1

Sight and Sound:

The History of Deaf Education in Western Australia

Geoffrey M Smith

BA (Hons) Murd., GradDipLibStud W.Aust.I.T, GradDipEd Murd., PostGradDipEdStud Melb., MPhil Murd.

This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Murdoch University.

2019

2

This thesis is an account of research conducted by myself during my candidature as a research student for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Murdoch University, Western Australia. It consists wholly of my own research, except where other sources are used. These sources are acknowledged by footnotes and referencing.

______

Geoffrey M Smith 2019 3

Abstract

This thesis looks at Deaf education in Western Australia from the late 19th century. It argues that the impact of various factors such as developments in auditory amplification and assistive technology, changing educational pedagogies and in attitudes among the Deaf community, interacted over the years to significantly influence the manner in which Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) children have been educated in Western Australia. The concept of audism will be discussed which, while evident throughout much of the educational period under consideration, tended to be of a positive nature, with the aim of achieving academic, communicative and social competence to enable successful post-school life in a hearing world by D/HH students.

In Western Australia, most D/HH education has revolved around the WA School for

Deaf Children. From its beginning, the school embraced the combination method with the aim of developing communicative competence in its students. In 1967, the

Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre was established also having a significant place in the history of Deaf education in Western Australia. Although taking a different approach to the educational instruction of D/HH children, TSH demonstrated an equal commitment to high educational outcomes for its students. By the 1980s, accepted pedagogy in terms of the education of the D/HH saw many students mainstreamed, with the resulting downsizing of residential institutions. The process of mainstreaming along with rapidly developing amplification technology and parental expectations required a reappraisal of the manner in which D/HH children were taught.

4

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………….……P. 7.

Chapter 1: The Beginning…….…………………….…………...P. 40.

Chapter 2: Education of the Students……….…..…….……P. 58.

Chapter 3: The Changing Environment…….……………..P. 84.

Chapter 4: The War Years.………………………….…………..P. 107.

Chapter 5: Rubella Epidemics………………….…….………..P. 124.

Chapter 6: Parental Advocacy and Support

in Deaf Education………………….…...…….…..P. 152.

Chapter 7: Post WWII Life at the School..……….….…….P. 170.

Chapter 8: The Heatly Years.…………………….…….………P. 190.

Chapter 9: Into the 1970s……………………….………….……P. 213.

Chapter 10: Bilingual / Bicultural Education……..……..P. 242.

Chapter 11: The Cochlear Implant and the Return to

Oralism……………………………….……….……..P. 267.

Conclusion and Discussion………….…………..……………..P. 291.

Bibliography……………..……………………….…….……...……P. 301.

5

Acknowledgements

I extend my appreciation to the many people who have been involved in the production and publication of this thesis. I would once again like to thank my supervisor, Professor Michael Sturma of Murdoch University, for the support, guidance and enthusiasm that he always extended to me during the period of my

PhD candidature. I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful assistance of Kerry

Reed, Mavis Fisher, Margaret Warden and John Richards of the Deaf History project located at the WA Foundation for Deaf Children. I am proud to call these people friends and colleagues.

Much background material was provided by Douglas Love and John Love, the sons of

John Orr Love, the second headmaster of the WA School for Deaf Children. Their support and willingness to assist with stories of their life at the school has been invaluable.

My colleague, Cathy Worthington, also a Visiting Teacher of the Deaf, has been an enthusiastic supporter of my research from the start. She has not only helped with some material primarily concerning “our „enry”, as we dubbed Henry Witchell, but also proof-read this thesis at both early and final stages of completion. She offered valuable and sometimes blunt advice on the content which, when acted upon, added to the overall readability of the thesis.

6

I would also like to acknowledge the professional and collegial support given to me by the late Brian Fisher. I first met Brian and Mavis Fisher in 1978, when I visited the State Assessment Centre for the first time when I was doing my Bachelor of Arts degree at Murdoch University. Over the ensuing years, Brian continued to be available with advice and assistance especially when I made the decision to have a cochlear implant in 2003.

Support was also extended to me by current and former staff of the WA Institute for

Deaf Education (WAIDE) and its successor, the School of Special Educational Needs-

Sensory (SSEN-S), the Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre and the WA Foundation for Deaf Children. This support was always valuable and is gratefully acknowledged.

Finally and once again, my thanks to Lyn Smith, who also gave me support and encouragement throughout the years spent working on this thesis. This support has never wavered and has always been very much appreciated.

This thesis is dedicated to all past, present and future Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing children of Western Australia. This is your story and your history.

7

Introduction

Deafness has existed since prehistoric times, but it was only since the advent of speech within society that the limitations of hearing loss became evident. With the importance of speech to the human condition, deafness came to be seen as a medical and human defect. It became something that needed to be rectified and therefore became a challenge within educational circles. As a result, the field of deaf education has a long history world-wide, with controversies and challenges surrounding the methods used to educate the deaf. This situation has been (and continues to be) no different in Western Australia.

This thesis will look at the development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (D/HH) education in

Western Australia from its beginnings in the late 1890s until the early 2010s, covering a period of almost 120 years. This time-frame covers technological and pedagogical changes, as well as changes in parental attitudes and social challenges. It covers a time when D/HH education was concentrated in one institution until these changes resulted in the formation of a second, independent school and a drastic reorganisation in existing government educational policies which ultimately led to closure of that first teaching institution. For almost all of this time period, D/HH education was a separate branch of the educational services provided in Western Australia and with a presence centered around the Perth suburb of Cottesloe, where a D/HH school had been located since 1900. This well-defined identity created a collegial environment where teachers and staff had a clear role and a belief in their ability to determine good educational outcomes for their students. This changed in

2011, when governmental D/HH educational services relocated from Cottesloe to Padbury, a northern suburb of Perth. D/HH education became absorbed into the wider School of

Special Educational Needs - Sensory. From that point on, D/HH education severed its final 8

links with the Cottesloe location and no longer retained the separate identity that it once held

The Manual versus Oral Debate

Deaf education has historically centred around teaching methods, particularly in speech and language training. It has also focused on the views of the practitioners and supporters (as well as opponents) of the different approaches and the success or otherwise of these methods. Broadly speaking, the approaches to Deaf education have either involved manual communication or oral (auditory) communication. Historians covering D/HH education see this divide as central to the manner in which educational services have evolved. Because the different approaches have been so controversial, the oral/manual debate as it is known has caused and continues to cause divisions within the field of Deaf Studies and Deaf History.

Technological changes such as the development of high-powered hearing aids and the cochlear implant add to the controversy, with neither method gaining a permanent foothold as the “preferred” approach.

Deafness as a human condition almost certainly existed in prehistoric times, although the extent to which this affected the deaf individual is a matter of conjecture. Harvey Prindle

Peet (1794-1873), an early historian, educator and principal of the New York Institution of the Deaf for 36 years, believed that ancient societies in which the spoken word did not feature strongly would not have seriously disadvantaged those who were deaf. As societies advanced and spoken language developed, the deaf began to be left behind.1 Early approaches to the education of D/HH children focussed on the belief that speech and spoken language were the key to intellectual and spiritual development and hence formed the basis of the education of these children. From the time of the ancient Greeks through to early

1 Harvey P. Peet, “Memoir on the origin and early history of the art of instructing the deaf and dumb”, American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, vol. 3, no. 3, April, 1851, p. 130. 9

programmes in Western Europe, speech (rather than listening) was considered the key to helping the deaf “overcome” their condition. Otherwise, society considered them to be sub- human; socially and culturally impoverished.2

The first manuscript devoted to the art of teaching the deaf, The Reduction of Letters and

Art of Teaching the Dumb to Speak, was produced by the Spaniard Juan Pablo Bonet (1579-

1629).3 Peet believed that Bonet‟s manuscript did not really relate directly to the instruction of deaf-mutes.4 Bonet felt that the deaf could learn speech but gave clear and concise instructions in reinforcing the use of the manual alphabet and gestures as instruments of instruction. Lip-reading was seen as a useful talent, but impossible to formally teach, dependent as it was on the cognitive ability of the student.

The Abbé Charles Michel de l‟Epée‟ (1712-1789) established the first known public school for the deaf in Paris in 1760, the Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris (The Royal Institute of

Deaf Mutes), still in existence. The Abbé de l‟Epée‟ made use of a standardised set of signs and one-handed finger-spelling in order to create a communicative link between the deaf and hearing worlds. His work was subsequently extended and refined by the Abbé Roch-

Ambroise Concurrou Sicard (1742-1822) who succeeded him at the Institute on his death in

1789. This manual method of instruction subsequently became known as the “French

Method”. The alternative oral approach, known as the “Germanic Method”, was developed by Samuel Heinicke (1727-1790). He taught his first deaf pupil in 1754 and later opened his school for the deaf in Leipzig, Germany in 1778. He used speech as his basis for instruction.

Heinicke objected to the French method and was said to have launched some personal

2 Shannon Allen, Doreen DeLuca and Donna Jo Napoloi, “Societal responsibility and linguistic rights: The case of deaf children”, Journal of Research in Education, vol. 17 (Fall 2007), p. 42. 3 Luzerne Ray, “Historical Sketch of the instruction of the deaf and dumb before the time of de l‟Epée‟”, American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, vol. 1, no. 4 (July 1848), p. 200. 4 Peet, “Memoir”, p. 150. 10

attacks on de l‟Epée‟.5 Leon Vaisse, also a teacher at the New York Institution for the Deaf and an assistant to Peet, points out that de l‟Epée‟ was not against the idea of teaching speech to the deaf, but saw this as an “apex” of instruction rather than the foundation as believed by Heinicke.6

The rivalry between de l‟Epée‟ and Heinicke was lifelong. It formed the basis of what continued to be an enduring philosophical and pedagogical debate in deaf education well into the 20th century. The Germanic method was further advanced within that country by

John Baptist Graser (1766-1841) and Frederick Maritz Hill (1805-1874). Graser was particularly critical of manual communication. He believed that deaf children should not be isolated from society in institutions and residential schools.7 Hill was also influential in his belief that deaf children could learn language in much the same way as hearing children do, but through daily exposure rather than structured lessons. Speech was considered to be the foundation of education and this was best achieved through natural interaction.8 The work of Graser and Hill, in some ways more so than Heinicke, consolidated the Germanic movement and led to its spread to other European countries, to the United States and eventually to Australia.

In the United States, D/HH education history has tended to focus on the French/German debate through the work of two highly influential figures, Alexander Graham Bell and

Edward Miner Gallaudet. Bell rigorously promoted the oral approach whereas Gallaudet championed the manual approach. Bell‟s mother, Eliza, was partially deaf (having lost a part of her hearing at the age of ten) and his wife, Mabel, was profoundly deaf. For a while

5 Donald Moores, Educating the Deaf: Psychology, Principles and Practices, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978), p. 42. 6 Leon Vaisse, “A document brought to light”, American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, vol. 24, no. 2, April 1879, p. 85. 7 Moores, Educating the Deaf, p. 44. 8 Moores, Educating the Deaf, p. 44. 11

Bell taught deaf children; his development of the telephone arose from his desire to help them develop oral communication skills. Bell firmly believed in the need for such children to be able to function effectively in the hearing world. His objection to sign language was largely based on the fact that it limited communication options for Deaf people, leading them to socialize mainly with other Deaf people, marrying them and possibly increasing the rate of genetically transmitted deafness.9 Bell was a eugenicist, but because of his deep understanding of and commitment to the welfare of the Deaf community, his ideas and beliefs were seen as examples of positive eugenics rather than following the more extreme positions of control advocated by negative theorists and practitioners.10

Bell‟s views on oralism naturally brought him into dispute with practitioners of the manual movement. Among these was Edward Miner Gallaudet, who actively supported the right of the deaf to education via manual communication. Despite many similarities in their backgrounds (both had deaf mothers, high achieving fathers and became successful themselves in their twenties), Gallaudet and Bell became bitter opponents as they sought any opportunity to promote their respective educational philosophies. Gallaudet, however, did not reject outright the idea of oralism. In fact, he gave the “combined method” its name. He actively supported the use of oral instruction for those who were able to benefit from it but approved the use of sign for those who could not. Harlan Lane, a psychologist who has studied Deaf culture and community, points out that Gallaudet was primarily opposed to any attempts to eliminate sign from schools for the deaf because he felt strongly that the education of D/HH children was not possible through spoken language alone.11

9 Brian H. Greenwald, “The real “toll” of A. G. Bell: Lessons about eugenics”, in John V. Van Cleve (ed.), Genetics, Disability and Deafness (Washington D.C: Gallaudet University Press, 2004), p. 36,39. 10 Brian H. Greenwald, “Revising the Memoir: Contesting Deaf autonomy and the real tragedy of Alexander Graham Bell”, in Brian H. Greenwald and Joseph J. Murray (eds.), In Our Own Hands: Essays in Deaf History 1780-1970 (Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2016), p. 150. 11 Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), pp. 366-367. 12

Through his book, When the Mind Hears, Lane goes into great detail about the hostility between Bell and Gallaudet and the struggle for supremacy between the oral and manual methods. This enmity continued on the international stage including a Royal Commission in

Britain in 1884 and also in the manner in which both built up their personal reputations within the United States.12 Although Lane covers this battle in depth, he tends to favour the manual method and is unapologetically critical of oralism. This is particularly evident when covering the events leading up to a conference in Milan in 1880, during which the oral approach was voted to be used in all schools by the predominately oralist delegates.13

Despite being highly critical of the events leading to the conference, as well as its aftermath,

Lane does make the point that the decision led to a significant reduction in the numbers of

D/HH teachers employed in schools for the D/HH world-wide.14

By the conclusion of the Milan congress, almost all delegates voted for two resolutions, effectively declaring the superiority of oralism over all other forms of instruction for the

D/HH:

1. The congress, considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs, for restoring deaf-mutes to social life and for giving them greater facility in language, declares that the method of articulation should have preference over that of signs in the instruction and education of the deaf and dumb.

2. Considering that the simultaneous use of signs and speech has the disadvantage of injuring speech, lipreading and precision of ideas, the congress declares that the pure oral method ought to be preferred.15

Lane writes that following Milan, “pure oralism washed over Europe like a floodtide”.16

Although oralism was already well established in Germany through the work of Samuel

Heinecke, Lane states there was “no single explanation” as to why it took hold so rapidly and comprehensively throughout the rest of Europe.17 He suggests it was a “confluence of nationalism, elitism, commercialism, and family pride”, but also created by teachers desiring

12 Lane, When the Mind Hears, pp. 362-375. 13 Lane, When the Mind Hears, pp. 386-403. 14 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 371. 15 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 394. 16 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 395. 17 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 395. 13

total control of their classrooms, which in his words, “cannot be had if the pupils sign and the teacher knows none”.18 He also stated that if speech was advantageous to D/HH children and signing disadvantaged them, it would not have been necessary to ban signing as speech and oral communication would have been embraced by all students within the schools for D/HH children.19 As he pointed out, “Sign in class is an unwelcome reminder of another, much easier, route to the deaf child‟s mind.”20

The Milan resolutions, when looked at more closely, seem to suggest that when drawn up some acknowledgement of alternative methods was made. Resolution 1 contains the words

“should have preference” while Resolution 2 states “ought to be preferred”, both in reference to the oral method. It appears that while oralism was the preferred method, those who drew up the resolutions remained open to the reality that manual methods, or at least the combined method, would still be used by at least some schools if thought to be necessary.

“Should have” and “ought to be” suggest recommendations rather than imperatives. On that basis, this thesis puts forward the view that the resolutions of the Milan congress were guidelines, which essentially say that the oral method is the ideal method but not necessarily a compulsory one. The wording left the way open for schools to decide for themselves which best suited them and their students.

The Focus on Oralism

Douglas Baynton, a cultural historian specialising in disability history, suggests that the rise and acceptance of evolutionary theory was an important factor in the rejection of the manual system in favour of oralism in the United States. He argues that as evolutionary theory placed man above all other living things in terms of speech, the lack of speech and the

18 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 395. 19 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 395. 20 Lane, When the Mind Hears, p. 395. 14

reliance on manual means of communication placed those users at a lower level of the evolutionary scale. Thus, early oralists treated sign language as more or less sub-human.21

They used evolutionary theory to support and promote their views and in doing so continued to subscribe to a view not dissimilar to ancient and medieval European civilizations. Pauline

Hart in her study of the role of the Deaf community in the education of D/HH children suggests that sign language gives deafness a visible element, whereas its suppression seeks to hide the defect from sight.22

Oralism continued to strengthen throughout much of the mid to late twentieth century. This resulted less from the Milan decision and more from the post-WWII development of transistorised amplification technology. As will be seen in a future chapter, hearing aid and other amplification technology steadily improved to the point where even profoundly deaf children could gain some benefit from speech training. In addition, the majority of deaf children were, and continue to be, born to hearing parents who, in conjunction with teaching staff who believed in speech and language development, were instrumental in promoting oralism.

Despite the pressure of oralism, manual programmes continued at some schools, particularly in the United States. Sign also continued to be passed on within the Deaf community, not just through the schools and boarding institutions, but also through thriving and tightly-knit

Deaf societies and clubs. The manual method did not die out completely. From the time of

Milan, it was still used as the combined method in many residential schools in the United

States. United States delegates had voted against the resolutions at Milan, but the wording

21 Douglas C. Baynton, Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 40-43. 22 Pauline Hart, “Hands Off: An Analysis of the Education of Deaf Children and the Role of the Deaf Community” (Master of Social Work dissertation, University of Sydney, 1992), p. 47. 15

enabled some validation of the combined method as an alternative to the oral method. It was this method that was brought to Western Australia in 1896.

