TRANSCRIPT
- She received help from a friend Alexander Graham Bell, now best-known is the creator of the telephone, then a leader in deaf education.
- That's what he saw as his mission in life.
In particular teaching of speech and oral communication.
He was a public advocate for the suppression of sign language in the schools and for the teaching of oral skills in schools.
- Oralism in general, I think has a very oppressive quality to it because what oralism is predicated on is the idea that the only way to communicate effectively is being able to speak.
- Speech teaching was a central part of Bell's life.
And he married a deaf woman, Mabel Bell, who was also a public advocate for the oral method.
- When Bell learned Helen was speaking, he went to Perkins and spelled questions into her hands.
- [Bell] Do you know what a cloud is?
- [Keller] Rain.
- [Bell] What is wind? - It is wild air.
- [Bell] What is thought?
- When we make a mistake we say, I thought it was right.
- [Bell] Where is your thought?
- Mind.
My head is full of mind.