“to leave a child without language for a moment longer than is absolutely necessary seems cruel to me.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“We don’t sign here, of course. We want to prepare these children to enter the normal world.” She believed that.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“Time and again I heard my grandmother Wells say she would give her own hearing to make her daughter “whole.” In her… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“Having hearing children meant they had to come into contact with hearing people even more frequently than they would have otherwise—hearing teachers… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“Children of defectives often feel guilt.” These words seared into my brain.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“By the age of two, hearing children perceived their parents’ deafness well enough to know automatically that they must use gestures with… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“In fact, an alarming percentage of deaf children graduate high school with a third-grade reading ability.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“From 1963 through 1965, a nationwide epidemic of rubella—German measles—caused thousands of women to deliver babies who were handicapped in some way:” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“there are signs that are parodies of actual objects and that retain a cleverness even for deaf people. Indeed, these signs are to sight… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“I was the only student she’d taught who’d actually known any deaf people. Most of the students in my courses were there because they’d… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“It was like the old joke: the operation was a success but the patient died. Theories and goals of education don’t matter a whit… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“One story was about a deaf man who was driving in the country, when safety bars were lowered across the road at a railroad… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“Mom turned to me, puzzled. In sign language, she asked, “What was Grandpa saying in the kitchen?” My heart froze.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“By the time we got back to his house, Grandpa couldn’t reproduce the two signs he’d learned, but he hurried inside to describe to… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“her parents had no way of telling her she was going away to school.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“And then she made a sign that sent a chill up my spine. It was a slang sign meaning “I’m deaf,” but it’s crudely… — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image
“Like virtually all schools for the deaf at that time, the Indiana State School emphasized oral skills: speaking and lipreading.” — Lou Ann Walker Copy Share Image