Deaf Culture and Community

In the introduction to her book Words Made Flesh (2012), R.A.R. Edwards describes the distinction between Deaf community and Deaf culture. She saw the American Deaf community as a group that developed in the nineteenth century through common experiences as students in residential schools for the deaf. These experiences included exposure to and development of proficiency in sign language which was the basis of communication within many schools at that time. This “common experience of physical deafness” as she describes it, enabled them to be part of a deaf community (as distinct from a hearing community) and then into capital “D” Deafness, a culture with particular characteristics, one of which was the use of American Sign Language (ASL) as a linguistic code.23 The same viewpoint was taken by Ingrid Van Steenwyk in her paper on Australia‟s

Deaf community where she mentions that the use of Sign language is representative of the

“cultural distinctiveness” of that community.24 Much the same concept applies to the

Western Australian situation. Because the WA School for Deaf Children was, until post-

WWII, the only school for D/HH children in the state, this commonality of experience was the means by which the students, as they grew into adulthood, gained admission to the WA

Deaf community and embraced Deaf culture. Underpinned by Australian Sign Language

(Auslan), cultural activities covering sport, recreation, drama and arts were available to community members. Pauline Hart makes the comment that no other medically challenged

23 R.A.R. Edwards, Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2012), p. 4. 24 Ingrid van Steenwyk, “Going, Going, But Not Gone: The Impact of Social and Technological Influences on the Australian Deaf Community”, archived at Anthropology Matters, [https://www.anthropologymatters.com/index.php/anth_matters/article/view/38/68], accessed on 5 May, 2019. 16

group has developed such a wide-ranging community and culture.25 However, despite this, the Deaf community continues to be challenged by hearing world society values.

Paddy Ladd writes of the colonisation of Deaf culture by the dominant hearing world. While he identified four aspects of colonisation, Ladd particularly focused on two – linguistic and cultural – to illustrate how the idea that speech and written languages considered superior to sign languages, reflected in the oral movement. This movement sought to colonise the Deaf community through the banning of sign language and the removal of Deaf teachers, administrators and support staff from schools for the D/HH. In doing so, not only was the language of the Deaf community suppressed, but the means by which Deaf culture could be passed along to each generation. As Ladd says:

The consequent diminished confidence and achievement levels, together with the delayed entry into Deaf community life and exposure to the Deaf cultural heritage, left the community vulnerable to refinements in the development of welfare and economic colonization that were then used to administer the Deaf colonies.26

This colonisation of Deaf culture led to a fragmentation of the Deaf community as different linguistic and social expectations, as well as amplification technology, influenced different educational trends and pedagogies in the schools for the D/HH. Naomi Malone addressed the issue of Deaf cultural fragmentation within the context of post-WWII D/HH education in the Australian state of New South Wales for her PhD. She drew on what was seen as the fragmentation of cultural/oppressed groups to draw parallels with the D/HH community.

She saw the fragmentation of the D/HH community as being “due in part to the lack of a common communication mode – and the existence of various communication modes -

25 Hart, “Hands Off”, p. 46. 26 Paddy Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance: A Brief History of Deafhood”, in H-Dirksen L. Bauman (ed.), Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), p. 42. 17

across a relatively small community that is marginalised from mainstream society”.27 She states that by the 1960s, D/HH children had differing educational backgrounds as well as varying levels of hearing loss, exacerbated by the rubella epidemics at the time. This created the need for more educational programmes drawing from a wider range of educational methods, including the establishment of pre-school and early childhood services with an emphasis on speech and listening and with greater access to amplification technology. This resulted in “incohesion and conflict” within the D/HH community. This in turn resulted in different lobby groups with their own particular agendas affecting the ability of Deaf community to develop and promote a unified and organized approach to D/HH education.

The social cohesiveness of the D/HH was also affected and this in turn affects the development of D/HH culture.

Audism

The desire shown by the hearing world to treat deafness as a medical condition and “restore” hearing (and by extension, speech and spoken language), so that those “afflicted” by deafness can take their place in the hearing world, is likened by Harlan Lane to the attitudes shown by colonialists to indigenous peoples. In Lane‟s view, colonial rulers attempted to “normalize” these indigenous societies by imposing their own social laws, rules, religion and language.

He sees this process as one of paternalism and believes that much the same attitude existed and continues to exist in the way in which the D/HH are treated by the hearing world. He uses the term “audism”:

Audism is the corporate institution for dealing with deaf people, dealing with them by making statements about them, authorizing views of them, describing them, teaching about them, governing where they go to school and, in some cases, where they live; in

27 Naomi Malone, “A Constant Struggle: A History of Deaf Education in New South Wales since World War II” (PhD dissertation, University of Technology Sydney, 2017), p. 21.

18

short, audism is the hearing way of dominating, restructuring, and exercising authority over the deaf community.28

Lane was not the first person to use the term audism. It was first coined by Dr. Tom

Humphries in a 1975 unpublished essay. He further expanded on the term a couple of years later in his PhD dissertation as: “the notion that one is superior based on one‟s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears”.29 Humphries went on to investigate the concept during his academic career.30 From this beginning, the term audism and the concept behind it slowly took hold in the fields of D/HH education, sociology and linguistics. It first appeared in an Australian publication in 2008, following increased awareness of the concept at the Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf in Madrid the previous year.31

Since Lane‟s book was published in 1994, research on the subject has been slow, but awareness is increasing. The words audism and audist are not yet found in most English language dictionaries, although the Deaf community has pushed for greater inclusion.32 It could be argued therefore that the apparent unwillingness to accept these words as legitimate additions to the English language constitutes an example of audism in it its own right. The number of websites identified by a Google search using the term audism indicates that the Deaf community, particularly in the United States, is passionate about promoting

28 Harlan Lane, The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 43. 29 Tom Humphries, “Communicating across cultures (deaf/hearing) and language learning” (PhD. dissertation, Union Institute and University, 1977), p. 12. 30 Tom Humphries, “On Deaf-mutes, the Strange and the modern Deaf self”, in N. Glickman and M. Harvey (eds.), Affirming Psychotherapy with Deaf Persons (Hillsdale N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996), pp. 99-114, reprinted in Lois Bragg (ed.), Deaf world: A historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook (New York: New York University Press, 2001). 31 Meg Aumann, “Audism – What is it?”, Communicate: The Newsletter for Victoria’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, Issue 12 (Autumn, 2008), p. 12. 32 H-Dirksen L. Bauman, “Audism : Exploring the metaphysics of oppression”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 9, no.2, (Spring 2004), p. 239; “Audism”, archived at audism.org [http://www.audism.org/], accessed 7 April 2010. 19

the concept and its effects on D/HH people. Certainly, some definitions given can be on the emotive side as demonstrated by the following:

(Audism is) an attitude based on pathological thinking which results in a negative stigma towards anyone who does not hear; like racism or sexism, audism judges, labels and limits individuals on the basis of whether a person hears or speaks.33

Dr. H-Dirksen Bauman made use of the term when analyzing a 2006 student movement at

Gallaudet in protest of the appointment of a new university president. Gallaudet University, the oldest tertiary institution for Deaf students and located in Washington DC, acknowledges the term and the concepts that audism describes, but also has been criticised for policies and educational practices that could be described as audist.34 In describing earlier 1988 protests against the appointment of a hearing president, Bauman concludes that they failed to

“reform this almost 150-year-old entrenched bureaucracy of paternalism”.35 By 2006,

Gallaudet University was confronting the need for major changes to the manner in which it provided educational opportunities to D/HH students. These changes were a source of unrest and concern within the Deaf community, who felt that their language and culture were under threat.36

Bauman acknowledges the work of Lane in describing the concept of audism and the ways in which medical and educational institutions charged with the interest of D/HH people prevent them from having a say in the matters that affect them.37 He suggests that the historical approach to the “normalization” of the D/HH via a focus on oralism may be explained by looking at how, in the hearing world, language has become closely aligned with

33 Janice H. Humphrey and Bob J. Alcorn, So You Want To Be An Interpreter? An Introduction to Sign Language Interpreting, 2nd edn. (Amarillo (Texas): H&H Publications, 1995), p. 85. 34 Bauman, “Audism”, p. 241. 35 H-Dirksen Bauman, “Postscript: Gallaudet protests of 2006 and the myths of in/exclusion”, Sign Language Studies, vol. 10, no. 1 (Fall, 2009), pp. 91-92. 36 John B. Christiansen, “The 2006 protest at Gallaudet University: Reflections and explanations”, Sign Language Studies, vol. 10, no. 1 (Fall, 2009), pp. 85-86. 37 Bauman, “Audism”, p. 241. 20

speech. The human identity is therefore defined by the ability to speak.38 Bauman calls this connection between speech and the idea of being human metaphysical audism, and links this with the theory of phonocentrism explored by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Derrida was motivated by the work of Ferdinand de Saussure who believed that sound was an “internal, intrinsic element to language” and that visual messages were more the area of semiology than linguistics.39 This theory discounts any non-speech forms of communication, hence the term phonocentric. Derrida argued that non-verbal (and therefore non- phonocentric) forms of communication such as writing and even pictures, music and sculpture are equally expressive forms of language. Under this same category, Bauman believes that Sign can also be added.40

Audism can be said to have its roots in the phonocentric idea that without speech there is no language, and without the capacity for spoken language D/HH people are disadvantaged in terms of access to the same human identity available to hearing people. They have thus been historically limited in the social, educational and career options and services that are built around that identity. Speech-based language creates a social system that reflects the importance of an ability to hear, and a situation whereby those who can hear have superiority over those who cannot. Deafness then becomes a condition that needs to be addressed medically and educationally so that access to a hearing and speaking world becomes possible. Summing up the above, Bauman goes on to state that audism can be defined in the following ways:

1. The notion that one is superior based on one‟s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears.

2. A system of advantage based on hearing ability.

3. A metaphysical orientation that links human identity with speech.41

38 Bauman, “Audism”, p. 242. 39 Bauman, “Audism”, p. 243. 40 Bauman, “Audism”, pp. 244-245. 41 Bauman, “Audism”, p. 245. 21

Well before it was labelled, audism defined the relationship between those who can hear and those who cannot. The Bible, for example, treats deafness as a defect in the human condition and speaks of Jesus Christ healing the deaf. This religious attitude sometimes resulted in the

D/HH being considered unable to access religious instruction and therefore salvation based upon a declaration of faith.42 Savino Castiglione describes this as religious prejudice against the D/HH alongside psychological/cognitive, clinical/physiological and juridical prejudices that have historically affected D/HH people. Of these, the clinical/physiological concept has the most direct effect on educational attainment since it linked deafness with an inability to communicate and be educated.43 Indeed, as recently as 2007, it has been argued that audist practices continue to lead to a denial of appropriate linguistic access for the deaf community, with a resulting impact on educational, economic and social development.44 As this thesis will show, audism has almost always been present in educational practices.

Even today, where the principles of “least restrictive practice” and “inclusive education” drive D/HH educational pedagogy, the practice of audism remains evident. Sarah

Shulenburger used the concept of audism to develop a social justice curriculum model for middle-school D/HH students in the United States.45 Lissa Stapleton researched audist attitudes in a study of Deaf African-American students. Of particular note was what she termed audist “microaggressions”, which highlight some of the ways in which audism can be experienced by D/HH people.46 Miguel Augusto Santos and two colleagues looked at deaf

42 Savino G. Castiglione, “Deaf people in the world between the past and the present”, Dolentium Hominum, Journal of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (For Health Pastoral Care), Ephphatha! The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church, Proceedings of the XXIV International Conference, November 19-20-21, 2009, New Synod Hall, Vatican City. no. 73, Year XXV, no. 1 (2010), p. 15. 43 Castiglione, “Deaf people in the world”, p. 15. 44 Allen et. al., “Societal responsibility and linguistic rights”, p. 43. 45 Sarah Shulenburger, “Reading, writing and social justice: A middle school investigation”, (MA dissertation, University of California, 2012). 46 Lissa Denielle Stapleton, “The unexpected talented tenth: Black d/Deaf students thriving within the margins”, (PhD dissertation, Iowa State University, 2014), pp. 73-81. 22

education in Portugal through the concept of audism. They drew on the works of Michel

Foucault to identify state and medical interventions that have historically been put in place to manage the “problems” of deafness.47 Patricia Boyd used the term in her MA thesis covering the provision (or lack of) social services to the Deaf community, particularly Deaf women in the Californian county of Sonoma, Sacramento.48

An Opposing View

Not all Deaf History researchers agree with the concept of audism. Some, in fact, caution against placing too much importance on it, suggesting that the signing Deaf culture is not necessarily the predominate D/HH group, especially as social trends over the past twenty years indicate that the numbers of babies learning sign as a first language will tend to be minimal, given advances in technology and educational programmes focussing on oral development.49 Two American researchers, Jane Fernandes and Shirley Meyers, suggest that the wider D/HH community as a group needs to be considered in any research on the history of D/HH education.50 Audism represents a very narrow concept, applying as it does to the experiences of Deaf community members who then extrapolate these experiences to all D/HH people. It has been suggested that a better approach to understanding audism is to look at the wider D/HH community as they would be expected to experience different lives which can be satisfying to them but also experience incidents of oppression that represent acts of audism. Fernandes and Meyers believe that a narrow focus on “authentic” deaf life, in other words the culturally Deaf signing community, distracts and distorts the focus on

47 Lejo Swachten, Miguel Augusto Santos and Vítor Tété Gonçalves. "A deafening inequality Portuguese deaf education and the call for debating audism in schools”, Sensos, vol.1, no. 2 (2011), pp. 52-53. 48 Patricia A. Boyd, “Bridging the communication gap: Educating, informing, and understanding the Deaf community”, (MA dissertation, California State University, Sacramento, 2011). 49 Jane K. Fernandes and Shirley Shultz Myers, “Inclusive Deaf studies: Barriers and pathways”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 15, no. 1(Winter 2010), p. 21. 50 Fernandes and Myers, “Inclusive Deaf studies: Barriers and pathways”, p. 17. 23

audism and suggest that different D/HH people experience it in different and individualistic ways.51

Audism suggests that all D/HH people experience negative interactions with the hearing world, the most extreme being the idea of oppression by those who hear and use speech.

Certainly, many can, do and have experienced such oppression but not all. Without an understanding and appreciation of Deaf culture by hearing researchers, the linguistic research into the structures of sign language, for example, would arguably never have achieved the level of appreciation that it has. In turn, changes to educational pedagogy, such as bilingual- bicultural programmes, might not have developed without this appreciation of

Deaf culture and the linguistic aspects of sign language. Likewise, hearing aid and cochlear implant technology comes with the potential to widen the educational, social and economic opportunities available to D/HH people. This goes well beyond what was the case even twenty years ago, where technology would not have reached this point without committed research within the hearing world on behalf of the D/HH world. For the proponents of audism to claim oppression from the hearing world does not therefore apply in a general sense to all D/HH people. The degree to which audism is experienced can and does depend on the D/HH individual and, in many cases, the extent to which that individual fits within

“traditional” Deaf culture.

Certainly, a reverse form of audism can and does exist. It tends to be applied by Deaf culture to those who are deaf or hard of hearing and who fit under the medical model of deafness, with a reliance on hearing aids, cochlear implants and assistive auditory technology. The

Deaf cultural community by disregarding, ignoring or rejecting a wider community of D/HH people because they “behave in the manner of one who hears”, run the risk of taking

51 Fernandes and Myers, “Inclusive Deaf studies: Barriers and pathways”, pp. 24-25. 24

ownership of the term audism and limiting its value by using it to describe injustices and barriers experienced by themselves only.

This has important implications when considering audism. Many supporters of the concept come from within the signing culturally Deaf community which tends to put aside the idea that those who are not part of that community are deviations from the “norm” of that culture. Between the Deaf community and the hearing world, are a range of adults and children with various degrees of hearing loss, reliance on different types of technology, different communication needs and different lifestyles. Historically, the Deaf community has rarely acknowledged these “non-norm” groups, as witnessed for example by the initial strong opposition to cochlear implants. By the turn of the 21st century, however, greater acceptance has become evident within Deaf clubs and societies, but those without a strong basis in sign language and with a dependency on amplification technology can still experience marginalization from “traditional” Deaf culture.

