School for the deaf

Question

Dear teachers,I am doin an exercise that asks students to identify a mistake in the sentence.In the folloeing sentence, the correct answer is " the deaf ", but I don't understand why. Could you please help me understand why " the deaf" here is not correct?:IDENTIFY THE MISTAKE IN EACH SENTENCE61. Graham Bell was once a teacher who ran a school for the deaf in Massachusetts. Thank you in advance

Cool Breeze · Accepted Answer

Perhaps didn't run a school for the deaf but for the blind?

CB

AlpheccaStars · Answer

The only reason I can imagine is one of cultural sensitivity - deaf should be capitalized. See the Usage note in the American Heritage dictionary.
Usage Note: The rise of the Deaf Pride movement in the 1980s has introduced a distinction between deaf and Deaf,with the capitalized form used specifically in referring to deaf persons belonging to the community—also known as Deaf culture—that has formed around the use of American Sign Language as the preferred means of communication. The issue of capitalization is different with deaf than it is for a term such as black. In the case of black, the decision whether or not to capitalize is essentially a matter of personal or political preference, while with deaf the capitalized and uncapitalized forms differ in meaning as well as style. Only persons who are self-identified as belonging to Deaf culture are appropriately referred to as Deaf.

Clive · Answer

Hi,
I am doin an exercise that asks students to identify a mistake in the sentence.In the folloeing sentence, the correct answer is " the deaf ", but I don't understand why. Could you please help me understand why " the deaf" here is not correct?:

IDENTIFY THE MISTAKE IN EACH SENTENCE

61. Graham Bell was once a teacher who ran a school for the deaf in Massachusetts.

Did you make a mistake in your question? It seems to have a contradiction (marked in pink).

As regards the American Heritage usage note, I don't dispute it, but this is the first time that I have heard of this distinction.

I find it hard to believe that a student exercise would expect students to know that, and to display such a degree of 'sensitivity'.

Best wishes, Clive

CalifJim · Answer

CliveIt seems to have a contradiction (marked in pink).

He's saying that it is correct to choose the deaf as the one mistake in the sentence that he was told to find. He wants to know why that's a mistake.
Personally, I have no idea, except for the usage note quoted above, which I, too, had never heard of before.
CJ

Clive · Answer

Hi,
Looking at the sentence as given, I wouldn't consider 'the deaf' a mistake, even by the terms of the quoted usage note. There is nothing in the sentence to say that it was a school for American Sign Language people, or to tell us how the students there 'self-identified'.

I suppose you mght argue that, in Bell's time, all schools for the deaf taught ASL. I don't know. But this is getting well away from a grammar question, and maybe even into historical revisionism. I mean that we don't know when this sentence was written, particularly whether it was written before 'Deaf' became a suitable term.

Best wishes, Clive

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Clive:
I agree.I cannot think of any other reason that this would be considered incorrect.

There is a lot of biographical material on Alexander Graham Bell describing his teaching of the deaf. The only capitalization is in the name of the school. This is one quote:

In 1871 he went to Boston, Massachusetts, to teach at Sarah Fuller's School for the Deaf, the first such school in the world.... Throughout his life he continued to educate the deaf, and he founded the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.

Tuongvan · Answer

Hi teachers,
I think there is nothing incorrect here.Perhaps the teacher who set this exam forgot to change"deaf" to death or something like that to make it look incorrect.

School for the deaf

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions