Original upload date: Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Mon, 06 Dec 2021 01:25:36 GMT
Synopsis:
Since the 1880 Milan Conference, there have been over few dozen attempts to design the standardized system of Deaf Education in varying forms of oral communication. Virtually all of the at
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tempts to develop oral-based Deaf Education have resulted in failures. Because of this, the Deaf Community have suffered with less-than-ideal quality education for over 100 years, largely due to language deprivation and suppression.
That is, until Marie Jean Philip spearheaded a revolutionary and groundbreaking approach to revamp the Deaf Education in 1985. The approach has come to be known as The Bilingual-Bicultural Movement. The Learning Center for Deaf Children (currently known as The Learning Center for the Deaf: Marie Philip School) in Framingham, Massachusetts is the first Deaf school to embrace the Movement.
The concept of the Bilingual-Bicultural Movement is simple: the education is to be 100% ASL-based and all of the public space on a school campus is to be communicated in ASL. Moreover, all Deaf students are to learn to separate ASL and English as two languages, with ASL being their primary language and English being their secondary language for them to read and to write.
The Bilingual-Bicultural Movement is a tremendous success, as The Learning Center for the Deaf is currently one of the preeminent and prosperous Deaf schools in the nation. Tens of Deaf schools now have modeled their education after The Learning Center for the Deaf. However, the Movement was not embraced and well received by all in the beginning. "Bilingual-Bicultural Movement at The Learning Center for the Deaf" is a documentary film that examines the history of the Movement as well as its prominent contributors such as Marie Jean Philip, MJ Bienvenu, Anita Small, and Ben Bahan.
Associate Producer- Jonah Meehan
Written, Produced, and Directed by Carey M. Ballard