Dysconcious Audism

This colonisation of Deaf culture as described above and the diverse range of D/HH people has led to a fragmentation of the Deaf community as different linguistic and social expectations as well as amplification technology influenced different educational trends and pedagogies in the schools for the D/HH. Naomi Malone addressed the issue of Deaf cultural fragmentation within the context of post-WWII D/HH education in the Australian state of

New South Wales for her PhD. She drew on what was seen as the fragmentation of cultural/oppressed groups to draw parallels with the D/HH community.52 She saw the fragmentation of the D/HH community as being “due in part to the lack of a common communication mode – and the existence of various communication modes- across a

52 Malone, “A Constant Struggle”, pp. 19-20. 25

relatively small community that is marginalised from mainstream society”.53 She states that by the 1960s, D/HH children had various, differing educational backgrounds as well as varying levels of hearing loss, exacerbated by the rubella epidemics at the time which created the need for more educational programmes drawing from a wider range of educational methods, including the establishment of pre-school and early childhood services with an emphasis on speech and listening and with greater access to amplification technology.54 This resulted in “incohesion and conflict” within the D/HH community.55 This in turn resulted in different lobby groups with their own particular agendas affecting the ability of the Deaf community to develop and promote a unified and organized approach to D/HH education.56

Without this cohesive and inclusive culture, the D/HH community is weakened in its ability to challenge audist attitudes from the dominant hearing world. Genie Gertz drew attention to Joyce King‟s work on dysconscious racism, which postulates that an impaired consciousness of racial inequality (rather than an absence) leads to a limited knowledge of and experience of racism. This limited knowledge results in an acceptance of “dominant white norms and privileges”.57 Gertz suggests that a similar impaired consciousness is experienced by D/HH people who “though they resist being assimilated into the dominant culture, still incorporate some antithetical values from the dominant culture”.58 Gertz builds on Joyce‟s work to describe the D/HH experience as “dysconscious audism”. She defines this as “a form of audism that tacitly accepts dominant hearing norms and privileges” and

“adheres to the ideology that hearing society, because it is dominant, is more appropriate than the Deaf society”.59 She suggests that D/HH people who do not have “a fully developed

Deaf consciousness connected to the Deaf identity…may still feel the need to assimilate into

53 Malone, “A Constant Struggle”, p. 21. 54 Malone, “A Constant Struggle”, pp. 79-80. 55 Malone, “A Constant Struggle”, p. 70. 56 Malone, “A Constant Struggle”, p. 134, 136. 57 Genie Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism: A Theoretical Proposition” in H-Dirksen L. Bauman (ed.), Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), p. 219. 58 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 219. 59 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 219. 26

the mainstream culture”.60 According to Gertz, past and present educational programmes created by hearing educators perpetuate dysconscious audism. Importantly, she states that even Deaf adults of Deaf parents, who would be among the “leaders” in a Deaf community, understand the need to co-exist with the hearing world, making use of bilingual/bicultural practices in order to successfully do so.61 As a result, they are at risk of internalizing hearing culture audist values.62 Gertz states that the hearing community continues to have control over the Deaf community in a variety of social domains including education and medicine.

The imbalance of power and the lack of a shared language denies them the chance to deal with audist issues.63 Gertz believes that a greater awareness by the D/HH community of dysconcious audism would lead to an increase in the power of Deaf discourse and ensure greater communication with the hearing culture. To Gertz, “Deaf people must be clear on their values and positions before they initiate dialogue with hearing people on Deaf matters”.64

Deaf Studies

One way in which D/HH discourse is strengthened through having to live within what has been described as an “audist and oralist” society, is that the D/HH have the ability to relate to one another world-wide, irrespective of country and spoken language.65 Ladd gives the example of what was known as the “Paris Banquets” during which Deaf people world-wide would travel to France to take part in these banquets. Although the speeches and social discourse were delivered in Sign language, they were often transcribed into written language by observers outside the Deaf community thereby giving later researchers an awareness of the complex structure of Sign as a valid linguistic code. Ladd believes that Sign linguistics

60 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, pp. 219-220. 61 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 230. 62 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 230. 63 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 232. 64 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 232. 65 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, p. 51. 27

became the “first wave” of Deaf Studies.66 However, Christopher Krentz in his review of

Open Your Eyes, states that while H-Dirksen Bauman also believed that modern Deaf

Studies began with the linguistic research by William Stokoe in the 1970s, a case could be made for such studies to go back to the early years of the publication of the American Annals of the Deaf. Early historical works by Harvey Peet and Luzerne Ray, for example, contributed greatly to this field.67

Deaf Studies has continued to be a growing field of research, especially in the United States, where several universities have such courses, including Gallaudet University. However, there have been concerns expressed that such courses could promote dysconscious audism.68

Ladd states that where Deaf Studies look at the “Deaf experience”, the focus is frequently on the “for” of the Deaf community, in other words, what the Deaf community require in terms of Sign language studies, linguistics, education, mental health and social welfare. Such topics tend to dominate the content of journals, conferences and the work of formal bodies focusing on Deaf Studies. Ladd feels that this is to the detriment of studies focusing on the

“of” concerning the Deaf Community, that is, the actual culture of arts, sport, community and history.69 He believes that colonialism still holds sway over Deaf Studies and this creates significant barriers to research as the Deaf community is seen as the objects of research, the

“objects of the gaze”, rather than the actual initiators, or subjects, of research into their own culture.70 Ladd claims that while this remains the case, decolonisation of the Deaf community “cannot be achieved until the subject replaces the object”.71 As an example, Sign language studies and the promotion of bilingual-bicultural communication can involve input

66 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, p. 51. 67 Peet, “Memoir on the origin and early history of the art of instructing the deaf and dumb”, pp. 129- 160; Ray, “Historical Sketch of the instruction of the deaf and dumb before the time of de l‟Epée‟”, pp. 197-208. 68 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, pp. 55-56. 69 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, p. 53. 70 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, p. 54. 71 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, p. 54. 28

from Deaf subjects, but rather than to look at these subjects from a cultural context, they become consigned to the status of an „educational tool‟.72

This lack of participation by the Deaf community into Deaf Studies has been identified by

Naomi Malone as one of the reasons for the comparative lack of Deaf studies output in

Australia. While she is correct in stating that (at the time of writing in 2017) only one other

D/HH scholar (herself) had written about Deaf education in Australia, Deaf culture and history has mostly been researched by hearing academics, with the notable exceptions of

Breda Carty, a Deaf academic in NSW, as well as Malone. Aaron Payne, also profoundly deaf, wrote a short paper of the history of cued speech at the St. Gabriel‟s (NSW) school, drawing attention to the unique challenges of conducting oral history interviews with those for whom Sign is their first language.73 He also describes how even though he is deaf himself, he still experienced resistance from the Deaf community, reflecting Ladd‟s “objects of the gaze” observation.74

Deaf Studies in Australia

Works by hearing educators and researchers on the history of Deaf education in Australia are also limited. One of the earliest monographs in this field is J.H. Burchett‟s Utmost for the

Highest, which covers the establishment and development of the Victorian School for Deaf

Children (previously the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution), published in 1964.75

Burchett‟s book takes a mostly descriptive approach on a variety of themes, covering among other things, the methods of instruction / communication used in the school and the impact of post-WWII developments. It is also notable for a comprehensive appendix listing almost

72 Ladd, “Colonialism and Resistance”, p. 55. 73 Aaron Payne, “The Challenges of Producing an Oral History of the Deaf: Cued Speech in New South Wales, 1965-1990”, The Oral History Association of Australia Journal, No. 35, 2013, p. 7. 74 Payne, “The Challenges of Producing an Oral History of the Deaf”, p. 7. 75 J.H. Burchett, Utmost for the Highest: The Story of the Victorian School for Deaf Children (Prahran (Vic.): Hall‟s Book Store, 1964). 29

all staff and students involved with the school up until the year of publication. While there is some connection between the Victorian School and the establishment of the school in

Western Australia, very little of this connection is recorded in the book.

The Victorian School was founded in November 1860 by a deaf man, Frederick J. Rose. At almost the same time in New South Wales, another deaf man, Thomas Pattison, began teaching deaf students at his home in Sydney from October 1860. This school became the

NSW Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. Fifteen years later, the Catholic

Church established a school for Catholic D/HH girls at the Rosary Convent at Newcastle.

Given the name “Waratah”, the school was run by an Irish Dominican nun, Sister Mary

Gabriel Hogan who was deaf herself. The history of this school was recorded in History of

Catholic Deaf Education in Australia 1927-1950 and later in two companion publications,

History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia Centennial Booklet 1875-1975 and Pictorial

Centenary Souvenir: Companion to The History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia

1875-1975.76 The Christian Brothers order established a similar school for D/HH boys in

Castle Hill also in New South Wales. Known as St. Gabriel‟s School, the institution opened in

1922. It remained a residential day school for D/HH boys until 1973 when it became a co- educational day school. Two publications exist covering the school‟s history were issued to celebrate the 50th anniversary and the centenary celebrations. Later, in 2000, another book,

Memories of St. Gabriel’s Deaf School Castle Hill NSW, was published.77 D/HH education

76 “History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia, 1927-1950” (Newcastle (N.S.W.): s.n. 195-?); “History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia Centennial Booklet 1875-1975” (Newcastle (N.S.W.: Newey & Beathe, 1975); Madeline M. Egan, Pictorial Centenary Souvenir: Companion to The History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia 1875-1975 (Newcastle (N.S.W.): Newey & Beath, 1975). 77 “Silver Jubilee Review, 1922-1947: St. Gabriel‟s School for Deaf Boys Castle Hill N.S.W.” (Castle Hill (N.S.W.): The School, 1947); “St. Gabriel‟s School for the Deaf: Golden Jubilee 1922-1972” (Sydney: s.n., 1973); Brian James Johnston, Memories of St. Gabriel’s: A History of St. Gabriel’s Deaf School Castle Hill NSW (Castle Hill (N.S.W.): B.J. Johnston, 2000). 30

and its history in NSW was also comprehensively covered by Barbara Crickmore in her PhD dissertation.78

The history of Queensland‟s School for the Deaf and Blind is told briefly in A Story of the

Queensland School for the Deaf, a small publication describing the school from its establishment in 1883 until closure in 1988.79 Like the NSW and Victorian institutions, the

Queensland school was established by a man with a sensory loss, but in this case, John

William Tighe was visually impaired. His institution was initially set up for visually impaired students but soon included deaf students. A much more detailed look at the school was written by Geoffrey Swan in his study on special education services in Queensland. Swan states that the oral method was originally introduced in 1898, but soon after, the school decided to follow the manual/combined method as its primary means of instruction.80

Swan‟s thesis included an in-depth look at the impact of personalities such as Tighe and the first Principal (rather than superintendent) of the school, Stanley Edward Holle.81

Tasmania‟s Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institute opened in 1898 at North Hobart and closed in

1987. The history of this school has been recorded by Elizabeth Smith as Time is the

Builder: A History of the Royal Tasmanian Society for the Blind and Deaf 1887 to 1987, published in 1991. A lengthy summary of the school‟s history can be found on the Find and

Connect website.82 Unlike the mainland institutions, the Tasmanian school, under the management of its first president, Samuel Clemes, initially took a dual approach to the instruction of the D/HH students. One of these approaches acknowledged the impact of

78 Barbara Lee Crickmore, “An historical perspective on the academic education of deaf children in New South Wales 1860s-1990s”, (PhD dissertation. University of Newcastle, 2000). 79 Laurence J. Hough & Barry Knust (eds), A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf (Brisbane: n.p., 1993). 80 Geoffrey J. Swan, “From Segregation to Integration: The Development of Special Education in Queensland”, (PhD dissertation: University of Queensland, 1996), p. 110. 81 Swan, “From Segregation to Integration”, pp. 55-62, 104-126. 82 “Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution (1898-1987), archived at Find and Connect [https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/tas/biogs/TE00415b.htm], accessed on 25 April, 2019. 31

Deaf culture and made use of Sign language. The other approach was to use the combined method and from 1922 this gradually became the primary focus.83

The majority of the above studies were written by hearing researchers so they tended to write from the perspective of hearing educators/researchers, resulting in a view of the institutions that reflected the hearing world‟s approach to D/HH education. With the exceptions of the academic theses, the accounts also tended to take a chronologically descriptive approach to the history of these institutions with little analysis of the effectiveness of the educational programmes being carried out and the impact these had on students at the schools.

The Western Australian scene

D/HH education in WA has been covered to some extent by other researchers. However, many of these studies have been academic dissertations taking a chronological approach and/or were unpublished documents. While two Bachelor of Education theses at the

University of Western Australia by V.E. Africh in 1957 and T.J. McArthur in 1962 discussed the topic, both were relatively brief documents at 27 and 34 pages respectively.84 Joy Uren also completed an unpublished research study in 1963.85 A previous hostel superintendent at the WA School for Deaf Children, Neville Green published a study on the topic in 1972.86

Green also published a survey on Indigenous students at the WA School for the Deaf.87

Margaret Warden wrote a history, but she reports that both copies no longer exist. One was

83 “Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution (1898-1987), archived at Find and Connect [https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/tas/biogs/TE00415b.htm], accessed on 25 April, 2019. 84 V.E Africh, “The education of the deaf child in Western Australia”, (BEd thesis, University of Western Australia, 1957); T.J. McArthur, “The history of the development of deaf education in W.A.”, BEd thesis, University of Western Australia, 1962. 85 Joy Uren, The history of deaf education in Western Australia, 1898-1940, Research study, Graylands Teachers‟ College, 1963 (HS/PR 1537). 86 Neville Green, “A History of the Western Australian School for Deaf Children”, Education: A Journal for Teachers, vol. 21, no. 1 (June 1972), pp. 22-27. 87 Neville J. Green, Survey of current and former Aboriginal students at W.A. School for Deaf (Perth: Schools Commission, 1975). 32

lost while on loan and the other destroyed in a clean-out of school material following the retirement of John Heatly from his position as Supervisor of the WA School for Deaf

Children in 1970.88

Further work on the topic of the education of D/HH children in WA, though not necessarily focusing on its history, has been carried out via a series of student research projects at

Claremont Teachers‟ College by Geraldine Anderson, Helen Falek and C.L. Rodgers.89

Wendy Attwater produced an academic paper that partially covered the development of deaf education in Western Australia.90 The most comprehensive work to date has been a Master of Education thesis by Val Stephens, submitted to Murdoch University in 1984.91

Stephens‟ thesis was drawn on heavily for the compilation of The House on the Hill, which was published in 1996 to mark the centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children. The compilers of the book acknowledge the breadth of Stephens‟ thesis, but at the same time noted that “the definitive history of education of deaf children in Western Australia awaits the attention of a future scholarly compiler”.92 The House on the Hill is a valuable record but incomplete in terms of the history of D/HH education in W.A. Much information has been omitted or overlooked due to research constraints imposed primarily by time limitations as well as the limits of information retrieval procedures in place at the time. Its

88 Margaret Warden, discussion with Geoffrey Smith, 24 November, 2014. 89 Geraldine Anderson, Deaf education in Western Australia, Student research project, Claremont Teachers‟ College, c. 1970; Helen Falek, The education of pre-school and junior school deaf children in W.A., Student research project, Claremont Teachers‟ College, 1971; C.L. Rodgers, Parent guidance for hearing handicapped children in Western Australia in pre-school and junior school years, Student research project, Claremont Teachers‟ College, 1971. 90 Wendy Attwater, Describe critically, 19th and 20th century government legislation relating to hearing impaired children: Essay submitted on the history of the education of the deaf and partially hearing by candidate No. 153, Feb. 1981, Western Australian Institute for Deaf Education archives. 91 Val Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap: A history of the provision of education for the hearing impaired with special reference to Western Australia 1896-1963”, (MEd thesis, Murdoch University, 1984). 92 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park: Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. xi. 33

strength lies in comprehensive listings of staff and students involved with the school as well as a valuable photographic record.

Stephens‟ thesis also covered the events leading to the establishment of the Speech and

Hearing Centre (S&HC) for Deaf Children.93 The Centre, which now goes under the name of

Telethon Speech and Hearing Ltd. (TSH), continues to be a privately-run educational institution for D/HH children. It published its account of the first twenty five years of its history, written by one of the early members of the teaching staff, Vince McCudden.94 This complements Stephens‟ work.95 McCudden wrote from an insider perspective and was therefore able to provide a unique, if uncritical, insight into the early years of the S&HC.

Stephens‟ thesis was wide-ranging for that time and covered D/HH education up to 1983, but like The House on the Hill, much material was omitted. Since 1984, records management technology has made the location and retrieval of a wider range of relevant material more accessible than ever before. The development of the National Library of

Australia‟s Trove database is a case in point, allowing rapid retrieval of material including books, journal articles and newspapers. In addition, changes in amplification technology, parental expectations, educational pedagogy, social attitudes towards the Deaf and sign language and government policies have, among other things, changed the approach to D/HH education significantly in the years since 1984.

This thesis differs from Stephen‟s study. It takes a more analytical approach to D/HH education in Western Australia, whereas Stephen‟s approach is purely descriptive. By

93 Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap”, pp. 93-98 94 Vince McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre: The First Twenty Five Years (1967-1992) (Perth: n.p., 1994). 95 Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap”, p. 93. 34

including up-to-date details since 1983, this study demonstrates that educational outcomes have changed significantly and for the better since the early 1980s. Through the prism of audism, it will be emphasized that many of those involved in the education of the D/HH

(teachers, parents, doctors and audiologists) have acted from a genuine desire to improve the quality of life for the D/HH. Even if what is being done in the course of assisting the D/HH can be construed as audist, it can be claimed that these services have improved the lives of

D/HH people. This in turn has contributed towards a greater understanding of deafness and a slow but steady willingness by the hearing world to accept Deaf culture and the language of

Sign.

