Milan

2003 Sturley, Nick (b. 1967). Milan. Victoria, BC, Canada: Trafford. 234 pp. NRIT

In 2030, with signing a recognized language, a deaf teacher of history in the London Model Deaf School, is teaching his last class before retirement. In it he tells a story about the struggle against oralism, an attempt to impose oralism, the requirement that the deaf speak and cannot sign. In the novel, the story is fantasy and science fiction, but it was inspired by the Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf held in Milan in 1880 that concluded that speech rather than signing was the best approach to deaf education. The delegates from Great Britain and the United States voted against the resolutions. There was only one deaf delegate to the conference. Signing was banned in many schools for the deaf and deaf teachers lost their jobs. Some schools chose to keep signing, and, of course, many deaf students continued to sign among themselves. The novel ends with the suggest that attempts to impose oralism will continue. There is a “Visual Glossary” illus. Adam Hoy on 212-33 of “Key Characters” (214-21) and Architectural Features (223-33). Deaf English author.