On The Hands of Monks notes PDF

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My notes on the article called "On the Hands of Monks" as well as my notes from our lecture on this topic....

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Notes for article “On the Hands of Monks” and Lecture Notes

● Pedro Ponce de Leon was a monk who taught his deaf disciples how to talk a. He challenged the belief that deaf people are unable to learn b. This contributed to a gradual shift in how people saw the deaf in society ● The Velasco brothers a. Pedro and Francisco were deaf brothers sent to the Ona monastery b. It was typical for deaf children to be “hidden” in a monastery. Back then it was considered a sign that God was displeased with the parents ● In this era it was believed that deaf people were inherently ineducable. This idea was supported by medicine, philosophy, the church, and the law ● Physicians thought that both speech and hearing shared a common origin in the brain ● Spanish word for language is lengua which also means tongue ● Speech was considered to be what separated humans from animals. Speech was viewed as an instinct, not something that could be taught a. Thus, the identifying characteristic of the deaf wasn’t that they couldn’t hear but that they couldn’t speak b. It was believed that speech flows from the soul, which animals don’t have ● Deaf-mutes were classified with children, the mentally defective, and the insane ● Cardano theorized that you could teach a deaf person to read/write a. He called into question the link between speech and reason b. Said it is possible to think without speech ● Fernandez Navarrete (El Mudo): deaf-mute who became a painter in the king’s court

a. He was intelligent, participated in church, took communion, and could communicate with people b. Hailed in court as an intelligent deaf-mute. Became a little bit famous in Spain at that time ● Monk Pedro Ponce de Leon and his students were some of the first examples we have of successful education of the deaf in Spain ● The monks at Ona had to observe silence in some areas of the monastery and at certain times of the day, so they had developed some signs to communicate with each other ● Monastic sign is just a lexicon with no grammar. It is not a language. ● Lasso visited the monastery and the Velasco brothers and was shocked at their abilities a. He had oralist views, emphasized not using signs in educating deaf people...