Documentation on deaf education in Western Australia is held by the State Library, the

Department of Education, the collection held at the WA Foundation for Deaf Children‟s Deaf

Heritage, the WA Institute for Deaf Education (now the School of Special Educational Needs

– Sensory) and Telethon Speech & Hearing. More material on D/HH education is also now available online. In addition to The House on the Hill, the centenary of the WA School for

Deaf Children was marked by the compilation of a book of newspaper clippings and articles covering D/HH education in Western Australia from 1896-1996.96 This was an impressive achievement by the compiler, Lindsay Lake, a student at the school from 1951-1962, especially when he did not have access to on-line services such as Trove. He completed the majority of the collation using microfilm records at the Battye Library of Western Australian

History. Due to the limitations of time and search techniques available at the time, a significant number of newspaper articles were overlooked. These can now be readily identified and recorded via Trove searches.

96 Lindsay C. Lake, Centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.): Newspaper Clippings and Articles 1896-1996, Perth: n.p., 1996. 35

The history of D/HH education in Western Australia as covered by this thesis will show that what has been provided in terms of D/HH educational programmes in Western Australia closely follows what Harlan Lane terms “the stages of assimilation”.97 Lane believed that audism in D/HH education is demonstrable throughout its history since the Milan conference. He states that audist attitudes infuse aspects of D/HH education progressing through five stages of assimilation to the present day. To begin with, oralism took hold more widely in the years following Milan. With the subsequent rejection of Sign within most schools for the deaf, the first stage of assimilation was the marginalization of Sign as a language through the establishment of oral programmes. This marginalization continued through the next stage, which was the establishment of day schools for the D/HH, which reduced opportunities for D/HH children to learn Sign within the day-to-day life of the boarding schools. The day schools also tended to focus on spoken language in the expectation that the D/HH child would have greater opportunities for communication at home and in the hearing world. Spoken language dominance became the third stage during which the focus within schools was on oral language skills such as English, augmented as required by manual support such as total communication. The process accelerated in the last two decades of the 20th century, through the final two stages, mainstreaming and surgical intervention via cochlear implants and the Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid (BaHa).98

Lane suggests that all of these stages have been detrimental to the academic and emotional well-being of the D/HH child. However, this ignores the fact that positive outcomes can and are being achieved which enables a better post-school quality of life for the D/HH individual.

The thesis will demonstrate that Lane is correct in his view concerning the provision of

D/HH educational services as applied to the Western Australian context. However, the argument will also be presented that these services were not necessarily detrimental to the students who received them. Rather than to be challenged as audist in their approaches, it

97 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, 1994, p. 132. 98 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, 1994, pp. 132-135. 36

will be pointed out that many educators and educational services were products of their era and that the result of professional decisions made with the best interests of the students at that time. Many D/HH students went on to fulfilling careers and lifestyles after their school years. In doing so, they maintained close emotional links with the institutions and the friends made during those years. Equally, however, it is acknowledged that at times, being the recipients of these services were challenging and occasionally traumatic for some D/HH children. No educational system for D/HH children is perfect as demonstrated throughout history.

Lane‟s stages of assimilation for D/HH children forms the basis for the layout of the chapters of this thesis. The first chapter will look at the early years of the first institution for D/HH children in WA, before looking more closely at the educational practices put in place for these children. Such practices did not necessarily reflect audist attitudes, but ensured that the methods used gave the students every possibility of achieving appropriate educational outcomes. Lane describes this era of assimilation as the oralism phrase when sign language was rejected and speech and lip-reading was the predominant method.99 This approach remained consistent up until the 1930s after which changes to the manner in which D/HH children were taught became evident. These changes will be discussed in chapters dealing with the Depression and WWII years. Changes brought about by the war years led to the establishment of day schools for D/HH children but spoken English was the primary means of communication within the classroom.100 This was the second stage of assimilation and was followed by the next stage during which spoken and written English became the dominant form of classroom communication assisted by improvements in auditory technology.101 These developments will be investigated in chapters dealing with the post

WWII years along with the emergence of rubella epidemics as a major factor driving

99 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, pp. 132 -133. 100 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, p. 133. 101 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, pp. 133 - 135. 37

educational practices and audiological services into the 1950s and 1960s. Again, these developments will be investigated in terms of audist practices, but ones that were also very much driven by the needs of the time and the beliefs by hearing practitioners in the field of

D/HH that what they were doing was in the best interests of the students.

The development and refinement of amplification technology led to a further stage of assimilation as defined by Lane: mainstreaming into regular schools and the closure or downsizing of dedicated schools for the D/HH.102 The implications for audist approaches becomes stronger at this stage as many D/HH children became socially and geographically isolated from each other. For some, the experience led to positive life outcomes but for others it did not. The challenges to students in this era, predominantly the 1970s and early

1980s, led to the next stage of assimilation. The development of the cochlear implant and

BaHas effectively validated the view that deafness was a condition that had to be treated by medical intervention.103

It will be shown that D/HH education in WA followed closely these five levels of assimilation, but it will also be argued that the introduction of Bilingual – Bicultural educational programmes form another stage of assimilation which can be placed between the levels of mainstreaming and surgery. It took place between a time when issues with positive educational outcomes were a challenge to D/HH students and their teachers within mainstream settings due primarily to poor oral education results experienced by many of these students. This led to a re-appraisal of sign language as a linguistic code and therefore an educational tool for those students unable to benefit from oral-only programmes.

However, the medical model of deafness continued to assert itself through refinements in cochlear implant technology and the increasing ability to provide implantation to very young

102 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, p. 135. 103 Lane, Mask of Benevolence, p. 135. 38

children, leading to greater potential for auditory skills development and oral language outcomes.

It will be shown throughout this thesis that in Western Australia, as elsewhere in D/HH education, teaching practices were never consistent or fixed with one particular approach.

Both oral and manual methods have strengths and weaknesses as well as passionate supporters and critics. Towards the end of the 20th century the introduction of the concept of audism enabled researchers such as Lane to reinforce the idea of manualism and to suggest that oral educational programmes were detrimental to the Deaf community. It will be suggested that audist practices remained dominant throughout the timespan of D/HH education in Western Australia to the present. However, audism is an emotive and often negative term that does not reflect the challenges inherent in D/HH education. This thesis will show that disconcious audism as defined by Gertz resulted within the Western

Australian context, not necessarily in equal balance with audism, but combining to form educational services that have ultimately been made in the best interests of generations of

Western Australian D/HH children. Teachers, educational superintendents and administrators, parents and audiological professionals involved in the education of D/HH children were by and large professionally committed in their goals for the children under their care.

Finally, this thesis aims to contribute to Deaf studies through a focus on D/HH education in

Western Australia from the viewpoint, like Malone, of a deaf researcher who has regular interactions with members of the W.A. Deaf community. While much of the material presented comes from published sources and discussions with hearing educators, members of the Deaf community were generally accessible and happy to share stories through the medium of Auslan, the Australian Sign language. The researcher, having been educated in 39

mainstream schools rather than a school for the D/HH, has speech as his primary language, but has developed Auslan skills that have enabled a certain degree of access to the Deaf community in social settings. The thesis is informed as a study of D/HH educational practices by the researcher having a hearing loss and through his actual work as a teacher of the D/HH.

40

Chapter 1: The Beginning

The beginning of Deaf Education in Western Australia coincides with a significant period of time in the colony‟s history. As a British colony, Deaf education practices were influenced by

British educational and social expectations. The same forces drove the development of similar services in the other Australian colonies, most notably Victoria and New South

Wales. Deaf education in Western Australia was influenced by the personal experiences of those who came over from the east, bringing with them a pedagogy that reflected their background. For the most part, this involved a paternal, not to mention audist, approach that was reflective of the Victorian era. As a result of the 1880 Milan Conference, described in the Introduction, the oral approach to Deaf education was considered to be ideal and this began to have an influence in Australia. Nevertheless, some educators, including those who came to Western Australia, were aware of the limitations of this approach. They were prepared to use other methods if and as needed. In doing so, they were able to achieve positive outcomes for their students who went on to good post-secondary lives. The oral/audist approach also resulted in limited involvement by Deaf adults in teaching and in the management of Deaf education in WA.

The Establishment of the School

The earliest reference to a Deaf or Hard of Hearing (D/HH) child in Western Australia is recorded in the parliamentary Legislative Council records of the colony in 1871. In that year, it was noted that two deaf children were to be educated at the Victorian School for Deaf

Children, with a recommendation that some costs associated with their transport, tuition 41

and accommodation be covered by the colonial government.1 The children, whose father was a convict warder, were Mary and Andy Graham. The motion was carried and the children enrolled that year at the school.2 According to the parliamentary report, four of the six

Graham children were “deaf-mutes” and it appears that the other two siblings, Jenny and

Martin, attended the same school from 1877 and 1881 respectively.3

Formal educational services for D/HH children in Western Australia began 25 years later in

1896. At that time the colony began an economic and social transformation driven initially by the gold-rush and then by agricultural expansion.4 During the second half of the 1890s, the population expanded dramatically as a result of the gold boom centered on the eastern goldfields regions of Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Boulder.5 In 1891, Perth‟s population was slightly over 9,500, reaching almost 44,000 by 1901.6 Over the six-year period from 1890-

1896, student enrolments in Education Department schools rose from 3,352 to 9,008.7 Prior to the boom and with the relatively small size of the colony, there may not have been very many severely and/or profoundly deaf children within the population.

Provision of educational services expanded rapidly as a result of the increasing population and the need for training of a workforce, as well as the availability of financial resources to

1 Western Australia. Parliamentary Debates. Legislative Council Session of the Year 1871. Comprising the period from the tenth day of July to the seventeenth day of August (Perth: Garry L. Duffield, Government Printer, 1871), p. 42; “Legislative Council: Miscellaneous”, Perth Gazette and West Australian Times, 28 July, 1871, p. 2; “Legislative Council, Monday, July 24th: Public benevolence”, The Inquirer and Commercial News, 2 August, 1871, p. 3. 2 J.H. Burchett, Utmost for the Highest: The Story of the Victorian School for Deaf Children (Melbourne: Hall‟s Book Store, 1964), p. 223. 3 Western Australia. Parliamentary Debates. Legislative Council Session of the Year 1871, p. 42; Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 224. 4 M.A.White, “Extending equal opportunity, 1899-1917”, in W.D. Neal (ed.), Education in Western Australia (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1979), p. 90. 5 “Teaching of deaf mutes”, The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 4. 6 C.T. Stannage, The People of Perth (Perth: Perth City Council, 1979), 193. 7 David Mossenson, State Education in Western Australia 1829 – 1960 (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1972), p. 89. 42

provide this education.8 There was also an “emerging urban middle class”, who valued the opportunities provided by educational institutions. This social group was represented at a political level by leaders who appreciated the establishment of a comprehensive educational programme, from kindergarten to university.9 Economic growth continued until the second decade of the 20th century, after which factors such as poor agricultural seasons and the impact of the Great War caused educational policies to be reassessed. Nevertheless, the

1890s was of enormous importance to the growth of Western Australia. It is not surprising then, that this period saw the establishment of deaf education services to enable D/HH children to be contributing members of society and enjoy the benefits of the economic boom.

A Deaf man, William Richard Thomson, arrived in Western Australia in 1896 at the height of the gold rush. Like many at the time, Thomson, who had marketable skills, was probably lured to Perth by the booming economy. Due to his own deafness, he would have experienced significant communication challenges on his journey to the colony. C.T.

Stannage writes in The People of Perth about the observations of Albert Calvert, who graphically described the chaos of travelling from Albany to Perth by train in 1905-06 and of arrival in the hot-house atmosphere of gold-rush Perth.10 From his description, it is easy to imagine how confusing and chaotic this environment would be to anyone arriving in the colony, much less a person who was profoundly deaf. Soon after his arrival, Thomson became aware of “sixteen or seventeen” D/HH children, which was indeed a small number, but one that expanded to at least 24 by 1903.

The first recorded reference to Thomson was made in The West Australian on 29 August

1896. He was described as an educated man of means, a tailor by trade, who wished to find

8 White, “Extending equal opportunity”, p. 90. 9 White, “Extending equal opportunity”, pp. 90-91. 10 Stannage, The People of Perth, pp. 212-213. 43

other D/HH people in the booming colony.11 The West Australian reported that Thomson located the D/HH children within “an easy radius of the city, or living in it”.12 He was aware of the educational opportunities available to D/HH children in the other Australian colonies, almost certainly as a result of having a sister, Eleanor Christine Thomson, employed at the

Deaf and Dumb Institute of Victoria. Consequently, he was not oblivious to the comparative lack of educational opportunities in the Swan River colony. He had observed many instances of D/HH people destitute and dependent upon others as a result of their inability to communicate.13 Through his sister, Thomson was able to get in touch with the principal of the Victorian school for advice. He also made contact with various influential figures in the

WA colony.

Both William and Eleanor were born in Edinburgh, Scotland. William was born on 29 July,

1865 and Eleanor on 30 March, 1867 to parents Benjamin Thomson and Christina Ewart.14

Being deaf, William was educated at the Royal Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in

Edinburgh. Eleanor trained as a teacher of the deaf, but apparently not at the school that her brother attended.15 William arrived in Australia in 1890 and came to Western Australia in

1896 after spending over four years in Victoria and over a year in Adelaide.16 Eleanor also subsequently immigrated to Australia and commenced employment at the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution (later renamed the Victorian School for Deaf Children) in 1893.17

11 The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 4. 12 The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 4. 13 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, The First Annual Report (Perth, n.p., 1898), p. 7. 14 Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950” index, archived at Family Search, (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F741-28W), accessed 20 April 2012, William Richard Thomson (1865); “Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950” index, archived at Family Search, (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FQ8P-CVL), accessed 20 April 2012, Eleanor Christina Thomson (1867). 15 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. 4. 16 The House on the Hill, p, 2, 4. 17 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 252. 44

With encouragement from her brother, Eleanor came over to Western Australia from

Victoria in 1896. She was initially employed by the Brittain family to act as governess to their two deaf girls, Hilda and Ada, as well as their cousin, Elsie Jecks. Tuition took place in a family property adjacent to the Brittain home.18 According to their sister, Mrs Maude

Cook, her parents were initially considering sending Ada and Hilda to school in Adelaide, but they ended up remaining in Perth.19 Elsie Jecks is recorded as the first pupil at the new

Western Australian school, enrolled on 17 August 1896.20

Eleanor was soon followed by Mr. Henry Hinds Witchell, who also worked at the Victorian

Deaf and Dumb Institution. He was born in Yackandandah, Victoria on 8 February 1868, to parents Henry and Elizabeth (nee Hines) Witchell.21 Witchell (Senior) was known to be a shopkeeper in the town, who successfully applied for a Hawker‟s License in 1864.22 This license enabled Witchell (Snr) to sell goods that were easily transportable.23 However, this venture was short-lived and he was soon declared insolvent in 1867 due to “Pressure of an execution creditor, losses in business, and illness in family”.24

Henry Hinds Witchell apparently came highly recommended by educators in Victoria and

South Australia. At the time of his appointment to the W.A. school, he was reported to have accumulated thirteen years of experience in the field of D/HH education.25 Details of

Witchell‟s early teaching career and training remain sketchy, but given his date of birth and

18 Transcript of taped interview between Dr Neville Green and Mrs Maud Cook (sister of the first pupils at the deaf school). Mrs Cook was aged 93 (WA Institute for Deaf Education archives, 1971), p. 1. 19 Mrs Maude Cook, Interview, p. 1. 20 The House on the Hill, p. 64. 21 Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Record No. 6472/1868. 22 “Yackandandah Police Court. Tuesday March 14th (Before Captain Carey, P.M., and Thos. Miller, Esq., J.P), Ovens and Murray Advertiser, Thursday 16 March, 1865, p. 3. 23 “Hawkers and Pedlers Act 1958”, archived at Australian Legal Information Institute [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/hapa1958187.pdf], accessed on 23 March, 2019. 24 “New insolvents”, The Argus, 30 March, 1867, p. 5. 25 The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 5. 45

his years of teaching experience before coming to Perth, he commenced his career at a very young age by today‟s standards. Some advertisements which appeared in The Sydney

Morning Herald in late 1882 to early 1883, invited young men aged between fourteen and sixteen to train as teachers of the deaf.26 Similar advertisements appeared in The Argus

(Melbourne) in July, 1882.27 It is possible that at the age of fourteen he responded to one of the Argus advertisements since he is recorded as having joined the staff of the Victorian

Institute as a student teacher around that time.28 There is also the suggestion that Witchell was ambitious enough to look beyond Victoria for opportunities. The Hobart Mercury newspaper had a small advertisement in the issues of 20 and 23 January 1894 that stated:

Deaf and Dumb – Parents, friends, and all interested in the above, earnestly desired to communicate with H. Witchell, “Lorette”, Macquarie-street, Hobart.29

Witchell apparently visited Hobart with the intention of establishing his own school there.

Nothing appears to have come from this venture. Witchell returned to the mainland, possibly to the Victorian school again, before heading to Western Australia a couple of years later.

