President Obama, Support ASL, Encourage Innovation

A statement related to petition developed by Adrean Clark: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk. Please sign the petition, if you haven't already!

"True generosity lies in striving so that these hands—whether of individuals or entire peoples—need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world." -Paulo Freire

President Obama, I remember the night you became President.

I was thrilled. Since you became President, I have watched

your speeches, and notice you often talk about "Innovation."

I agree, it's important. History has often revealed

that innovation comes from those who experience

the world differently. For example, Thomas Edison.

Edison was a deaf man who recognized relationship between

light and communication. He invented something that is

in nearly every single home: lightbulbs.

How fitting, that this is the symbol for ideas.

Innovation happens when people have the ability

to think, create, imagine, and when there is a

means to express those ideas.

That ability is developed through language, and it is less

important which language and more important that

one can access information. Whether it is through speaking,

signing, a variety of languages-- does not matter.

We've become so focused on teaching a specific way, in

a specific language, that the learning space has become

so restrictive as to marginalize many who are denied the

opportunity to learn freely. And that is a crime.

President Obama, I implore you to take the lead in

creating space for American Sign Language in the classroom,

in offices, even in the White House. Thank you.