Customer Reviews

A Child Sacrificed to the Deaf Culture

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I came to read this book as a student of American Sign Language (ASL). I wanted to see the negative side of the Deaf community. I did not find it here.

This book is filled with inconsistency and irrational hatred of the Deaf community. I expected a reasoned critique, but all I found was immature and poorly thought out backstabbing of a community.

Like other reviewers I found gapping lapses of logic. Beyond the claims of bigotry and sexism in the Deaf community (I can find all of this in any public school or PTA meeting), Bertling picks and chooses his assessment of the Deaf community to fit his needs. On page 35 he derides the Deaf community for attempting to get a Deaf superintendent for the first time at his school (an unnamed deaf residential school) and then on page 37 he claims that the Deaf community is resistant to change! It seems he only counts changes that reflect his dislike of Deaf people in positions of power.

And his take on ASL betrays bigotry and ignorance. He claims that deafness has the tragic result of "difficulty [in] obtaining a language" (pg 31). He seems to ignore the fact that ASL is a language. This is either a mistake, or just another part of his puzzling attempt to dismantle the progress in Deaf education in the past 30 years.

The fact that the book is only 108 pages long comes as a relief. It would be difficult to read more of this irrational dismissal of a cultural community.

As a graduate of a residential school, I have to admit that I agree with him in some ways, but most of information is focused only on his experience. This doesn't mean to reflect to everyone. I loved living in a dormitory during all my childhood years (12 years) because I have a lot of good memories. And I still love my old school. Anyway, I happen to meet the author's friends who attended the residential school where he graduated from. Almost all of them were happy to graduate from this school, but they said the only one thing that they were not satisfied is the Deaf education that they received because it could not provide more what the public schools in general provided for hearing students. The author failed to desrcibe why the Deaf education went wrong? He should have explained the communication barrier/breakdown between deaf students and teachers in classrooms, which is very common. He could have explained comparision with his residential school to other residential schools in a nation. He failed to explain an issue of Deaf/Hearing, which is very common in the past. Historically many deaf students and staff have been oppressed and deprived. Overall, this book is based on his opinion, experience and perspective. And it blends with some facts, some misinformation, some true, some myths and some exaggeration. The author could have give more positive information about his school, but he did not choose to. Again, it doesnt mean to relfect to everyone and to every residential school in our country.

A Child Sacrificed to the Deaf Culture, by Tom Bertling, is a poorly written account of the life of the author, and the conclusions he has derived from his own experiences in as a student at a residential school for the Deaf. Bertling relates isolated instances from his experiences to justify his contempt and resentment for all residential schools for the Deaf and for Deaf culture. This controversial book is none other than a grown man's childish retribution for the negative experiences of his childhood.

When Bertling was 10 years old, he was placed in a residential school for the Deaf, despite his normal speech and satisfactory academic progress in the public school system. He does not consider himself deaf, but instead, hard or hearing and disabled. In addition, this particular school seems to have been staffed by less than competent teachers, administrators, and other personnel. Due to the poor decision of his parents and the incompetent faculty and staff, the resentful Bertling makes the widespread assumption that all students at all Deaf schools are mistreated victims of the supposed "leaders" of the Deaf community.

Bertling goes on to retaliate by ridiculing Deaf culture, Deaf "leaders," and even American Sign Language. He states, "ASL...is English broken down into its simplistic form. It is mostly graphic in form and easily learned, especially for the uneducated or without language formation" (p33). In this, Bertling is clearly erroneous, as proven by such experts as William Stokoe, who researched Sign and delineated the 4 (sometimes 5) parameters of a sign. Throughout the book, Bertling provided anecdotes, attempting to isolate universal problems as shortcomings exclusive of Deaf community. For example, he tells of discrimination and harassment of gay students, hazing among older students, the "prevalence of gossip" (p93), and the fear of humiliation amongst rape victims. He fails to note that these problems are widespread in all of society, not restricted to Deaf community. Bertling also accuses individuals in the Deaf community of not taking responsibility for their actions, all the while absolving them of said responsibility by placing blame on the "leaders" of the community.

A Child Sacrificed is a work of resentment, written as retribution for wrongs that the author erroneously blames on Deaf culture and community in general. Bertling hints his motive for this book in an anecdote about his refusal to apply to Gallaudet University. He states that many teachers and members of the dorm staff ridiculed him for his decision. He writes, "Little did these people know that they had sowed the seeds of anger that would eventually grow into this book, returning to haunt them for their past misdeeds" (p44). Perhaps it would be best if the author sought psychological counseling to overcome the experiences of his youth, enabling him to take a more objective view of the community he intends to malign.