Eleanor Thomson remains somewhat of an enigma as well. She arrived in Western Australia the same year as Henry Witchell, whom she married on 5 December 1903 in St. Paul‟s

Church, West Perth.30 Both were 36 at the time of marriage. Their only son, Henry Phillip, was born in 1908, but a still-born son preceded him in 1904. Phillip is believed to have had some form of physical disability as a child as he was said to have had “iron on his legs”.31

Until Witchell‟s death in 1926, Eleanor Witchell worked at the school as a teacher and

26 “Advertising”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 December, 1882, p. 12; The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 December, 1882, p. 19; The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 January, 1883, p. 16. 27 “Advertising”, The Argus, 29 July, 1882, p. 1; The Argus, 31 July, 1882, p.1. 28 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 121. 29 Advertising, The Mercury, 20 January, 1894, p. 4; The Mercury, 23 January, 1894, p.1. 30 D.G. Stockins, Registrar General‟s Office, written communication to Dr. H.J. Blackmore, 2 November, 1994; The House on the Hill, p. 4. 31 Mrs Maude Cook, Interview, p. 3. 46

matron, beginning a long-standing tradition of husband/wife partnerships at the school. She took over the running of the school for a short time after her husband‟s death, but then disappeared from the records. It is known that at some stage she went back to Victoria; she passed away in the Melbourne suburb of Edithvale on 21 June 1947 at the age of 80.32

Education of the Deaf in the late 19th Century

The 19th century was a time when education was highly valued within the British Empire.

Literacy became increasingly accessible to the masses including the poor and those with disabilities. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, the spread of literacy was seen as a hallmark of the development of British society not only at home, but in aiding and supporting the spread of the British Empire abroad. Secondly, literacy had religious benefits. As far as British society was concerned, literacy ensured that a person‟s soul would be saved by having access to the word of God through the pages of the Bible. This applied equally to the poor and dispossessed at home and to the indigenous populations of the

British colonies. Educators and missionaries carried with them the view that the English language was the only “proper” language to be used in educational instruction. It was considered to be “conceptually and structurally superior” to all other languages.33 Within the wider British Empire, this attitude resulted in a discrediting of minority languages such as

Gaelic and Welsh or on a wider scale Hindi and Bengali in India. This attitude has been described as “linguistic imperialism”, a view which reinforced the spread of oralism in the education of the D/HH at the expense of their natural language, Sign.34

In addition to the suppression of sign language, D/HH people faced further discrimination in

British society. In 19th century Britain deaf children, along with those who were poor or

32 Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Record No. 18209/1947. 33 Jan Branson and Don Miller, Damned for their Difference: The Cultural Construction of Deaf People as Disabled (Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002), p. 124. 34 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, pp. 123-124. 47

judged to be disabled, were usually placed in schools that were seen by society of the time as asylums or institutions.35 Through institutionalisation, a “normalisation” process could be undertaken via education and a certain degree of discipline. However, this process, according to Jan Branson and Don Miller, never allowed for complete normalisation.

Instead the strategies involved in educating the deaf reinforced the social view of the deaf as being medically different and “disabled”.36

For those deaf children coming from wealthy families, the situation was somewhat different.

In British society at the time, wealth reflected cultural and spiritual standing. As Sign supposedly reflected the uncultured, uncivilised nature of the deaf, it was considered desirable that deaf children born into wealthy families become “cultured” and “civilised” through exposure to English speech and language. Rather than being placed in institutions, these children, described as “parlour pupils”, were educated by a privately appointed teacher of the deaf, paid a certain amount per child, with the expectation that tuition would concentrate on the development of speech skills.37

The First Enrollments

Hilda and Ada Brittain and Elsie Jecks, tutored by Eleanor Thomson in 1896, certainly came from wealthy families. The Brittain family were among the “free families” arriving at the

Swan River colony in the mid-1800s who established themselves socially and professionally through commerce, public service and contract work.38 Hilda and Ada‟s father, Benjamin, was a farmer from Esperance and later a carter and council worker.39 Both girls were born in

Albany. In 1892, the Brittains applied to the South Australian school to have the girls

35 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, p. 122. 36 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, p. 122. 37 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, p. 127. 38 Stannage, The People of Perth, pp. 105-106. 39 Mrs Maude Cook, Interview, p. 4. 48

enrolled there and the applications were accepted by the committee of management.

However, the girls did not make the journey across the Nullabour.40 Elsie‟s father, Thomas, was the mayor of Guildford from August to December 1891, after which he managed the

Rose and Crown Hotel situated in the town. Her mother, Selina, passed away in 1894 at the age of 31 from heart failure.41 Coming as they did from influential families, the girls were expected to take their place in this society, so the appointment of Eleanor Thomson as governess to the girls reflected the private approach to their education; the girls were

“parlour pupils”.

The first three children officially enrolled were quickly joined by Herbert Campbell and Sara

Shaw.42 As a result, schooling was transferred from the Brittain property to rented premises in Moore Street, just off Hutt Street in North Perth.43 The school opened in August 1896.44

From the beginning, Witchell was keen to expand the student numbers, and as early as

August 1896, he travelled to the eastern agricultural districts to publicise the school.45 By

September of that year he had also visited Northam.46 He evidently made an impact since the Northam Amateur Dramatic Society pledged in the pages of The West Australian to donate all proceedings from its most recent performance to the new school.47

As word spread within the colony, further enrolments were made. A government grant of

£200 was provided to the school in October 1896.48 Shortly afterwards, the Moore Street

40 “The Advertiser”, The Advertiser, 29 February, 1892, p. 4. 41 “Births, deaths and marriages”, The Enquirer and Commercial News, 8 February, 1895, p. 8; “The death of Mrs. Jecks at Guildford. The inquest”, Daily News, 22 January, 1855, p. 2. 42 The House on the Hill, p. 64. 43 The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 5; “News and Notes”, The West Australian, 9 April, 1897, p. 4; WADDI, First Annual Report, 1898, pp. 7-8. 44 The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 4. 45 The West Australian, 29 August, 1896, p. 4 46 “Deaf and dumb school”, Western Mail, 11 September, 1896, p. 34. 47 “School of education for the deaf and dumb. To the editor”, The West Australian, 26 September, 1896, p. 10. 48 “News in brief”, The Daily News, 16 October, 1896, p. 2. 49

premises proved to be inadequate as demand for places grew. This resulted in another move to more spacious premises at “Belvidere” in Trafalgar Road, East Perth by October 1897.49

The school was named the Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution (WADDI).

“Belvedere” was previously the residence of the late Richard Roach Jewell, the government architect, known in Perth for his design of the Cloisters, Pensioner‟s Barracks and Perth

Town Hall. The school faced the Swan River at the end of East Perth and was considered to be ideal for the purposes of teaching deaf children since:

if the building or rather the rooms are somewhat inadequate in size, they are for cleanliness, ventilation, and comfort as suitable for the purpose as the site itself is admirable on account of its healthy position.50

Photographs published in The Western Mail show Belvidere to indeed be an imposing building located high above the river and with an impressive view across to the Burswood

Peninsula.51 Idyllic as it looks and sounds, the reality of Belvidere‟s location was somewhat different. Being in East Perth, the property was affected by the general environmental conditions of the area, best summed up as a heavily polluted and rather toxic place due to the large number of labour-intensive industries established there.52

Stannage describes East Perth of the time as being Perth‟s Collingwood.53 His account also notes the construction of a gasometer in central East Perth, the proximity of the rubbish tip near what was to become Queen‟s Gardens and the later situating of sewerage filter beds at

Burswood.54 It appears that East Perth was not necessarily the best location for a school of

49 “News in brief”, The Daily News, 5 June, 1897, p. 4; “News and Notes”, The West Australian, 5 June, 1897, p. 5; “News of the week”, The Western Mail, 11 June, 1897, p. 24; “Deaf and dumb institution”, The Western Mail, 8 October, 1897, p. 26; “The West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution”, The Silent Worker, vol. 12, no. 1 (September, 1899), p.1; Neville J. Green, “History of the Western Australian School for Deaf Children, 1896-1970”. Research study, n.d. (SA,PR 6673), p. 3. 50“Institution for the deaf and dumb”, The West Australian, 13 July, 1897, p. 2; “Institution for the deaf and dumb”, The Western Mail, 16 July, 1897, p. 26. 51 “Deaf and dumb institution”, The Western Mail, 8 October, 1897, p. 26. 52 Stannage, The People of Perth, p. 253. 53 Stannage, The People of Perth, p. 253. 54 Stannage, The People of Perth, p. 253. 50

any sort, especially given the prevalence of typhoid in the late 1890s. The environmental and social conditions of the locality could well have been contributing factors in the subsequent relocation to Cottesloe in 1900, along with the need to provide accommodation for more than the maximum of twelve students that could be housed at Belvidere.

Financial Support

Funds raised by private subscriptions and donations significantly outweighed grants provided by the government and contributed to the healthy financial state enjoyed by the institution in its early years. Early annual reports from WADDI draw particular attention to the amount of money raised by Collectors employed by the school.

Initially, William Thomson took on the role of Collector for the new institution. The first annual report for WADDI included a list of subscribers from July 1896 to June 1898 which indicates that the Collector (in this case, mostly Mr Thomson) was quite active around Perth and Fremantle. Country districts covered tended to be generally those areas accessible by train and taking in the opening agricultural regions around Geraldton, the Avon District and the Great Southern. Towns developing along the Great Southern railway network from

Northam to Albany were also visited.55

Thomson evidently worked hard to ensure the school was established successfully. Being a tailor helped him gain access to influential members of the community during the course of his work. Early in 1897, The West Australian reported that Thomson had successfully raised the sum of £77 for the residential school.56 Unfortunately, he met an untimely end at

55 WADDI, First Annual Report, 1898, pp. 13-19. 56 “News and notes. West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution”, The West Australian, 23 February, 1897, p. 4. 51

the age of 31 on 4 December 1897 when he was hit by a train while carrying out his collecting duties.57 On that particular day, he was walking in the same direction to the east as a train which approached from behind him, but unable to hear anything, he stepped onto the track right in front of the train.58 At its meeting on 23 February 1898, the Committee of

Management placed on record its regret at the loss of Thomson “to whom the establishment of an Institution for the Deaf and Dumb was due and who had served it most faithfully and successfully during the eleven months of his connection with it”.59

The WADDI Committee subsequently appointed George Paqualin to the position of Collector in March 1898. A 21 year-old deaf man, Paqualin came to Perth from Jamestown in South

Australia. He was recommended to Henry Witchell by Samuel Johnson, who knew of

Paqualin probably from his time as a student at the Brighton school.60 Paqualin commenced service on a salary of £60 per annum and five percent commission on all collections.61

Initially given a three month trial period, he requested that if he was not re-appointed, his travelling expenses to date be refunded.62 However, he was to serve for 45 years as Collector, working up until the time of his death in 1942. He made a good start to the job and by the second half of that year he had already ventured as far as Albany and the Kalgoorlie goldfields.63 Through his travels, he became quite well-known, according to The Sunday

Times newspaper:

Paqualin hops all over the State, and is highly thought of, his manly bearing and generally smart and gentlemanly appearance gaining the respect of all men. He has not either the faculty of hearing or speech, but to converse with him per pen and pencil is often highly educational, as he is remarkably well read, and can discuss

57 “Another railway fatality: A deaf mute the victim”, The West Australian, 6 December, 1897, p. 7; “Another railway fatality”, The Daily News, 6 December, 1897, p. 4. 58 “Another railway fatality. A deaf mute the victim”, Western Mail, 10 December, 1897, p. 59. 59 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, “Minutes of the committee meeting, 23 February, 1898”, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/40, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 60 The House on the Hill, p. 5. 61 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, “Minutes of the committee meeting, 16 March, 1898”, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/40, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 62 WADDI, “Minutes of the committee meeting”, 16 March, 1898. 63 “The W.A. Deaf and Dumb Institution”, Albany Advertiser, 14 July, 1898, p. 3; “W.A. Deaf and Dumb Institution”, Kalgoorlie Miner, 6 September, 1898, p. 7. 52

general topics with considerable interest. The deaf and dumb are fortunate in having one so capable to do their collecting.64

In many towns he received free board and residence at hotels and a reduced rate at others, as acknowledged in the pages of early WADDI annual reports. A devout Roman Catholic,

Paqualin never married and lived at the Institution when in Perth.65 During his visits to country towns, Paqualin apparently found more D/HH children who could be referred to the

Institution. Mr. Wyndam Cooper, an ex-student and for many years actively involved in the

Western Australian Deaf Society, reported that his grandparents had not wanted him to attend the school, but that Paqualin had engaged the local policeman to intervene in the matter.66

Paqualin greatly extended his range in subsequent years. By July 1902, in excess of £400 was recorded as received via contributions. The booming eastern goldfields region was a steadily increasing source of support, almost matching that of Perth and Fremantle, while the South-West area was also financially beneficial to the school. Collection boxes were installed in some hotels (primarily those in Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Boulder) which provided valuable additional income. By 1902, such was the value of the goldfields region to

WADDI, that in the fifth annual report the settlements in this area were grouped in a category separate from the other country districts.67 By 1907, railway lines had extended to

Kalgoorlie, Cue, Geraldton, Busselton and Albany, indicating that Paqualin had wide access to the southern part of the state through this network.68

64 “Peeps at people: A breezy budget of personal pars”, Sunday Times, 1 March, 1914, p. 1S. 65 The House on the Hill, p. 5, 19. 66 The WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Centenary Celebrations Sub- Committee held in the Hearing Assessment Centre on Monday 5 December, 1994, at 2.00pm, WAIDE Archives. 67 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution (Inc.), Fifth Annual Report (Perth, R.S. Sampson, 1902), pp. 20-53. 68 “Railway Map of Western Australia 1907”, National Library of Australia [http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj- 233502104/view], accessed on 4 August, 2017. 53

Henry H. Witchell

The ability of parents to contribute to the costs of the education of their child was also recorded. For those able to do so, the amount contributed was recorded. The average amount paid was around £100 per annum.69 Detailed records were kept on all financial affairs and much of this task fell to Henry Witchell in his role as secretary to the Committee of Management. This position was in addition to his role as Headmaster and Superintendent of the school. An early letter to one parent is illustrative of his desire to encourage parents to contribute towards the cost of educating their children. Writing to John Ryder at

Kookynie in the Western Australian goldfields, Witchell praised the father for his prompt request for admission of his son, Charles, stating that “your son is just at the best age to start his school and you are very wise in losing no time… doubtless you are not able to pay full term, but be good enough to pay what you believe you can pay quarterly”.70 The school

Register of Pupils shows that Ryder was a miner of no fixed income, but was able to pay £5/-

/5 on a quarterly basis.71

Henry Witchell was a very structured and thorough educator who kept meticulous school records. Early entries into the Register of Pupils 1897-1956 detailed each student‟s hearing loss and communication skills. Witchell made some effort to assess the presence or otherwise of any residual hearing in the students. Also of note is that in many cases, but especially in the early years prior to 1920, the register noted: “Attempt made to remove deafness”, but no details as to what attempt, surgical or otherwise, was made.72

69 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, “Register of Pupils, 1897-1956”, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/29, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 70 Henry Witchell to John Ryder, 7 November, 1904, “Letter Book 1904-1913”. MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/29, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 71 WADDI, “Register of Pupils, 1897-1956”. 72 WADDI, “Register of Pupils, 1897-1956”. 54

Efforts were made to locate as many D/HH children in the colony as was possible. Witchell, in a letter to the editor of the Daily News in 1900, drew attention to the need for compulsory education for D/HH children “so that they should not become the victims of ignorance or indifference”.73 He was conscious of the school‟s public image of the school and critical of any description of it as an asylum rather than a place of education.74 He bemoaned the lack of assistance from government agencies in identifying neglected D/HH children and expressed hope that the up-coming census would provide more reliable information as to the number of children who would benefit from attendance at the WADDI.75 Witchell was making very strong efforts to ensure the success of the school, but was finding that he and his staff were largely left to develop it themselves. During those early years a lack of financial support from external agencies and an equal lack of willingness to identify and refer suitable students to the school meant that the pressures on Witchell were quite high. Despite his motivation and determination to ensure the financial and social viability of the school, the pressures of doing so were to have a significant effect on his life.

Witchell was apparently influenced by American research and practices. The 4th annual report draws attention to the use of an “American series of deaf children‟s manuals”, considered to be “of infinite value to our scholars in their early reading tasks, and form an excellent foundation to the study of books not specifically written for them”. 76 Likewise, he drew attention to the eleven to twelve year duration of educational programmes for the

D/HH in American schools in the 8th Annual Report.77 Two years later, the work of a prominent American psychologist was referred to in speaking about the needs of deaf-blind

73 “Correspondence. Deaf and dumb institution. To the Editor of the “Daily News”, Daily News, 27 July, 1900, p. 2. 74 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Thirteenth Annual Report (Perth: Clarke Bros., 1910), p. 9; “Deaf and Dumb Institute. From 1896 to 1912”, Western Mail, 21 September, 1912, p. 47; “Deaf and Dumb Institution. Annual meeting”, The West Australian, 2 August, 1915, p. 5. 75 Daily News, 27 July, 1900, p. 2. 76 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fourth Annual Report (Perth: E.S. Wigg & Son, 1901), p. 10. 77 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Eighth Annual Report (Perth: Galway Printing, 1905), p. 18. 55

students.78 The reference to these topics, as well as to progress in other countries such as

The Netherlands, indicates that Witchell attempted to keep up to date with world-wide developments in deaf education despite his professional isolation in Western Australia.79

Witchell also placed importance on the need for the institution to be considered a welcoming

“home away from home” for the children who resided there. The Committee of Management spoke highly of him in the annual reports, referring to him in one report as like a “kind- hearted father” to the students.80 Witchell believed that the children needed to feel “at home” enough to be able to gain confidence and take the initiative in learning for themselves.

