Deaf Revolution Part 1

Being Deaf, it is apart of who I am as a person and as an individual.  I’ll never forget when I first saw Deaf President Now! Something in me changed something new and different. I am sure many Deaf People felt the same when they saw the massive wave of students marching. Thoughts would run through our heads, “ What are they doing? Why are they doing this? Who was leading them? Why are so many Deaf People so angry?”

            Who can remember the very first woman, Deaf Woman to be exact to win an Oscar for her portrayal in Children of a Lesser God? Marlee Matlin is a woman who became an inspiration to many young women and children who aspire to be actors/ actresses. But who really inspired us to dream? Yes we can say many cultural factors single handedly inspired us. Yes, it is true, but the core fact of the matter, it was a little piece of every individual who made Deaf History Important.

            First of all, we are “The People,” we are “The Culture,” and we are, “The Voice.”

We are everything that makes each of us unique. “We The People,” well lets start with our cultural Icon, Alice Cogswell, a true inspiration to the man who helped shape Deaf History.

Who was Alice Cogswell

            I learned about her while a student at the ModelSecondary School for the Deaf or MSSD for short.  Alice a young girl, who became deaf at a very early age, wasn’t seen as a bright person. She was seen as a girl who was possessed by a demon or stupid, or mentally challenged. In other words in that time and era she was thought to be retarded.

She was not either, she was just a girl who couldn’t hear or speak and was very, very smart indeed. Mr. Thomas H. Gallaudet a preacher during the 18^th Century was a friend of her father’s. Mr. Gallaudet saw potential in Alice.  Mr. Gallaudet proposed to send her to a formal school that would allow her to learn as well as “express” herself visually. In other words she was the