keeps amazing me how ignorant our society could be about Deaf people’s “pursuit of happiness.” RIT/NTID is well known for Hearing Supremacy for many years, and I hope that your present post would spark change in your alma mater, RIT/NTID.
October 23rd, 2007 6:15 am
Ever since Alexander Graham Bell holocausted Deaf people’s natural language(ASL), the deaf education suffered for over 100 years, AG Bell should be branded the likes of Adolf Hilter.
The Deaf students at NTID should demand to remove the name AGBell from that building as would the Jewish people would demand to remove the name Adolf Hilter from any building in the world.
I would not be surprise if the three stooges, McConnel, Paotie and Roehm, will make effort to discourage the Deaf students at NTID.
Victimized by ABGell
October 23rd, 2007 6:16 am
Thanks for your report about RIT/NTID’s Hearing Supremacy for so many years. No, I do NOT think that NTID should honor AG Bell ’s name building at all. Just get rid of his name for good once in all !!!! That will be appreciated!
October 23rd, 2007 6:18 am
You certainly did your homework! Bravo for you educating my alma mater about the ugly facts of AG Bell!
I certainly have a conflicting image of NTID adopting and praising the plague carved with AG Bell’s name. I am starting to wonder if there was funding endowed by Volta Bureau to press NTID to recognize AG Bell in vain. From the way I see it, money is power and it diminishes the moral value of the importance of communication diversity. What a shame for NTID to swallow the bait!
October 23rd, 2007 7:31 am
Thank you for bringing it up. I thought AG Bell was great until I read Deaf Heritage and his so-called proposal to eliminate deaf….then I did 360 degrees turn and became deaf advocate to preserve the rights of Deaf and ASL!
AG Bell is nothing but a crook. liar and cheater!
Bell stole the telephone invention from Meucci.
Shame on Bell!
October 23rd, 2007 10:17 am
I have spent my entire adult life loathing the fact that A. G. Bell is thought of, so highly, by hearing people.
I am of the opinion that this man was an idiot….
Let’s look at it this way: He was trying to create a cure for deafness because he couldn’t accept the fact that a vast number of people live happily, without hearing.
The result was the telephone and it couldn’t be used, by the Deaf, until someone created a coupler, to make the old tty’s accessible to us.
HE WAS AN IDIOT…WHY HONOR HIM?
October 23rd, 2007 11:21 am
A picture of the plaque?
October 24th, 2007 3:30 am
Allow me, if you will, to continue…..
After the DPN movement my (hearing) sister said those Deaf kids had “rebelled” against authority (a taboo subject in the area, where I live.)
I replied, “The women did it, in the 1917 Women’s Sufferage. The blacks did the same in the ’50’s and ’60’s, during the Civil Rights Movement and now the Deaf have.
It’s always the oppressed, who are accused of rebellion but the oppressors are not thought of as doing wrong — until much later.
The oppression, of Deaf people, has always been that hearing people say we must speak and lipread (become hearing people, who cannot hear). So, when the Deaf got tired of this oppression and the DPN movement came, the oppressors hid behind the self-placed, “authority” label.
Had oralism, Signing Exact English and hearing people, who demanded the Deaf do the work to break the communication barrier, never occurred, DPN wouldn’t have, either.
Those pepole, (like AGB, himself), who demand the Deaf are simply hearing people, who cannot hear - that’s an oxymoron, if there ever was one, too) are the instigators of the unrest in the Deaf Community….NOT
the “rebellious” Deaf people.
October 24th, 2007 9:07 pm
Beautifully written!
October 31st, 2007 11:57 am
[...] wrote an opinion piece which was published in RIT’s student publication. Its last sentence [...]
November 20th, 2007 12:30 am
My Pardon… what was your opinion about the article?
AGB, a “role” of deaf education?! Damn no way!
Let me dip in something I am now thinking…
You know how hearing parents want their deaf babies to be able to hear. What they’d do.. Take them to doctor to have cochlear implant done. Why don’t Deaf parents remove the hearing baby’s ears OR poke stick into both ears to make them deaf? Cuz it’d be abusive. Why don’t they consider the hearing parents abusive for having operation on those tiny 6 month old babies’ head?! What difference?
Now.. You know how hearing parents want their deaf babies to be able to speak… They would tolerate them by brainwashing, forcing them to speak right, and forth. Why don’t deaf parents just have a surgery to just remove our mouth so we won’t have to practice speaking !??!
All we need to do is… EDUCATE hearies, HoH or even Deaf parents on the oralism issues.
Look at Gov Bush in FL.. he signed that all doctors gotcha refer parents to FL School for the Deaf.. Now, I am curious… would that help with FL School for the Deaf education improve? I know this new law helps FL School for the Deaf with the number of their enrollment. I also am curious if that school have oral classes like back in 1970 when they forced us to wear our hearing aids and attend speech class twice a week.
Anyway, I better hush now.. I may sound like I am not on a right track right now.
March 13th, 2008 10:05 am
AGBells techniques were harsh, but we must also look at the intention behind his actions. His views were tainted by his upbringing, and we must consider that perhaps he truly believed he was working in the best interest of Deaf people. It’s a shame that such ignorant views were boasted by his power position. If only he knew and understood the truth.
May 23rd, 2008 1:07 pm
I’m sorry but for his time AGB worked for the deaf community. Yes his belief in Eugenics was wrong I’m not arguing that but for the time Eugenics was popular among lots of people in the scientific community. By todays standards he crosses the line but by the standards he lived in he was for the deaf community and helped by working for schools that catered to the deaf population. Please before discrediting the man or comparing him to Hitler read about how he spent his life and the times he lived in. ask yourself were things better or worse because of his existence. I think you’ll be surprised by your answer if you take an honest look by the standards he lived in.
May 23rd, 2008 1:14 pm
RIT student, explain the fact he was head of the Eugenics Section at American Breeders Association. He set the standard, he was the standard. So much that Bell’s name is a permanent part of the Wikipedia definition for Eugenics.
May 23rd, 2008 1:42 pm
If you’re going to reference wikipedia (that itself claims nothing is permanent). then read the article about Bell and honestly tell me he didn’t fight for the deaf community. It’s all in the context of the times. By todays standards he is terrible but at the time he fought for his parents and worked with people like Helen Keller who praised him.
May 23rd, 2008 1:57 pm
RIT student, in the post where I originally wrote that “Bell’s name is a permanent part of the Wikipedia definition for Eugenics”, I also said “Delete his name, and it will be put back promptly.” That’s how it will remain permanent. You can’t change the fact he was the leading and major figure in the history of Eugenics.
What he proposed at the time was a new concept, and obviously American society did not know how to respond. When eugenics was brought to reality, we saw the horrendous consequences that was the Holocaust.
Bell later abandoned Eugenics - but NEVER abandoned his efforts to stop the deaf from intermarriage, to dismantle schools and organizations which allowed ASL to thrive, to promote oralism as the ONLY method to teach deaf students. NTID welcomes all kinds of students no matter their communication means, strongly contradicting Bell’s philosophy. For this reason, NTID does not agree with Bell—and instead is honoring him. Moreover, Bell would not have accepted this plaque, and would have instead spoke out against the existence of such an institute.