August 4th, 2006 - today was the last day of lectures at the DHI conference. I went down to the Heat cafe, deep in thought. I wondered what today's lectures would bring, and I was very excited about the upcoming tour to the ITA - Berlin (the Jewish school for the Deaf) which still stands today, and it would be led by none other than Israel Savir, one of its only remaining survivors. When talking to others in the cafe, I noticed most folks were looking forward to the tour as well! I also got some exciting news, the results of last night's meeting: Douglas Bahl was voted the DHI Board President, and the 2012 DHI conference will be held in Toronto, Canada (in the month of May).

The first of today's five speakers was a hearing German named Professor Klaus B. Gunther, who works in Sign Language Education for Humboldt University - the very university we were at. His keynote address was about the history of Deaf education in Germany, which was similar to our own history of Deaf education in America. He began with how Deaf education was before the 1880 Milan congress took place: there were two very influential Deaf German teachers, Otto Friedrich Kruse and one other, who promoted sign language to teach Deaf children. Sadly, both died before 1880. So, when the Milan congress voted to teach oralism, this vote took root in Germany and oralism was everywhere in Germany. However, in 1918 when the Kaiser left Germany, a new era of Deaf education was born. There was a Deaf movement in1921, and in 1922 there was a national meeting of teachers of the Deaf who insisted on the use of sign language to teach Deaf children, but they hit a brick wall. The government turned them down. In fact, Gunther mentioned Felix Reich as well - remember him? The principal of the ITA - Berlin who was arrested in England? Well, Reich was one of those who promoted the use of sign language, and because the ITA schools were based on donations, he had a very "hard sell". But still he supported the teachers of the Deaf across Germany!  By 1933, the goals of these teachers were half-met, but then Hitler became chancellor and all "hell broke loose" - no sign language was allowed between 1933 and 1945. Gulp. Gunther added a fascinating fact about the city of Berlin - between 1945 and 1982, West Berlin still did not allow sign language, while East Berlin promoted sign language. Between 1945 and 1982, language patterns of oral Deaf Germans were noted to have severe language problems, and finally the reality of oralism set in. A paper was written in 1982 called "The Munich Signing Paper", which led to a bi-bi Deaf German school in 1993, which still exists today.

The second speaker was a Deaf Finnish woman, Eeva Salmi , who is one of the authors of a beautiful, thick book called "From Deaf Mutes to Sign Language Users", to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Finnish Association of the Deaf . Her lecture was based on this book, which tells the history of sign language use in Finland from 1800 onward.  In 1800, the first census was recorded, and they found 10 Deaf all close by in the town of Turkku, which was the largest city at that time. Salmi wished she knew what communication methods those 10 Deaf used, though. Carl Oscar Malm, before he established the first school for the Deaf in Finland, went to the school for the Deaf in Sweden. He signed Swedish sign language, but when he established the school for the Deaf in 1846, the Swedish sign language system became more Finnish and became the Finnish sign language system that was used today. Thus, after 1846 Turkku's Deaf community grew. In 1886, the first Deaf club was established in Turkku. Sadly by 1924 the attitude of Finns changed towards the Deaf, and established an Act in which Deaf were banned from marrying another Deaf, and Deaf women were not allowed to have babies. They were mandated to have sterilizations, and this went on till 1969! This did not happen to all Deaf women. By then, a Deaf Awareness policy was set in place. Deaf Finns now use a new identity: rather than call themselves Deaf, they call themselves sign language users because they want to change the focus from the ear to the hands.

Note: I met a very nice Deaf Finnish woman on Saturday's tour of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, who told me her story that fits with this lecture: "My mother knew about the sterilization law. She got pregnant, but did not tell until she was too far along. They were upset with her, but let her have the baby - that's ME! - then sterilized her. Can you imagine? I was shocked when she told me this recently."

The third speaker was a hearing woman from Sweden, Ylma Soderfeldt Garmland, who was there to discuss about "to be secluded - the image of Swedish Deaf in periodicals in the 1920's".  Her discussion about the history of senses was utterly fascinating. She was saying that there is a hierarchy of senses, of which sight is considered the first, hearing the second. However, over time hearing people have considered sight to be the sense for superficial and the sense of hearing to be for communication - ignoring the fact sight is the FIRST in the line! She raised a very good point here. Anyhow, she was clarifying the history of senses first before raising the issue of Swedish Deaf in the 1920's - the reason why she concentrated on the 1920's is because at that time mandatory oral education took place, and there were periodicals discussing Deafness. She pointed out how the belief in hearing overtook the true first sense, sight, affected the Deaf badly - especially in the image of Deaf. Because of their belief in hearing as the first, the nature of the Deaf are constantly analyzed - the image of Deaf is often negative - make the Deaf adjust to the hearing norm. And so on and on. Garmland found this intriguing statement about the Deaf, which was quite untrue: "To the Deaf, our world of sound and chime is the cold kingdom of eternal silence." Gee, eh? However, Garmland stated, the reality is that the Deaf are not an uniform group, and it can be blamed on the advance of oral education which caused the deep divide between the signing Deaf and oral Deaf, as well as this belief that hearing is the first in line which is totally untrue.

The fourth speaker, which was more of a team consisting of Gallaudet's Lois Bragg and Diana Gates, chose to show the history of Lydia Huntley Sigourney, who may have been the first teacher of the Deaf before Gallaudet and Clerc in America. Bragg and Gates based this information on Lydia Sigourney's journal, of which amazingly had notes written by Alice Cogswell's sister in it. They researched Sigourney and found that she was also from Hartford, Connecticut and knew all the major players of Deaf American education: Dr. Mason Cogswell, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. However, her journal proves that she had been "teaching" Alice Cogswell long before Clerc came to America. They even found this beautiful poem that Sigourney had written, about Alice Cogswell titled "Alice"! Bragg and Gates managed to weave the history of Lydia Huntley Sigourney's life to that of Gallaudet, Clerc and American School of the Deaf. They are onto something here, and I would love to see this become a book.

In closing, Mark Zaurov, Professor Klaus B. Gunther and Carol Padden were going to be in discussion about the week's lectures. When Padden could not be found, a Deaf German, a most delightful charming fellow, grabbed the opportunity to introduce the Deaf German students who helped with the conference, and he gave one of the most heartfelt speeches that dealt with the week's lectures, and how they moved us to tears. He closed with: "We must never forget." With that closing line, he had the students give flowers to all the Deaf survivors. As a result, there wasn't much time left for the closing discussion. I later asked Padden what happened, and she was embarrassed to say she simply forgot! We went for our lunch break before going on the afternoon tour on the bus.

Postscript: Know how a Deaf master storyteller can sway you? Well, during one of the lectures that day, a Deaf German was telling the most incredible story (in DGS, which is German Sign Language, but he was certainly understandable!) in the aisle - I couldn't help but watch him instead of the lecturer! I later asked him why he wasn't on the stage and tell his story, and the poor fellow blushed and was flattered! I told him I was serious, because he was indeed 100 percent more exciting than the lecturer I was watching! I wish I could tell his story, but then I wouldn't want this poor sweet fellow in trouble!