Witchell wrote that the younger students were “usually eager to return to school after a short holiday at their homes”.81 Many of the students had quite good artistic skills and many beautiful black and white and crayon-based art-works displayed around the school, added to the home atmosphere that was sought.82

Towards the end of his life of his life, Witchell suffered from ill-health, possibly resulting from the demands of his position.83 His school reports published within the annual reports became briefer than in earlier years, although he continued to emphasize the importance of oral expressive and receptive communication skills. He was quick to praise those students who had done well, using their achievements to demonstrate to subscribers the school‟s effectiveness. Behind all this, though, Witchell was becoming a seriously ill man. Certainly, he gave indications of the strain involved in teaching speech and language to his pupils as far

78 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Tenth Annual Report (Perth: Clarke Bros., 1907), p. 8. 79 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Eleventh Annual Report (Perth: Clarke Bros., 1908), p. 7. 80 WASDDC, Subscription List for the Year ended 30 June, 1922, p. 10. 81 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Seventeenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1914), p. 10. 82 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-ninth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Perth: S.H. Lamb, 1926), p. 29. 83 The House on the Hill, p. 45. 56

back as 1897.84 On at least three occasions, in 1909, 1910 and 1918, Witchell was granted sick leave with Mrs Witchell being acting superintendent on at least one of these instances.85

Given that he had been Headmaster, Superintendent and Secretary of the Committee of

Management for 30 years, his workload was extraordinary. This possibly contributed to the quick-tempered disposition attributed to him. One incident recounted by Douglas Love illustrates this temperament. It arose from an occasion when Witchell‟s son, Henry Phillip, revisited the school after his father‟s death:

I well remember one occasion when he (Henry Phillip Witchell) jumped up from his chair in our dining room, stood on the lounge unit and rotated the substantial curtain rod which was some 2 inches in diameter until he found a hole through it. Phillip then told us that it was the result of a bullet (revolver I presume) fired by his father at a rat which was running along the rail. He was so certain of where this hole was that I had no reason to doubt him.86

In March 1926, it was reported that following treatment for “nerves”, now probably diagnosed as clinical depression, he became “mentally deranged”.87 At 1.30 am on 27

March, Witchell attacked his sleeping son with a hammer, inflicting minor head injuries before his son was able to overpower him. He was subsequently taken into custody of the

Cottesloe Police Station and from there admitted to Perth Hospital (now Royal Perth

Hospital) for observation.88 He passed away at the hospital on 21 June 1926 at the age of 58 and was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery shortly afterwards.89 The Committee of

Management of the school paid tribute to him in their annual report of 1926:

Mr Witchell was for nearly thirty years the Superintendent and Headmaster of the school. In this dual capacity he possessed the confidence and appreciation of the Committee. He always

84 “Deaf and dumb institution”, The Inquirer and Commercial News, 16 July, 1897, p. 11. 85 The House on the Hill, pp. 111-113. 86 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 2 April, 2013. 87 “General news”, The West Australian, 29 March, 1926, p. 10. 88 “Son attacked by demented father. Hammer used”, Daily News, 27 March, 1926, p. 1; “General news”, The West Australian, 29 March, 1926, p. 10. 89 “Funeral Notices”, Daily News, 21 June, 1926, p. 8 ; “Births, marriages and deaths”, The West Australian, 23 June, 1926, p. 1; “Obituary”, Daily News, 26 June, 1926, p. 3; Karrakatta General Cemetery, Form for Instructions for Grave and Application for Burial, Application no. 33381, 23 June, 1926; Karrakatta General Cemetery, Grant of Right of Burial, no. 17390, 27 July, 1926. 57

manifested a scrupulous regard for the varied interests of the school, and showed a fine enthusiasm in the training of the pupils. In this latter respect, we realize that it will be difficult to find as painstaking and expert a successor.90

Henry Witchell and his staff laid the groundwork for the future of D/HH education in

Western Australia as well as ensuring that the pupils who passed through the school had every opportunity to develop academic and vocational skills that would enable them to live and work in a predominately hearing world. However, the students at WADDI were mostly under the control of hearing professionals and support staff. At no stage in the early years of the school did a D/HH person sit on the Committee of Management. Nor did they have the opportunity to provide input into the administration of the school. As a result, the entire educational philosophy was based around the prevailing attitudes and beliefs that hearing educators felt was best for the D/HH child. This situation, as the next chapter will show, reinforced audist attitudes and educational practices within the school. Even so, and despite strongly prevailing audist and paternalistic attitudes held by Witchell and others, many students were to benefit socially and academically from the school‟s programme and would lay the groundwork for further progress by the D/HH community in Western Australia.

90 WASDDC, Twenty-ninth Annual Report, 1926, p. 11. 58

Chapter 2: Education of the Students

In the Second Annual Report, the W.A. Deaf and Dumb Institute Committee of Management drew attention to an extract from the 1896 Report from London‟s Old Kent Road School for the Deaf which emphasized the British view of deafness at that time.1 It was deeply sympathetic to the “plight” of the Deaf / Hard of Hearing (D/HH), but at the same time claimed that they had no mother-tongue and no means of making their needs or wishes known. The extract accentuated the opinion that deafness was a serious affliction which prevented an active role in society unless the D/HH were effectively educated. At the

WADDI, the Committee and staff subscribed to the view that D/HH children needed to be educated to the point that they could lead independent and self-supporting lives.

Educational programmes (such as the choice of methods of instruction, focus on reading/writing English and vocational training programmes) were driven by the need to promote and develop skills in independent living. This chapter will show that being taught within this environment with the support of dedicated pioneering staff was designed to give the students the best possible educational opportunities since the methods of instruction could be modified to suit each child‟s particular hearing loss and communicative competence and were not bound to any particular educational pedagogy. It will also show how Henry

Witchell consistently demonstrated that his ideas on the education of D/HH children were in many ways ahead of their time, or at least timeless.

The students who passed through WADDI in its early years had their education and post- school lives significantly enhanced through the curriculum provided by Henry and Eleanor

1 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Second Annual Report (Perth: E.S. Wigg & Son, 1899), p. 6. 59

Witchell. Within the current definition of audism and its focus on paternalistic structures, the school‟s approach to education was certainly audist. At that time, deafness was seen by the hearing world as a medical condition of tragic proportions which severely limited the prospects for successful participation in society. The D/HH child was looked upon with a certain degree of condescension and pity. This was reflected in some of the language used in newspaper articles of the time. One 1914 article, for example, referred to the children as

“terribly afflicted” and congratulated the teachers “on the success of their efforts to lighten the load of the children‟s infirmities”.2 Statements such as these reflected the attitudes of the time. They helped to create in many businesses and organizations, along with community-minded individuals, a desire to “help” the children at the school.

To suggest that audist practices were evident at WADDI at that time could probably be said to be correct in the light of modern day knowledge of Deaf language and culture. Those practices reflected the attitude of society at the time, yet they actually helped the D/HH students by providing vital educational and social opportunities, building a foundation for successful interaction with both Deaf and hearing worlds, a concept that the Deaf Studies scholar and historian Joseph J. Murray terms “co-equality”.3 From the evidence available, through the annual reports and newspaper articles of the time, it would seem that the attitude shown towards the children at the school was no more paternalistic than in the case of hearing children at mainstream schools of that time. Witchell never agreed with the idea that deaf children demonstrated “inferior intelligence”. Rather, he felt that deafness created barriers to the development of the intellect.4 In one report, he wrote:

The utmost attention has been given throughout the year to grappling with the great confusion of thought which occurs in deaf children. Special examples are given with the object of correcting this confusion, the pupil being required to describe or explain things

2 “Deaf and Dumb Institution, Seventeenth annual meeting, Satisfactory progress”, The West Australian, 27 July 1914, p. 8. 3 Joseph J. Murray,” Coequality and Transnational Studies: Understanding Deaf Lives”, in H-Dirksen Bauman (ed.), Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), p. 100-110. 4 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fifth Annual Report (Perth: R.S. Sampson, 1902), p. 11. 60

clearly and occurrances (sic) already well known to him in actuality, but whose details are confused in his mind. In addition to this weakness, he possesses the half amusing but awkward assumption that his teacher knows every detail concerning his home life and surroundings, and that consequently he need not explain when referring to them.5

Through this single paragraph, Witchell was able to explain the impact that deafness has on the ability to communicate. It shows how the development of the child‟s vocabulary is often severely limited by the condition, creating problems in communication. It then highlights the social isolation that D/HH children experience without actually realizing the extent to which this is occurring. Very often, children with a hearing loss have difficulty in seeing things from the perspective of others, a phenomenon known as the “theory of mind”. The development of this ability is often delayed in D/HH children.6 It has also been thought to be deficient in autistic children.7 Although the idea of “theory of mind” had not been developed at the time Witchell wrote his report, what he had observed suggests that he was aware of this particular aspect of the D/HH child‟s psychological and language development.

Witchell further illustrated the challenges of educating D/HH children in an article published in The Inquirer and Commercial News:

The problem is to develop the mind of the child, to teach them the language through the eye, and I can assure you the labors of Hercules are nothing to it. I say, advisedly, that we have to teach the child everything – the things that other children pick up themselves as a matter of course. It‟s like guiding a team of horses without reins! We aim at educating the children intellectually and industrially, and forwarding their interests in life, without regard to creed, means, nationality or even color.8

5 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Eighteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1915), p. 11. 6 Candida C. Peterson and Michael Siegal. “Deafness, conversation and theory of mind”. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 36, no. 3 (1995), p. 467,469; Lucy Steeds, Karen Rowe and Ann Dowker, “Deaf children‟s understanding of beliefs and desires”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 2, no. 3 (Summer 1997), p. 192; Candida C. Peterson, “Theory-of-mind development in oral deaf children with cochlear implants or conventional hearing aids”, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 45, no. 6 (2004), p. 1097. 7 Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan M. Leslie and Uta Frith, “Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?”, Cognition, vol. 21 (1985), p. 43. 8 “Deaf and dumb institution”, The Inquirer and Commercial News, 16 July, 1897, p. 11. 61

Like other schools for the deaf in Australia, the WADDI followed many overseas trends in communication methods. The focus on oralism had been particularly strong in the years following the 1880 Milan congress. The oralist movement was brought to Australia by Mr.

Samuel Watson who arrived from Ireland in 1870 upon his appointment as Superintendent of the NSW Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. Students were taught through the oral method by Watson, but if they turned out to be incapable of being educated that way, they were switched to the manual method. The oral system received a boost in 1880, with the arrival of a Miss Kernohan who came to NSW to teach using the Germanic oral method. In

Victoria, the oral method was introduced in 1879, with the arrival of Mr. E. O. Hutchinson at the Victorian School for Deaf Children. Prior to his arrival, it has been noted that Mr.

Charles. K. Jenvin offered his services in the instruction of lip-reading for students at the school, but the records of the school indicate that nothing came of this proposal.9

Hutchinson was given the opportunity to conduct a 4-year trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of the oral system, using a small group of pre- and post-lingually deafened children, taught separately from the manual communication group. Following that 4-year period, the school committee found that although results were not as positive as they expected, they nevertheless recognized the value of oral education for some deaf children, primarily those who were post-lingually and partially deafened.10 As a result, they settled on the use of the combined method.

Like the NSW school, the Victorian institution attempted to instruct children using the oral approach, but allowed children to transfer to manual instruction if they were unable to master oralism. As time went on, the combined method overtook the purely oral method, indicating that at least a partially oral approach was proving to be the most effective in

9 J.H. Burchett, Utmost for the Highest: The Story of the Victorian School for Deaf Children (Melbourne: Hall‟s Book Store, 1964), p. 28. 10 “A noble work: Alleviating speechless sufferings: Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution: Economy secures a credit balance: Funds locked up”, The Prahran Telegraph, 2 August, 1893, p. 2. 62

developing the communication skills of the students.11 When Mr. William Cook was appointed Superintendent at the Victorian institution in 1882, he encouraged the teaching of speech, but by then, in Australia as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom, the combined method had become the principal form of instruction. By the 1900s and from then well into the 20th century, the combined method was the favoured system at the Victorian school.12

The other Australian states also introduced oral-based educational programmes, although they were commonly offered along with manual communication programmes as either a separate programme within the institution concerned or via the combined method. In South

Australia, educational provision for the deaf began in 1874 with the opening of Townsend

House in the suburb of Brighton. Although the first teacher at the new school, Mr. Moore

Hesbith, used the manual method, the first superintendent, Mr. Robert Hogg, introduced speech (lip) reading into the programme following his appointment. The oral programme became consolidated as part of the combined method at the school in 1885, when Samuel

Johnson arrived from Victoria to replace Hogg. Johnson‟s approach to oral education appears to be somewhat questionable as the Victorian School had previously refused at least two requests by him to teach speech training to some of their students.13 He was a trained teacher with several years of experience and was involved in training new teachers, among them Henry Witchell.14 With his views on oralism somewhat disregarded in Victoria,

Johnson “withdrew” from the school and pursued his career in South Australia.15 Following a visit to schools in Europe and the United States in 1907, his particular approach to the use

11 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, pp. 28-30. 12 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 31. 13 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 122. 14 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 121; “The Deaf and Dumb Institution: Mr. S. Johnson, M.A.: Twenty-Five years‟ service”, The Advertiser (Adelaide), 3 December, 1901, p. 11. 15 “The Volta Bureau for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf. Circular of information. Reports from abroad by the Hon. John Hitz, Superintendent of The Volta Bureau. Read before the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, Tuesday, July (n.d.), 1894”. Archived at Internet Archive, [http://www.archive.org/stream/circularinforma00usgoog/circularinforma00usgoog_djvu.txt], accessed 10 April, 2015; Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 122. 63

of the combined method was considered to be quite successful. He became central to the provision of educational services to D/HH children in South Australia and was well-regarded overseas, culminating in receiving an honorary Master of Arts degree from Gallaudet College in 1899.16

The Queensland Blind, Deaf & Dumb Institution was opened in 1893 on a site in South

Brisbane.17 The oral method was introduced in 1898, when Mr. Thomas R. Semmens, who had also been previously employed at the Victorian school, took up his appointment at the school. Thirteen children began to be educated using this approach under the tuition of

Semmens before he retired in 1901.18 His successor, Mrs Edith Bryant, came out from

England to take up her appointment. By 1904, the institution made the decision to focus on manual communication alone as early use of the combined method had demonstrated that manual communication was effective and popular as a means of instruction even though the oral method was acknowledged as being of benefit to the “intellect”.19 In general, the manual method was put in place and the purely oral approach was used for those who were judged to be “mentally suitable”.20 The oral method was reintroduced in 1909, again in combination with the manual method and used with those children who were considered most likely to benefit from it.21

This approach was also in place at the WA Deaf and Dumb Institution in its early years.

Henry Witchell chose to make use of the combined method of instruction. From the start, some focus was on speech and language development, but the combined method was the

16 “The deaf and dumb. Mr. S. Johnson, M.A. Twenty-five years‟ service”, The Advertiser, 3 December, 1901, p. 11. 17 Laurence J. Hough & Barry Knust (eds), A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf (Brisbane: n.p., 1993), p. 9. 18 Hough & Knust, A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf, p. 12. 19 Hough & Knust, A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf, p. 14. 20 Hough & Knust, A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf, pp. 13-14. 21 Hough & Knust, A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf, p. 15. 64

officially approved process. Witchell and his staff felt that although lip-reading formed an important component of all lessons, there was an awareness of its limits for class-room instruction.22 Hence, finger-spelling and even some signs were used to reinforce the visual information provided by lip-reading, especially when certain words and alphabetical letters formed identical patterns on the lips. Witchell wrote:

Instruction is imparted mainly by finger-spelling, hand-in-hand with speech, and the combination has this advantage – that when the motion of the vocal organs is vague and obscure, the child can detect the missing word from the clearer actions of the fingers. 23

He appreciated the fact that speech training worked well with some students, but made it clear that it was not a “constant practice” at the WADDI.24

As a firm believer in educating D/HH children to become self-reliant members of the community, Witchell tried to ensure that his students became as competent as possible in the use of the English language. In common with teachers of the deaf at other schools, he believed that the students who became deafened post-lingually and who had some remaining

(residual) hearing, would benefit the most from oral education.25 He understood that the teaching of speech and lip-reading, although acknowledged to be the desired method as a result of the Milan conference, was really not suitable for all D/HH students.26 The development of usable speech remained a desirable outcome for most students at the school but instruction in this skill often took up a disproportionate amount of class-room

22 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution: Fifth annual meeting”, The West Australian, 31 July, 1902, p. 3. 23 “The deaf and dumb institution. Its objects and how they are attained. By H.H. Witchell (Superintendent)”, The West Australian, 18 April, 1898, p. 7; “The deaf and dumb institution. Its objects and how they are attained. By H.H. Witchell (Superintendent)”, Western Mail, 22 April, 1898, p. 48. 24 “Deaf and Dumb Institution: Third annual meeting”, The Daily News, 24 July, 1900, p. 3. 25 The Western Mail, 8 October, 1897, p. 26; The West Australian, 1 August, 1901, p. 2; West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fourth Annual Report (Perth: E.S. Wigg & Son, 1901), p. 11. 26 The Western Mail, 8 October, 1897, p. 26. 65

instruction time.27 Success in oral education was reached with some students but the combined method was considered to be the best approach for quite some time.28

The students at the WADDI were not all severely or profoundly deaf, yet as a group, they all gained from the combined method. The 1901 annual report referred to some students who could be said to be hard of hearing, yet obviously unable to manage mainstream classroom instruction.29 There is also a record of two students at the school who were successfully taught with what was known as the auricular method. This method makes use of the child‟s residual hearing (with or without the use of amplification) and involves instruction through speech, hearing and writing alone. The aim of this approach according to one account was to teach communication skills to a level that would enable the child to enter society as a “hard of hearing speaking” person, rather than as a “deaf-mute”.30 Due to the success with these two pupils, it was expected to remain as a mode of instruction within the school for future students who would be able to benefit from it. However, no further reference was made in subsequent annual reports.

