The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

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American Sign Language at Athens Drive

          The American Sign Language (ASL) is a place where people who do not have the ability to hear or speak can be comfortable with themselves and not worry about their differences. This is a club where sign language is taught and used to communicate so students at Athens Drive can learn more about the culture and how to communicate through the use of hand gestures and facial expressions. This way of communicating does not require one to be able to listen or speak, but just to observe and pay attention to the hand gestures to understand what the other person is trying to express.

          Last year, many students wanted to have a club for American Sign Language, as a result, the club was created during the 2015-16 school year. The club has two co-leaders, Brian Exum, senior and Sahej Wali, sophomore.

          “So many people were interested in having an ASL club in hopes that it would lead to having ASL as a foreign language,” said  Kelly Hodgins, club adviser.

          According to startasl.com, American Sign Language was introduced to the U.S. in 1814, to those in the deaf community during the early 1800’s. It all began with Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet was a minister from Hartford, Connecticut and there he had a neighbor named Mason Fitch Cogswell. Cogswell had a nine-year-old daughter who was completely deaf. She was very clever and intelligent, so Dr. Gallaudet wanted to find a way to help her communicate with him. In the end, he was not successful but still wanted continue to establish a way of communication for the deaf. With the help of the community, he managed to raise money to travel to Europe so he could continue on his research. In Europe he met Abbe Sicard, Jean Massieu, and Laurent Clerc and they became accomplished deaf educators. Before leaving back to America, Dr. Gallaudet asked Laurent Clerc to go back with him because he was one of the best educators. They both traveled to America and in 1817 established the American School for the Deaf. It was one of the first free public schools for the deaf in America and was an important time in American deaf history.

          Hodgins said,”England has British Sign Language (BSL) and it uses a two-handed alphabet and the signs are totally different.”

          Sign language around the world is not completely the same. In the U.S., it is simply just referred as American Sign Language (ASL). The ASL club is looking for possibly making the club a foreign language in the future for students to sign up for as a class.

         “The club has spoken to Mr. Mares, and he will offer American Sign Language as a Foreign language class on the registration forms for next year.  So, all those interested in taking a challenging but fun and rewarding class should sign up,” said Hodgins.

         She also said, “Mr. Mares has mentioned that if he gets enough interested students to sign up and if he can swing hiring a teacher he will offer the class next year.”

         However, this is only possible if enough students would be willing to take the class. ASL would be recommended for students who want to learn about a new, challenging form of communication or even for those who would just like to learn more about American sign language and want to dig deeper into the subject. It is different than any other language because people communicate using body language and hand gestures to express what one is trying to say to another. It is mostly used among those who are deaf because of their inabilities, However, that does not mean that anyone could learn how to use sign language to communicate with others.
          ASL is a challenging language, but anyone can learn how to understand and use sign language if one is willing to take on the challenge. With the help of fellow students from Athens Drive, it would be a possible to make ASL an official class that students could take as a foreign language class. This is only possible if enough students are interested in ASL as a subject. Anyone who is interested can go to the club during lunch to find more information about it. The club takes place every Tuesday during A lunch in room 1708.  

 

Here are some common gestures used in ASL.
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