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Organizing FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH John Van Cleve , 1997 JOHN VAN CLEVE: All schools for the deaf in the United States had a very large vocational component. Often half of the day was actually given to vocational training. LAURIE BLOCK: So the expectation is these students grow up, lean an independent life in the world -- and they will not be a burden to anybody. VAN CLEVE: Oh clearly, clearly. The expectation was they would not be a burden. They would not be a burden on the state, they would not be a burden on their families, they would not be a burden on anyone. What happens is when deaf people start to come together in schools for the deaf, early in the nineteenth century, they realized that they have interests in common and interests that are different from the interests of hearing people. And, not surprisingly, they form all sorts of bonds of friendship, love. They begin to establish organizations that are organizations of deaf people alone because they say in their writings and so on, we as deaf people, as a class apart -- actually used the word "class" -- as a class apart, we have interests that are separate from and different from hearing people. And we need to come together periodically and talk about these things. It's not antagonistic. They're not saying they are against hearing people, or in any way in conflict with hearing people, they're just different. ... So that's what happens in terms of the formation of the deaf community. They form deaf organizations, often at the local level. The next step might be to create a state organization. As there began to be more and more schools, then you would have the alumni from a particular school in New York, for example, and then for all of the state of New York. |
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