As mentioned earlier, the manual system employed by the WADDI was predominately finger-spelling and not Sign language. The visual aspect of finger-spelling was an adjunct to

English language instruction. Sign was not banned outright, but because finger-spelling was used in the class-room setting, Sign unavoidably spread to out-of-school settings, a situation that was not entirely discouraged.31 Signing was described as being “inherently vague” and

27 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fourth Annual Report (Perth: E.S. Wigg & Son, 1901), p. 12. 28 WADDI, Eighteenth Annual Report, p. 11. 29 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Fourth annual meeting”, The West Australian, 1 August, 1901, p. 2. 30 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children, Osborne Park: Jiffy Printing, 1996, p. 35. 31 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Annual meeting and exhibition”, The West Australian, 24 July, 1900, p. 6. 66

“rarely resorted to in the classroom”.32 In the Annual Report for 1904, Witchell commented on the use of Sign in the wider Deaf community. Although he understood that Sign had its use, he was at pains to point out that it was also at odds with the educational philosophy of the school. The focus was on the acquisition of English language skills that would enable students to communicate with society in general as well as the acquisition of “common school education”.33 Furthermore, when employed as part of the combined method at the

WADDI, the Irish one-handed finger spelling system was favored over the two-handed system used in British Sign Language (BSL). At that time, BSL was used in secular schools for the deaf in the other Australian colonies and was also becoming the dominant system used by Australia‟s adult Deaf community.34

Some annual reports of the time, as well as at least one photograph, confirm that the one- handed system was the primary means of manual communication.35 However, there is evidence to suggest that both versions were in use at one stage.36 Just how and why the one- handed system was favored is difficult to confirm as it is not clearly documented. Trevor

Johnston in his PhD thesis initially suggested that “the first teacher of the deaf in Perth,

Western Australia, is reported to have been an American trained teacher who introduced the one-handed American alphabet”.37 However, this statement, clearly in reference to Henry

Witchell, was not supported with evidence nor was it restated in Johnston‟s later Signs of

Australia dictionary of Auslan.

32 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Annual meeting of subscribers”, The West Australian, 28 July, 1904, p. 3. 33 The West Australian, 28 July, 1904, p. 3. 34 Trevor Johnston, Signs of Australia: A New Dictionary of Auslan (The Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community), Revised edition, (North Rocks (Sydney): Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, 1998), pp. 558, 561-562. 35 The Western Mail, 8 October, 1897, p. 26; The West Australian, 1 August, 1901, p. 2. 36 The West Australian, 1 August, 1901, p. 2. 37 Trevor Johnston, “Auslan: the Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community”, (PhD. dissertation, The University of Sydney, 1989), p. 33. 67

The one-handed system as used in Australia in the early years of the settlement, originated from the Catholic Irish system. This, along with the American, Spanish and other European systems, originated from the teachings of the Abbé de L‟ Epée in France. Irish migrants, both convict and free settlers, made up a large proportion of Australia‟s early population.

They were actively involved in the education of D/HH children, so these early Catholic schools adopted the one-handed system.38 It was used by both teachers and students in these institutions and passed down to succeeding generations. Usage of the method in WA appears to be solely at Witchell‟s initiative. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Witchell was believed to have commenced training as a teacher of the deaf at the age of 14, in response to a newspaper advertisement. He then worked for fourteen years at the Victorian

School and was therefore known to Samuel Johnson, who was also at the school. He may also have been known to Samuel Watson, the Superintendent of the NSW Deaf Institution.

Both these gentlemen originally came from Ireland and both trained in schools for the deaf there.39 It is likely that they had some exposure to the one-handed finger-spelling system, though not necessarily using it in their respective Australian institutions.

In the mid-19th century, there were two schools for the D/HH in Dublin: Cabra and

Glasnevin (Claremont). Claremont used the two-handed system whereas Cabra made use of the one-handed system since 1846.40 However, it is known that at one stage, the Claremont institution requested details and cards of the one-handed system in order, it is believed, to enable communication to be made with Cabra ex-students.41 Samuel Johnson trained at

Claremont and may have learned the one-handed system there. Through his professional relationship with Johnson, Witchell would have appreciated the effectiveness of the one- handed system as a tool of instruction when used as part of the combined method, especially

38 Johnston, Signs of Australia, pp. 558, 561-562. 39 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, pp. 72-73; “Death of Mr. Samuel Watson: A friend of the blind”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April, 1911, p. 7; “Friend of deaf and dumb: Death of Mr. S. Johnson”, The Register Adelaide, 27 February, 1926, p. 11. 40 Rachel Pollard, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 9 January, 2017. 41 Rachel Pollard, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 9 January, 2017. 68

where some emphasis was also made on writing skills. The Western Mail reported concerning the one-handed system:

It may be observed that no system of signs is employed in the institution, this method of communication having been long ago abandoned in all deaf schools. This does not mean that the manual alphabet is not in use, for it should be remembered that the two systems are by no means synonymous. Signs are often arbitrary and incapable of being accurately translated into common speech, while anything conveyed by the manual alphabet is as exact and literal as speech itself. In this school and in American schools the form of manual alphabet used is that of the single hand, which has the great advantage that no matter how one hand might be engaged, say, with some school utensil, communication is readily effected by the disengaged hand a performance impossible by the double hand system. Its use, moreover, is less obtrusive in public places than that of the double hand.42

Witchell defended the one-handed system in an article in Perth‟s Inquirer and Commercial

News newspaper as simply “It is sometimes convenient for a teacher to sign with one hand”.43 He also gave his reason as to why the one-handed alphabet was favoured over signs:

This (finger-spelling instead of signing) is in some measure due to the natural facility of the single manual alphabet, which is as freely at the child‟s command as sign, with the much-to- be-desired greater definiteness.44

Witchell, however, did not use the one-handed alphabet exclusively according to the

Inquirer and Commercial News article. While supporting the one-handed system, Witchell was reported as saying that: “The old-fashioned double-manual alphabet (was also used), because that system is in vogue in the colonies, and can be made very emphatic, and we sometimes use signs as well”.45

Witchell chose to use the one-handed alphabetical system as he considered it superior to the two-handed system for educational and communication purposes, particularly in the

42 “Deaf and Dumb Institute. From 1896 to 1912”, Western Mail, 21 September, 1912, p. 47. 43 “Deaf and dumb institution”, The Inquirer and Commercial News, 16 July, 1897, p. 11. See also “Deaf and dumb institutions”, Western Mail, 29 December, 1900, p. 68. 44 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Annual meeting and exhibition”, Western Mail, 28 July, 1900, p. 50. 45 The Inquirer and Commercial News, 16 July, 1897, p. 11. 69

learning and use of the English language. This also suggests that he looked less towards

British trends and more towards those from the United States. As mentioned earlier, Samuel

Johnson had close links with United States institutions such as Gallaudet College.46 The professional relationship between Johnson and Witchell could well have resulted in Witchell gaining an awareness of American trends in D/HH education and reinforcing his personal view that the one-handed method suited his purpose far more than an adherence to the

British method. It was not until Witchell‟s retirement that the school began to use the two- handed version exclusively. An echo of the one-handed system continues in Auslan

(Australian Sign Language) to this day; the sign for PERTH remains the one-handed sign for the letter “p”.47

One of the strengths of the combined method was that it provided flexibility of communication within the residential institutional environment. A Ms S. Hooker wrote an essay that remains unpublished, but is an important source of oral evidence from several staff who worked at the Victorian School for Deaf Children prior to 1950. She quotes one of the staff who drew attention to the difficulty in communication between the children in residence at the school and the residential support staff. The combined method, in their view, had the advantage of giving the D/HH child an easily acquired means of communication “with those in charge”.48 The staff member, Mr. A.R. Cook, a past headmaster and teacher at the school from 1920-1966, confirmed that the combined method afforded an easy means for all students, regardless of their family background and degree of hearing loss, to communicate with each other as well as with staff.49

46 “Friend of deaf and dumb: Death of Mr. S. Johnson”, The Register Adelaide, 27 February, 1926, p. 11. 47 Johnston, Signs of Australia, p. 189. 48 S. Hooker, The history of methodology at the Victorian School for Deaf Children between 1860 and 1950, (Bachelor of Education essay, Melbourne University, September, 1976), p. 9. 49 Hooker, “History of methodology”, p. 16. 70

The WADDI staff embraced oral education as the means by which to educate D/HH children wherever possible. Witchell and his staff believed that the first thing a D/HH child needed to learn was the ability to think and then to develop the means to express these thoughts. This would not have been easy for the student or for the teacher, as academic progress, especially in the area of language development, was often painfully slow. The approach taken is well- summarized in the 25th Annual Report:

When the children are received into the school the first task of the teaching staff is to endeavour to make them express their thoughts by drawing pictures on paper. After infinite trouble has been taken they learn the single-hand system of spelling. They are taught to spell words and write them down and afterwards they construct simple sentences. They use their eyes for ears, and they gradually master the difficulties of lip reading, which enables them to understand ordinary conversation. Still more remarkable is the tuition which gives them a form of speech and permits them to make themselves understood in conversation.50

John Love, the second superintendent of the school, also believed that D/HH children needed an understanding of language in order to comprehend the world around them.51

However, language development also posed many problems and demanded much patience from the staff. The Daily News reported in 1935:

In the elementary stages the instructor writes a word on the blackboard and then carries out the action or points out the object that the word implies. Thus, if the word is “jump,” the instructor writes the word on the board and then acts it, himself jumping. By repetition of this process the children‟s vocabulary is built up.52

Words are then followed by sentences:

After words, came the construction of sentences. The order of the words was found difficult and idioms such as “pulling someone‟s leg” or “turning the tables” most confusing. The children would learn “turn”, for instance, also “table,” but would not be able to connect the two. Occasionally, wrong construction lead to amusing conversation, such as the statement: - “All the people in this hall last night was full”.53

WADDI reports of the time indicate that a great deal of emphasis was placed on visual language skills such as reading and writing. The aim was to at least ensure that the students

50 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Subscription List for the Year ended 30 June, 1922. Together with General Information (Perth: E.S. Wigg & Son, 1922), p. 8. 51 “Work of WA School for Deaf and Dumb”, The Farmer’s Weekly, 25 October, 1951, p. 16. 52 “Teaching dumb to write”, Daily News, 8 November, 1935, p. 6. 53 “Deaf and dumb children. Difficulties in education”, The West Australian, 29 August, 1939, p. 5. 71

were able to develop sufficiently good expressive (writing) and receptive (reading) communication skills to understand and be understood by others.54 They were encouraged to write home regularly but their letters did not have grammatical and spelling errors corrected by the teachers. This was a means of enabling staff (and parents) to observe the students‟ progress with written language skills.55 When students were judged to be sufficiently skilled, they were encouraged to do nightly compositions on subjects of their own choice. Again, and because the aim was to encourage creative expression through writing, the results of these activities were never heavily corrected by the teachers.56 Accordingly, the students continued to be motivated in their writing and it was noted by the staff that the quality of the writing showed steady, observable improvement.57 This approach appears to have been successful as it was later reported that “the letters and compositions of the pupils show a gratifying absence of those strange and faulty expressions and inversions, which are very apt to spoil the work of deaf children”.58

Reading was likewise actively encouraged and extremely popular.59 Witchell established a library within the school with the expectation that the students would develop sufficiently good reading skills for post-school life. He had high personal literacy standards and was equally keen that the students developed into discerning readers with the ability to avoid

“stories of the cheap and horrible kind”.60 It was reported that many of the students read the books with comprehension, and not merely looking at the illustrations “as some deaf pupils are prone to do where the reading material seems somewhat difficult”.61 Witchell was especially proud of those students who mastered the English language sufficiently to study

54 WADDI, Fourth Annual Report, p. 10. 55 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Annual exhibition”, The West Australian, 29 July, 1899, p. 10. 56 WADDI, Fourth Annual Report, p. 10. 57 WADDI, Fourth Annual Report, p. 10. 58 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-eighth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Perth: S.H. Lamb, 1925), p. 17. 59 The West Australian, 24 July, 1900, p. 6. 60 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Twelfth Annual Report (Perth: Clarke Bros., 1909), p. 8. 61 WASDDC, Twenty-eighth Annual Report, p. 17. 72

literature such as Shakespeare‟s Merchant of Venice.62 In a rather sexist comment by today‟s standards, he was gratified that his male students responded positively to the availability of written material but felt the female students were “not so easily induced to spend their time profitably”.63

The WADDI Committee of Management, the governing body of the WADDI, made it clear from the early years that the children attending the school were to become capable of achieving positive educational outcomes in a variety of academic subjects.64 Those students able to do so studied the Western Australian Education Department curriculum. Geography, arithmetic and drawing were reported to be areas of particular strength.65 Reference is also made to advanced students who were able to “comprehend and use such English as is found in the Third Royal Reader, in Simple Stories of Royal Reader, Simple Stories of English

History, etc.”.66 Royal Star Readers had been suggested for use in Western Australian schools in 1887-88.67 By the turn of the century, their use had been extended to those students at WADDI with sufficiently developed reading comprehension skills. Elsewhere it was stated that: “the standard arithmetic attained by the most advanced class in the school and by other scholars who have recently left us is of the same grade as that of the highest

State school class”.68

By 1907, Witchell was able to report that student numbers at the school had become sufficiently large as well as broad in terms of age range and hearing levels to enable the school to be divided into three class groups: upper, intermediate and junior. The upper class

62 WASDDC, Subscription List for the Year ended 30 June, 1922, p. 8. 63 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Thirteenth Annual Report (Perth: Clarke Bros, 1910), p. 9. 64 The West Australian, 26 July, 1906, p. 3. 65 “W.A. Deaf and Dumb Institution. The annual meeting”, Daily News, 29 July, 1918, p. 4. 66 The West Australian, 31 July, 1902, p. 3. 67 David Mossenson, State Education in Western Australia 1829 – 1960 (Nedlands: University of Western Australia, 1972), p. 66. 68 The West Australian, 26 July, 1906, p. 3. 73

(or grade) was made up of the older students who, with the benefit of several years in the institution, had progressed satisfactorily with their communication skills and were now able to benefit from a “whole of class” mode of instruction. Interestingly, Witchell noted that the students who demonstrated the best progress in general studies in the upper class were usually those who demonstrated the poorest skills in speech and lip-reading.69 Within the upper class, emphasis was placed on the development of reasoning skills since these are often not always evident in D/HH children. As Witchell pointed out in the 12th Annual

Report:

Through this lack of the power to assume, the deaf pupil often fails to understand what is made quite sufficiently clear, but happens not to be expressed in so many definite words. This applied to both reading and to directions given.70

This phenomenon described by Witchell is still encountered by teachers of the deaf today.

Although it is by no means common to all D/HH children, the teaching of inferential skills is an essential component of Deaf education, especially in the secondary school years.

In 1914, Witchell emphasized the need for students at the school to remain in residence for as long as possible in order to learn more of the complexities of the English language. His thinking was that in doing so, the intellectual reasoning capabilities of the child would be enhanced along with the development of a sense of humour which, he felt, would have a

“beneficial influence on the mind and temperament”.71 Again, Witchell demonstrated the timelessness of his ideas concerning the education of D/HH children. The need to teach figurative language and colloquial expressions as well as slang terms continues to be an important part of D/HH education in the 21st Century. These students often tend to take what they read and/or hear in the literal sense until and unless it is explained to them what

69 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Tenth Annual Report (Perth: Clarke Bros.: 1907), p. 8. 70 WADDI, Twelfth Annual Report, 1909, p. 7; “Deaf and Dumb Institution: A year‟s work”, Western Mail, 14 August, 1909, p. 14. 71 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Seventeenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1914), p. 10. 74

such expressions actually mean. Concerning the English language, Witchell wrote with considerable accuracy that “without a pretty good understanding, the currents of life must flow around, instead of through, the deaf child”.72 Nevertheless, as shown by the need to teach figurative language to D/HH children, there is still indeed much that “flows around” them. Class teachers, teachers of the deaf and parents must devote time and attention to assisting these children to understand the world around them through the medium of language, whether oral or signing.

Witchell believed that all students, but especially the senior ones, should use after-school hours to put their classroom knowledge into practical use. He believed that it was one thing to make a child “expert in school work”, but another matter altogether to train the child to use that knowledge in daily life.73 The senior students were given a certain degree of freedom to leave the school grounds on their own on Saturday mornings to help develop their independent living skills.74 They were also encouraged to take responsibility for banking procedures.75 The students returned home as frequently as possible, especially those whose family homes were in the city, so they often travelled by themselves.76 This enabled them to put their communication skills into practice in the wider, hearing world.

