A friend in Rochester, New York, mailed me an article that was published this recent summer. It was surprising to learn that, in 1982, the then-dean of National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID), Dr. William E. Castle, was the first elected president of Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf (AGBAD). Not only that, Dr. Alan Hurwitz, the school’s associate dean, was president of National Association of the Deaf (NAD).
To compare their philosophy on which they executed their role as the president of their respective organizations, I put their mission statements side by side.
Dr. Castle described his organization’s goals as promoting:
“the importance of education for hearing-impaired persons, with emphasis on good language, including the development of spoken language, a good ability to speechread, and use of residual hearing through optimal use of amplification.”
Dr. Hurwitz put forth his organization’s goals as this:
“The NAD emphasizes the acceptance of ‘total communication’, the right of deaf people to use any and all forms of expression, including facial expressions, gestures, finger spelling, reading, speech, and residual hearing through amplification.”
I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about the above.
There’s more juicy stuff in this article! Surprising stuff about the history of NTID, AGBAD and Alexander Graham Bell. I plan on plucking particulars and sharing them with you. I’m also hoping to be able to re-publish the article.
Here’s the citation…
Chasing Aleck: The Story of a Dorm
R. A. R. EDWARDS
The Public Historian, Vol. 29, No. 3 pp 87-104 (Summer 2007) (available for purchase,$12)
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Posted on December 16th, 2007 by tayler
December 16th, 2007 6:23 pm
tayler, i also have read “The Story of a Dorm” in one of my friends’ blog, who i met on a popluar deaf community deafromance.com. the “story” is great. it really reflect some problems… don’t know if anyone can find any ways to solve thme
December 16th, 2007 10:05 pm
I’m not sure what your point is…presidents and officers of national organizations concerning deafness tend to work in fields also concerning deafness, particularly deaf education. It doesn’t seem surprising at all that a AGBell president and a NAD president have both gone on to become the NTID dean, especially since NTID is all about eclectic communication.
By the way, please don’t refer to it as AGBAD. That is simply not how the organization calls itself–it uses AGBell for its short name. http://berkeoutspoken.blogspot.com/2007/07/ag-bell-not-agbad.html
December 17th, 2007 9:13 am
Hi, Tayler,
Interesting view on this… It was kind of awkward of putting the two Presidents at the same college. Definitely AGBAD is not opening to any sign language, gestures, fingerspelling and its like. Yet this Dr. Castle was a President of NTID. It tells a lot.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
deafk
December 17th, 2007 10:04 am
Yo Adam.
The article, “Chasing Aleck: The Story of a Dorm” referred to the organization as AGBAD. Furthermore it is cited as such as AGBAD here. My apologies! At least I wrote AGBell in the title.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear… both Castle and Hurwitz were presidents at the same time, while Castle was Dean, Hurwitz as associate Dean, both of NTID–all at the same time. deafk is certainly right to point out the “awkwardness”! Though I liked Dr. Edwards’ word choice better: tension.
I respectfully disagree with you, Castle’s philosophy is nowhere close to “eclectic”. We both used the word “eclectic” in our articles published in RIT/NTID publications. I was surprised to learn in the article, “Chasing Aleck: The Story of a Dorm”, who it was that originally wrote that NTID’s communication philosophy should be “eclectic”.
Dr. William E. Castle himself. The irony.
But wait! There is another irony in Edwards’ article that I will reveal.
December 17th, 2007 10:54 am
Oh, I see, both of them at the same time. That’s definitely interesting!
I’m afraid some people like to play up the “rivalry” between AGBell and NAD, portraying them as opposite sides of the spectrum. I’m not certain how much communication or conflict actually happens between them–in many ways, these two organizations have very different purposes and don’t really target the same population.
December 17th, 2007 10:44 pm
Adam - I have to respectfully disagree with you - those two organizations do have same target population.
Tayler - looking forward to reading the article if you’re able to re-publish it!
December 19th, 2007 3:03 am
[...] was his true passion, however, for the simple reason that NTID did and does not embody his communication philosophy, Bell is rolling in his grave steaming [...]
February 11th, 2008 9:27 am
Castle is hearing and Hurwitz is deaf…Hurwitz has the actual experience of deafness (wife is also deaf)…looking forward to your next post on this subject with the another irony!