Skip to main content

What is some useful information on The Mask of Benevolence by Harlan Lane other than the summary?

Another bit of information that will help you is the explanation of the themes of this book. The two main themes discussed here are the mistaken benevolence of hearing people and the failure of current education for the deaf.


The title of the book comes from the mistaken benevolence of hearing people who try to “help” the deaf. Hearing people make many decisions about deaf education. Hearing people try to “help” by insisting on lip reading instead of manual sign language. This deprives children of socialization and culture. Hearing people try to “help” by labeling the deaf as “disabled” so that they cannot get the opportunities of bilingual education. Finally, hearing people try to “help” by using science such as the cochlear implant (that damages deaf culture by forcing children to hear).


A second theme is theme of deaf education and, specifically, its failure. Deaf education is mostly dictated by hearing people and involves lip reading in order for children to acclimate to the hearing world. Mainstreaming is a large part of deaf education. The author asserts that, instead of mainstreaming, it is bilingual education that should be the focus. Because of the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, minorities can be taught core subjects in their native language and English as a second language. The author asserts that the deaf are one of these minorities. Deaf education is still failing, but is taking strides in a positive direction through steps like the Gallaudet Revolution in 1988, which required a deaf president to lead the university for the deaf.


Thus, the author presents himself as one of those few hearing people who are truly willing to listen to the ideas of the deaf. Further, Harlan Lane calls for revolutionary changes in order to truly empower the deaf community.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more