Silent Life and Silent Language: The Inner Life of a Mute in an Institution for the Deaf

by Kate M. Farlow, Kristen C. Harmon (Introduction)

Silent Life and Silent Language presents a fictionalized account of life at a Midwestern residential school for deaf students in the years following the Civil War. Based on the experiences of the author, who became deaf at the age of nine and entered a residential school when she was twelve, this historical work is remarkable and rare because it focuses on signing deaf women’s lives. One of only a few accounts written by deaf women in the 19th century, Silent Life and Silent Language gives a detailed description of daily life and learning at the Indiana Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb.

       Kate M. Farlow wrote this book with the goal of giving hearing parents hope that their deaf children would be able to lead happy and productive lives. She sought to raise awareness of the benefits of deaf schools and was an early advocate for the use of American Sign Language and of bilingual education. The Christian influence on the school and on the author is strongly present in her writing and reflects an important component of deaf education at the time. Descriptions of specific signs, games, ASL story nights, and other aspects of the signing community during the 1870s will be of interest to modern students and researchers in linguistics, deaf education, Deaf studies, and Deaf history. Farlow’s work reveals a sophisticated, early understanding of the importance of access to language, education, and community for deaf individuals.

202 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2018

Reviews

[Mellisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rating. I was required to read this e-book for my GU course. Some parts were interesting, but some were boring. Maybe it's because I'm from a different generation, or I don't understand it. Or maybe it's because the concept of residential Deaf school never appealed to me? I don't know. However, I believe that preserving this piece of Deaf History is important because this fictionalized story happened in the 1870s - before the AGB and Milan Conference banned Deaf teachers and sign Languages in Deaf schools. Of course, you have to think in a historical lens while reading this book because there was some terminology in this book that was cringey to me, and this terminology would not be said today. And...there were no DeafPlus/ DeafDisabled students in this fictionalized story- back then, maybe they were kept away from the wider society?

EDIT: I just realized that there was no mention of DHH people from various cultural backgrounds at the school, except for these two visitors from Germany (?). It's assumed that all of these characters are white. I just remembered that white and black DHH students were separated for a certain time, which is why ASL and Black ASL were developed differently.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in the mid/late 1850s by a 20ish year old woman about her education in a (very Christian) school for the deaf.

She spent eight hr school years there. It is very repetitive. Yet informative of both her experiences and the period.