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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Valerie,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Your work is
unquestionably of value to many of us. It appears to me that a primary
thought concerning learning might help many of us. It involves answering
the questions What do you mean, and how do you write what you mean? It
also involves the way that people learn most quickly and surely.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> As I scan the letters
forwarded to me, I continually see the questions, " What does that mean and How
do I write this movement? A mother can answer some questions of this
type for her child. Beyond a small family, a single person canNOT
answer all these questions that spring from the misunderstandings of people, no
matter how dedicated that faithful person may be. I've seen a hundred
excited , interested people drop out of learning Sign for lack of an answer to
this basic need in the life of the learner. These hundred drop outs were
the students who began study of ASL with me. I'm convinced I would
have noticed hundreds of drop outs had I looked farther. The primary
thought I speak of is this:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Beyond the physical needs,
Self Image, the need to be, or feel as if we are of value, and needed by other
people is perhaps the greatest need in in our lives. How do we fill this
need? We fill the need by our competance in doing what we do.
Teach a person how to say, or sign, "Pass the butter, How are you, Its Tuesday,
etc and you set them up on shifting sand with a feeling of helplessness.
They don't know what to do next. Each move they make drives them deeper
into the sand, discovering how to say what they want to say costs more than they
get by saying it. In the case of learning a language, only the
person who has the right answers, or a means of independently obtaining the
right answers all the time will learn the language. This applies to a
language which is spoken or written. SignWriting is a written
language.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Your learners and I
require ALL THE SIGNWRITING SYMBOLS, and ALL THE WRITING CONVENTIONS in one
resource location so we can go to that resource for our answers. In
this resource ALL THE CLEAR DEFINITIONS OF THE SYMBOLS AND CONVENTIONS need to
be with the symbols. Basic English, as I have said, can be written on one
side of one piece of paper, Dr Stokoe's notation symbols can also be written on
one side of one piece of paper, as I have demonstrated in my letter to
you. Clear definitions of these symbols, what they mean expressed in lucid
sentences or other expressive manner need to be with the symbols. This
will answer the questions "What do you mean? and How do you write what you
mean." Coequal with this need is the need to have the vocabulary
that will say everything the person wants to day. The 850 english concepts
I cited, the Ogden Basic English, will do the work of 20,000 English
words. These basic concepts and the manner they are drawn in SignWriting
will allow the learner to say and sign what the learner wants to sign, the way
they want to say and sign and write it. The self image that goes with this
competance will power the person to grow in ability and become what they can
be---if they chose to do this.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> The self Image that flows
from the power of knowing and knowing how to obtain knowledge is the magic
of learning that creates scholars. Some people WILL not be stopped.
Pointing to them is lying in the face of reality. Not everyone has this
drive, and who has it rarely has it in every direction.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Admittedly, many of the
850 words I cited have more than one meaning, some have up to 6 or more
meanings. Many of these meanings are signed differently.
Nevertheless, knowing one manner of signing, or writing the concepts
will allow the person to be self expressive-although sometimes awkwardly to the
understanding of a native Deaf ASL user.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Love, Frank</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT> </DIV>
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