The Struggle Between Natural and Normal
God had provided a language addressed to the eye. This is to the deaf-mute a natural language and the only natural language.
Collins Stone, 1869, Report of the Principal
American School for the Deaf, Hartford, Connecticut
Many deaf adults and signing teachers referred to the "natural language of signs," but oralists believed that speech was the "normal" or "universal" way to communicate among civilized humans. The depth of feeling was great on both sides, and the conflict of ideas and values lead to accusations of dishonesty and hypocrisy. The terms "natural" and "normal" remain tangled up in this enduring argument.
He (my father) determined even at my early age to have me brought up as much like a normal child as possible. As a result, I do not know to this day, how to speak on my fingers. The sight of deaf people speaking in the public on their fingers was always obnoxious to me and I remember declining repeatedly during my youth to learn this method from my deaf acquaintances.
Lincoln Fechheimer, 1876-1954
Clark Institution Alumnus and board member