Helpful Score: 1
Copyright 1988, printed: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England; 134 pages with Index and References
From Back Cover:
The authors are members of the Deaf communiy and are also scholars who study its language and society. Carol Padden is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications at the University of California, San Diego. Tom Humphries is Associate Dean, San Diego Community College District.
"In this wonderful book, we see Deaf culture from inside out and from outside in at the same time--a miracle and a delight!" -- Harlan Lane, author of When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf
"To be deaf, it seems obvious, must be to live in a world of silence. That, say the authors of Deaf in America, is where most people get it wrong...(Padden and Humphries) challenge their readers to imagine a world, one with a 'different center'--one in which ability or inability to hear is not at the core. The thing that links it all together is sign language, which Deaf in America contemplates, illustrates, and celebrates."--Washington Post
"A long, painful experience of hearing intolerance has generally kept Deaf culture fairly closed to outsiders, even sympathetic ones. But now Padden and Humphries...have written a charming small book that invites the rest of us at least part way in...A most welcome addition to that very small shelf of books that truly illuminate the experience of being deaf."--Psychology Today
"Through the use of folklore, apocryphal stories, poetry, jokes and discussion of split factions and advocacy organizations, Padden and Humphries gracefully explain how deaf culure works, what it means to its members, how they define themselves within it, and how they interact with the world outside. Providing rare insight into this universe of silence, this volume conveys the joy and satisfaction that many deaf people have in their lives and shows that being deaf is not a handicap the way most hearing people think."--Booklist
From Back Cover:
The authors are members of the Deaf communiy and are also scholars who study its language and society. Carol Padden is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications at the University of California, San Diego. Tom Humphries is Associate Dean, San Diego Community College District.
"In this wonderful book, we see Deaf culture from inside out and from outside in at the same time--a miracle and a delight!" -- Harlan Lane, author of When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf
"To be deaf, it seems obvious, must be to live in a world of silence. That, say the authors of Deaf in America, is where most people get it wrong...(Padden and Humphries) challenge their readers to imagine a world, one with a 'different center'--one in which ability or inability to hear is not at the core. The thing that links it all together is sign language, which Deaf in America contemplates, illustrates, and celebrates."--Washington Post
"A long, painful experience of hearing intolerance has generally kept Deaf culture fairly closed to outsiders, even sympathetic ones. But now Padden and Humphries...have written a charming small book that invites the rest of us at least part way in...A most welcome addition to that very small shelf of books that truly illuminate the experience of being deaf."--Psychology Today
"Through the use of folklore, apocryphal stories, poetry, jokes and discussion of split factions and advocacy organizations, Padden and Humphries gracefully explain how deaf culure works, what it means to its members, how they define themselves within it, and how they interact with the world outside. Providing rare insight into this universe of silence, this volume conveys the joy and satisfaction that many deaf people have in their lives and shows that being deaf is not a handicap the way most hearing people think."--Booklist
My experience has been that ANYTHING by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries is priceless and this book certainly backs that up. It is a short book that is easy to read and gives Interpreters and those with Deaf friends new insight into the history of ASL, the language of the Deaf in America.
A must read for students of American Sign Language and valuable information for proponents of Oral or Signed English methods of learning for deaf students.
A must read for students of American Sign Language and valuable information for proponents of Oral or Signed English methods of learning for deaf students.
