| Years ago, deaf educators used a fairly rigid approach | | | | two languages are English and ASL.) All classes are |
| to teaching the deaf to communicate. Sign language | | | | taught in ASL, with voice interpreters often available, |
| was discouraged, even punished at times, and deaf | | | | and the program includes a semester at Gallaudet |
| people were expected to learn to lip-read and to | | | | University in Washington, DC, and internships in various |
| speak. Unfortunately, for those born deaf, who had no | | | | programs around the country. McDaniel's also has a |
| experience of ever hearing human speech, it was | | | | graduate program in Deaf Studies leading to a Master |
| difficult and sometimes impossible to develop intelligible | | | | of Science degree in Deaf Education, which prepares |
| speech. | | | | its students to become highly skilled, respectful |
| Deaf education has changed, thanks to a more | | | | teachers of deaf individuals. |
| evolved and compassionate understanding of the | | | | The college is representative of a new view of deaf |
| needs and capabilities of deaf individuals and to the | | | | individuals, not as people who are seen or who see |
| advocacy of deaf activists. Sign language--American | | | | themselves as handicapped, but who are part of a rich |
| Sign Language (ASL) in particular--is being recognized | | | | cultural heritage with major contributions to offer to |
| as a distinct, legitimate language with its own structure, | | | | their own community and to the larger world. |
| syntax, and idioms, and the deaf community is coming | | | | McDaniel's educational approach to future teachers of |
| into its own as a rich culture, with its own viewpoint as | | | | deaf students arms these teachers with the |
| well as a growing body of literature and theatre. | | | | understanding of deaf culture, the skills, and the respect |
| McDaniel College, a small private college in Maryland, | | | | needed to guide their students into fulfilling lives where |
| includes Deaf Studies as one of its major fields, and | | | | they can make these contributions. |
| looks at the program as bilingual and bi-cultural. (The | | | | |