ASL Rose Newsletter
Vol. 4 No. 3
December 2010

The EYE Express to an Undervalued Language:  Signed Language

A highly gifted but skeptical Deaf child, Eddie lives with a deaf family who has negative attitudes about signed language and Deaf culture. He does not understand the value or significance of being bilingual. Eddie’s family lives in an area where there are not many Deaf people, and he constantly tries to be like hearing people.

One day Eddie takes a stroll in the woods, and comes across a dilapidated house. As he enters cautiously, a golden-framed pencil drawing of a beautiful train awes him. He touches the picture and suddenly finds himself standing outside his house as the train from the drawing approaches. A conductor comes up to him to take his golden-colored ticket. Etched in gold on the side of the train is its name: The EYE Express.

The conductor announces in American Sign Language (ASL) that the train is headed to Eyeth, where the National Association of the Deaf’s fourth president, George Veditz, is awaiting their arrival. The conductor explains that each child has been selected to meet Veditz, one of the most paramount and prominent Deaf leaders in history. Veditz knew signed languages were at risk of being eradicated and captured sign language on film during the early 1900s. Eddie, who does not know very much about Deaf history, is surprised. He studies the other children. 

Eddie asks if anyone knows who Veditz is or why the group is meeting him. The children all shrug their shoulders. The train comes to a slow stop and Veditz climbs onboard. All the children understand him just fine, and are captivated by his poetic, strong signs. Veditz explains eloquently how video technology has changed lives and how all signed languages should be preserved, promoted and perpetuated in cultures, languages and history. He then repeats his famous statement: "As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs. And as long as we have our films, we can preserve signs in their old purity. It is my hope that we will all love and guard our beautiful sign language as the noblest gift God has given to deaf people."

The children are inspired and finally understand how crucial signed language is. Veditz gives each child a laptop with a built-in webcam, and encourages them to continue using ASL. Eddie sits back and closes his eyes, thinking of his family and how beautiful signed language truly is. He feels a sense of pride and is overtaken by happiness.

He opens his eyes and finds himself back at the dilapidated house. He looks around, realizing that there is no laptop or train. It all seemed so real. Disappointed, Eddie returns home. He tells his parents what he saw, but his parents do not take him seriously.

The next morning is Christmas. He gets out of bed and goes to look at the Christmas tree, and is surprised to see a package with his name written in gold. He excitedly opens it. It is a laptop with a webcam! He gets on the Internet and finds that all the children he met on the train are on different quests to do what Veditz asked of them: preserve, promote and perpetuate signed languages around the world. He smiles, and has a renewed sense of confidence in his identity and in signed language.

—Adapted from The Polar Express

Deaf students continue to be uneducated about their heritage, culture, values and community. Distinguished teacher and writer George Veditz is revered by Deaf people everywhere because he had the foresight in the early 1900s to plead that we preserve signed language and that we continue to appreciate signed language as the “noblest gift.”

ASL is one of the most popular languages in the United States, and is offered at many schools and colleges for credit. Hearing babies are encouraged to learn sign language. ASL has already been recognized as a true, human language. Yet deaf learners are not given the same accessibility in educational settings, and deaf babies are consistently discouraged from signing. Negative attitudes about ASL also persist. What Veditz said relates to David Crystal’s five arguments for why retaining language diversity is essential (Baker, 2006).

ASL Rose strongly supports the preservation, promotion and perpetuation of signed languages around the world, especially among Deaf people. One way to do this is to capture signed languages on video as much as possible. Another method is to attend events like the ASL Teachers Association conference in Seattle and the American Society for Deaf Children conference in Frederick, MD, both slated for July 2011.

The train drawing was created by Edwin Seremeth, a gifted artist who hails from a New England Deaf family. He is extremely multi-talented in architecture, art and machinery. ASL Rose is proud of Seremeth’s extraordinary work, and appreciates his allowing us to showcase his work.

References:

Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 4th edition, Clevedon:  Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Van Allsburg, C. (1985). The Polar Express. New York:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.