I came to this book as an outsider who needed to learn as much as possible about deaf issues in general and about deaf education in particular. This book was on nearly everybody's list, but for widely varying reasons. Written by a deaf man and a product of deaf residential schools, "Child Sacrificed" is Bertling's scathing indictment of Deaf cultural in general (or at least most aspects of it) and of deaf residential schools in particular. Since Bertling provides, however, almost no specific identifying information, it is basically impossible for me at least to know how accurate his recollections are. Even assuming they are accurate enough, such stories are hardly helpful to me in assessing what things are like in my day, or in my area, or for my deaf child, etc. Several problems will dog the reader, such as the brevity of the work given its purported scope, and the persistent annoyance of grammatical errors. But of most concern to me was Bertling's seeming unawareness that many of the kinds of problems he described in deaf education are not necessarily unique to deaf education. To me it seems obvious that Bertling was misplaced in a residential school in the first place and mistreated once he got there. But is every mistake in Betling's life the fault of "Deaf Culture"? As an outsider, I cannot say. But as an intelligent reader, I have the right to expect more in the way of demonstration of Bertling's many assertions before assenting to them. I am glad I read both of Bertling's books. I feel I learned something from them. But I must say to unitiated readers, read it with your eyes wide open, and your thinking cap firmly in place.

I came to this book as an outsider who needed to learn as much as possible about deaf issues in general and about deaf education in particular. This book was on nearly everybody's list, though for widely varying reasons. Written by a deaf man and product of deaf residential schools, "Child Sacrificed" is Bertling's scathing indictment of Deaf culture in general (or at least most aspects of it) and deaf residential education in particular. Since Bertling provides almost no specific identifying details to his story, however, it's hard for me at least to know how accurate are his recollections. Assuming they are accurate enough, such unsubstantiated information is hardly helpful in assessing what things are like in my day, or in my area, or for my child, etc. Several problems will dog the neophyte reader, such as the brevity of the work given its target and the persistent annoyance of grammatical errors. But it was Bertling's seeming unawareness that many of the kinds of problems he described in deaf education are not necessarily unique to deaf education which raised the most questions in my mind. To me it seems obvious that Bertling was misplaced in a residential school in the first place and mistreated once he got there. But is every mistake made in Bertling's life the result of the "Deaf Culture"? As an outsider, I cannot say. But as an intelligent reader, I have the right to expect more in the way of demonstration of Bertling's assertions before assenting to them. I am glad I read both of Bertling's books. I feel I learned something from them. But I must say to uninitiated readers, read it with your eyes wide open, and your thinking cap firmly in place.

I have known deaf people all my life, as a child and up through adulthood. I have many different kinds of deaf friends. Ones who were orally taught, Total Communication, and ASL. It is actually quite rare to find someone who grew up with ASL and also taught ASL through school. Most, 80%, are in Total Communication programs across the country. Total Communication uses all kinds of manually coded English to teach. There is much research and documentation about how this form of education does not work. Case in point is that 80% of hearing impaired have a T.C. education and another percentage has oral communication who all count in the statistics of deaf having a 4th grade reading level. The [...] which have been documented in many different research projects and different sources.

I fell into teaching the deaf and have been teaching for many years. ASL immersion and BI/BI education hasn't been around very long. The [...] would definitly have not been at a school using ASL. Or where many of the Deaf or Hearing used ASL in the dorms but perhaps some form of uneducated signing. Through my experience, many deaf who have never critically looked at language, incorrectly identify what is Signed English and what is ASL. I grew up using sign language but didn't understand the difference between the two until having taken graduate level linguistic classes and read many books.

The [...] has clearly let bad experiences during childhood be the deciding factor for all things deaf and ASL. What he says has happened did happen at many schools but there are many schools that were good at that time and other schools have improved.

We have not yet seen the product of a generation of Deaf children in ASL education. What few that have experienced, means that there just isn't enough to go on yet to say it works or not. We have evidence of what oral education did and is still doing. What have what TC is doing and still doing. The problem is when a child is misplaced to fit someone's agenda. We need all options available and children properly placed with qualified teachers.

I wish we knew of this book when our hearing impaired child was younger to better understand these deafness controversies. I recommend Sacrificed Child to parents as a must read and to share with other parents. Know more before you send your child away.

Enjoyed this helpful book. I was previously confused about deafness education and deafness schools until I read this book. Deafness schools are not for all. This book explains why. Some deafness people are angry about this book but we cannot keep hiding facts from everybody, especially parents of young kids.

Readers, Amazon.com customers, this book is highly recommended by so many different esteemed professionals of the deaf that I urge you not be be persuaded by members of the deaf community to look away. Read this book and make up your OWN MIND! You'll be glad you did and will wonder why others are keeping you from looking at this book!

His book mirrored my life at a deaf school (6 long years). Girls getting pregnant left and right. One secretly married a hearing PE teacher one month before she graduated with her bludgeoning belly. Straight boys (with steady girlfriends) sacrificed their buttholes to male houseparents in order to avoid being severely punished. Looking back, living well is life's sweetest revenge.