The intermediate group received lessons in language forms, basic arithmetic, speech and lip- reading.77 Arithmetic provided particular challenges:

In teaching arithmetic all the work is visualized, and this is accomplished by diagrams and drawings, made by the pupils, illustrating the requirements of the problem in question. The

72 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Twenty-second Annual Report (Perth: Barclay & Sharland, 1919), p. 10. 73 WADDI, Thirteenth Annual Report, p. 9. 74 WADDI, Eighteenth Annual Report, p. 11. 75 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Sixth Annual Report 1902-1903 (Perth: R.S. Sampson, 1903), p. 6. 76 “A silent house. Yet full of merry children. Giving the deaf and dumb a chance. West Australian school‟s work”, Daily News, 13 November, 1922, p. 3. 77 “The Deaf and Dumb Institution”, The West Australian, 28 July, 1911, p. 6. 75

visualizing method, by which verbal expression may be said to be translated into visible, has been found a most satisfactory means of enabling the children to grasp the principles of arithmetic.78

The junior students were frequently those new to the school and often without adequate communication skills at the time of admission.79 These students tended to be the ones requiring more intensive and individual education, especially if they arrived at the school at the end of or beyond the first decade of their lives and therefore the age considered ideal for commencing language instruction. Witchell found this group to be educationally challenging not only because of the issue of communication but also because these late-enrolled students sometimes tended to disrupt the academic progress of the younger students.80 By 1909, the challenges of this grade were becoming considerable as the students varied widely in their abilities. They included a couple with vision impairment as well as a hearing loss. From the annual report that year, it is concluded that another two students had some residual speech.

This indicated that they were post-lingually deafened, possibly due to illness, and therefore likely to have commenced at the school at a later age.81

The late age of enrolment of many students continued to be of concern to the WADDI staff.82

The issue was elaborated upon in the nineteenth Annual Report, where Witchell wrote that the average age at the time of admission to the school was nine, with sixteen percent enrolling at the age of fourteen. For Witchell, this was not acceptable given that the appropriate age of admission was six and possibly even younger when intensive intervention was required. In such cases, the institution was willing to make the necessary accommodations for these young children even though it involved some additional work for

78 The West Australian, p. 6. 79 WADDI, Tenth Annual Report, p. 8. 80 WADDI, Tenth Annual Report, p. 8. 81 WADDI, Twelfth Annual Report, p. 8. 82 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Sixteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot: 1913) p. 9; WADDI, Seventeenth Annual Report, p. 9. 76

the staff.83 Certainly, Witchell was quite correct with regards to the need to educate D/HH children from an early age. This was noted to also be the case in England, but where the major barrier was seen as parents unwilling to place very young D/HH children in institutions.84

All students were provided with many opportunities for school excursions. The annual reports and newspaper reports at various times gave details on the places that the students visited.85 One report indicates that introduction of “talkies” and the loss of silent movies cut off an important source of entertainment not just for the students at the School, but also for other D/HH people.86 Silent movies were one of the few forms of entertainment equally accessible to hearing and Deaf people and the “silent era” was the high point of motion picture technology for many decades thereafter.87 The loss created a barrier to accessing movies by D/HH people that would remain until the introduction of closed captioning technology late in the 20th century.

Like the American schools for the deaf, WADDI also provided instruction and training in a range of manual crafts and trades for its students. Schools such as the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Connecticut felt it imperative to have two large workshops in which

83 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Nineteenth Annual Report (Perth: Anglican Church Book Depot, 1916), p. 10; “Deaf and Dumb Institution. Annual meeting”, The West Australian, 2 August, 1916, p. 9. 84 “The earlier, the better: Educating deaf and dumb”, Daily News, 24 November, 1933, p. 4; “Educating the deaf. Lower school age urged”, The West Australian, 25 November, 1933, p. 16. 85 See for example: “Deaf and Dumb School”, The West Australian, 12 April, 1933, p. 15; “Deaf and Dumb School”, The West Australian, 30 October, 1933, p. 10; West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fifteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1912), p. 10; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-second Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1929), pp. 12-13; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-third Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1930), p. 14, West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-fifth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1932), p. 14. 86 “Deaf and Dumb School. The past year‟s work”, The West Australian, 27 October, 1930, p. 8; “Deaf and dumb but happy. Glimpse into the lives of the afflicted”, Sunday Times, 6 November, 1938, p. 5 87 John S. Schuchman, Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry (Urbana (Ill.): University of Illinois Press, 1999), p. 6. 77

students received appropriate instruction in a range of trades, the most important of which was considered to be printing.88 In Western Australia, boys were instructed in manual arts, primarily carpentry and technical drawing. For many years, this aspect of their education was provided by Mr. Henry Scott, employed at the school from 1903 until his death in

1933.89 The boys were also taught shoe-making and tailoring whereas the girls were taught sewing, millinery and domestic duties.90 Successful outcomes were achieved in manual training subjects as many of the students were successful in getting jobs after leaving the school.91 Female students were trained in housekeeping, dress-making and cookery, the last of which required them to cook meals for the residents once a week.92 They were also taught laundry skills.93 The school had its own vegetable garden and livestock (in the form of chickens and cows) tended by the boys, so they gained skills in crop-growing and animal husbandry.94

Since technology had not yet resulted in the widespread use of amplification devices needed to enable at least some of these children to develop spoken language communication skills, they were limited to lip-reading, finger-spelling and the written word. Vision was the medium of communication with the world. Henry and Eleanor Witchell understood this and structured their educational programmes accordingly. Their success was reflected in the number of students who went on to good post-school jobs, including some later employed by the school to teach further generations of D/HH children.

88 Brian Greenwald, written communication to Geoffrey Smith and Murdoch University, 16 January, 2019. 89 The House on the Hill, p. 115. 90 Angela Wilson, “An historical survey of deaf education: Deafness through the ages (part 3)”, Lantern Light, vol. 10, no. 1 (April, 1976), p. 24. 91 The West Australian, 28 July, 1904, p. 3. 92 WADDI, Thirteenth Annual Report, p. 9. 93 WADDI, Eighteenth Annual Report, p. 11. 94 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fourteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1911), p. 8. 78

It is to the credit of the school and to the staff who ran it in those early years, that the support, encouragement and patient teaching given to the students created an environment where it was possible for them to not only make life-long friends, but to also ensure that they developed skills that would enable them to lead useful lives in a predominately hearing world. The students were provided with a range of practical skills and communicative competencies. Training in manual skills helped the students to find gainful employment in the state at a time when Western Australia was developing rapidly as a result of the gold boom and agricultural expansion. Most children did find gainful employment in their post- school years. At various times in the early annual reports, mention was made of the post- school outcomes of the students. The twenty first Annual Report, for example states that at the end of 1917, six students left the school and were able to earn their own livelihood. Of these, two were receiving good wages of around £3 per week. One of the female students was reported to be progressing well in training as a “photographic retoucher” and another was earning 15 shillings a week as a dressmaker.95 By the time of the school‟s 25th anniversary, more than 100 students had passed through the institution and in most cases went on to earn a good living.96 The occupations were listed as being “Millinery, Dressmaking, Cabinet- making, Mechanical Denistry (sic), Boot-machining, Pearling, Butchering, Farming and

Kangaroo hunting”. In addition, one ex-student, Miss Emily Snell, was employed as a dress- making teacher at the Mosman Park school.97 Having been enrolled at the school in 1911 at the age of nine, she was to teach dress-making from 1922 until 1932.98 She was followed by

Bert Jennings (1927) who taught boot-making and Connie Biddle (1931) who was Boys‟

Supervisor, both of whom had been enrolled at the institution when it was based at

Belvidere.99 In 1935, Mr. Bob Haylock, a former student at the South Australian School for

Deaf Children, was appointed to the position of wood-working instructor at Mosman Park.100

95 WADDI, Twenty-first Annual Report, p. 10. 96 “Deaf and dumb. Cottesloe school‟s jubilee”, The West Australian, 8 November, 1921, p. 8. 97 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-seventh Annual Report and Financial Statement (Perth: S.H. Lamb, 1924), p. 13. 98 The House on the Hill, p. 66, 181. 99 The House on the Hill, p. 138. 100 The House on the Hill, p. 138. 79

These outcomes suggest that despite the undoubted audist attitudes prevalent within the institution at the time, the D/HH pupils gained the benefit of this approach in such a way that they were as well prepared for life in a hearing world as it was possible to be.

The students at WADDI were certainly recipients of an attitude held by the teaching staff that deafness was something that had to be rectified with access to the English language via speech and reading/writing. The early Superintendent‟s reports, emphasized the importance of speech despite the fact that any communication methods were used in order to educate the children. The teaching of speech to children with a significant hearing loss was a significant challenge. Harlan Lane, in his book When the Mind Hears, graphically describes the experience of learning speech sounds from the visual (and olfactory) point of view of a deaf child.101 This description would have easily applied to the children at WADDI. The boredom and frustration of these lessons and the discouragement of natural sign language, apart from fingerspelling, would have contributed to an “us and them” feeling.

This feeling of disconnectedness would have been reinforced by the institutional nature of school life. Their deafness made them “different” to other children and therefore in need of a

“different” system of education. Institutionalisation was part of this process. The sense of isolation that their deafness created as a barrier towards becoming proficient in speech was reinforced by the physical isolation created by institutional life. Even though the students were given opportunities for excursions and outings and went home during weekends and school holidays, the language barrier meant that the children often continued to experience isolation from their family and from the wider hearing community. As a result and as they grew older, the children would have become increasingly aware that they were “different”.

101 Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), pp. 15-16.

80

The children were taught skills that enabled them to obtain employment in their post-school lives, but these skills were mostly of a manual nature requiring little in the way of verbal communication. There were no Deaf people in professional and managerial positions, to be available as role models to the students. The “us and them” feeling continued to be reinforced.

By 1921, ex-students were established in jobs and trades in a hearing world. They would also have developed awareness that their deafness was no longer a condition that needed to be rectified. Instead, it gave them admission to a community defined by a different language.

Sign rather than spoken English was the defining characteristic. That the students gravitated toward each other, with the common usage of Sign shows that they recognized the significant

“us and them” audist attitudes they experienced and the effect these attitudes had on their school lives.

The educational approach developed by Henry Witchell and his staff was the right programme for its time. Despite the edict of the Milan conference, a purely oral programme was considered to be impractical. It also ran counter to Witchell‟s view that language and the ability to communicate effectively was the key to post-school success along with a reasonably well-developed general knowledge and trade skills of some form. The educational philosophy of the school, the use of the combined method rather than a strictly oral approach and the involvement of Deaf staff in the day-to-day activities of the school created an environment in which the D/HH students could be well-prepared for their life in the hearing world, while still retaining their identity as socio-cultural group. The collective experiences of the D/HH students at the school enabled this identity to be developed and enriched when the Western Australian Deaf Society was founded.

81

The W.A. Deaf Society was inaugurated on 9 July 1921 when twelve Deaf people met to form a committee.102 Of these twelve people, ten to eleven were ex-students of WADDI. The group met at the home of the parents of Bert Jennings, who is recorded as being the sixth student enrolled at WADDI at the age of seven in March 1897. The other members of the committee who were ex-students included Arthur Holt and Roy Jeffery (enrolled in 1905),

Gladys Bates and Ethel Thomas (1907), Nellie Brabner (1908), Frances Wigby (1909), Arthur

Magrath (1911) and Ernest Levitzke (1912).103 The other possible ex-student is Miss N.

Laurence.104 Miss Edith Lawrence was enrolled at the school in 1908.105 Her date of birth is given as 22 March 1899, suggesting that she was 22 years of age when the WA Deaf Society committee was formed. Nevertheless the majority of those who established what became the

WA Deaf Society were at the school at much the same time, with Bert Jennings being there within the first year of its existence.

It has been stated by Australian researchers Jan Branson and Don Miller that the 19th century was one in which the idea of charity, of helping others less fortunate than oneself, was considered to be a “noble” and “honourable” activity among the educated and well- connected members of society.106 The deaf were among those seen as objects of pity and therefore in need of help. Those who were inclined and had the financial means to support institutions for the deaf gained satisfaction from seeing the school improve the potential quality of life for its students.107 Positive outcomes such as the development of speech and oral language skills ensured that the financial contributions by subscribers were, at least in their eyes, well spent. In many schools for the D/HH, it was a common practice to put on demonstrations of the pupils‟ achievements so that subscribers could see the results of their

102 Karen Bontempo and Josie Hodgetts, History of the W.A. Deaf Society 1921-2001 (Leederville (W.A.): Western Australian Deaf Society Inc., 2002), p. 1. 103 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), pp. 64-66. 104 Bontempo and Hodgetts, History of the W.A. Deaf Society, p. 4. 105 The House on the Hill, p. 66. 106 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, p. 125. 107 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, p. 125. 82

contributions.108 This was certainly the case in Western Australia and every year for at least the pre-WWII era, annual presentations were put on by the school pupils for an audience of educators, parents and subscribers. Some emphasis on speech development helped to validate, in the eyes of others, the work of the institution. Given the importance that society attached to speech skills in terms of social, educational and moral standing, the school was worthy of support by those with the financial means to do so. WADDI encouraged this attitude, not only through the annual demonstrations and open days, but also by ensuring that all subscribers received an acknowledgement in the annual reports.

As noted above, Henry Witchell and his staff were strongly motivated to provide an education that would enable the D/HH students at the WADDI to live, communicate and work in a hearing world. Oralism was acknowledged as a contributor towards successful integration. However, the staff were pragmatic enough to know that pure oralism did not suit all students and that at least some form of visual communication was a necessary adjunct. This did not extend as far as accepting sign language within the institution‟s classrooms, although signing was unofficially tolerated in the dormitories and other “out of school” areas. Sign was still considered to be inferior to English and a barrier to successful adult life. Oralism and the combined method denied the D/HH students access to their own language to a certain extent, but in the view of professionals such as Witchell this denial was necessary. Witchell‟s desire to build students‟ working knowledge of the English language as well as training in practical skills within his students enabled them to live, in many cases successfully, within hearing society. Importantly, this success also enabled many students to maintain contact with each other and to develop a sense of community that led to the formation of the Western Australian Deaf Society. Even though audist attitudes underpinned the combined method and life in general at the WADDI, the process ultimately benefitted many students in their post-school lives. At a time when personal hearing aids

108 Branson and Miller, Damned for their Difference, p. 125. 83

and amplification equipment was not yet widely available, the benefits of this education were considerable as reflected in the fact that the combined method was in continual use for nearly forty years. Despite this long-standing effectiveness, however, change was coming to the WADDI in the form of world events that were to have a permanent effect on D/HH education in Western Australia as elsewhere.

84

Chapter 3: The Changing Environment

For much of the first thirty years of its existence, the WA School for Deaf and Dumb Children

(WASDDC) showed remarkable stability in terms of income, student numbers and daily management. Henry Witchell had been headmaster and superintendent since the establishment of the school in 1896. The Committee of Management was also stable in terms of its numbers and the length of service of many of its members. The combined method of instruction had proved to be ideal for the students of the time. This was borne out in annual reports of the occupations of ex-students. Most of the students from the school gained vocational and manual training skills that enabled them to become self-supporting and productive members of society during the boom years of the Western Australian economy.

The impact of the Great Depression was to be the first of many rapid changes within D/HH education in Western Australia. It was a time of extreme financial pressure put on the school, but guided through by the financial acumen of the Scottish-born successor to Henry

Witchell, while still ensuring that the quality of the education, living conditions and social opportunities available to the students remained of a high standard. In doing so, the school continued to prepare its students for independent life and work opportunities outside the sheltered environment of the school.

A change of names

As was the case for the D/HH schools in other states, the WA Deaf and Dumb Institute

(WADDI) was established as an independent school, assisted by government grants but also reliant on funds raised by the Collector, families, parents, benevolent grants and bequests.

Like the other schools, concern was expressed to government authorities about the lack of 85

education for D/HH children. It was not until quite some time after Victoria and Tasmania that the WA government addressed the situation. Although an amendment to the Education

Act was drawn up by the state government in 1917 and introduced to the Legislative Council in February 1918, this amendment lapsed.1 The Education Department emphasized the need for the compulsory education of deaf, blind and mute children through its annual report that same year.2 Similar sentiments were voiced in the daily press.3 Most probably noting that the Department was moving towards compulsory education, the WADDI Committee of

Management resolved to “ascertain as far as possible the names of such deaf children who were not receiving education”.4 The following year the amendment was re-introduced in state parliament by the Minister for Education, Hal P. Colebatch (himself a member of the

WADDI Committee of Management from 1920-22), citing a personal belief that failure to allow a child to access education via institutions such as WADDI was “nothing less than a crime”.5 At the same time, he suggested to WADDI, but without elaboration, that the committee consider a name change.6 His reason for suggesting this became clear in late

November. The West Australian reported that Colebatch had advocated the name change since the label “institution” suggested that it included adults as well as children, something which of course it didn‟t. Colebatch felt that if a name change was made, “it would move the public prejudice against it and parents would gladly send their children at an early and proper age”.7 A later report in The West Australian of 12 December 1919 explained the

Minister hoped that the WADDI Committee would “adopt my suggestion to abandon the term “institution” and call it what it really is – the Western Australian School for Deaf and

1 Hansard, 7 February, 1918, pp. 323-324. 2 Western Australia Education Department, “Annual Report: Education Department, Western Australia” (Perth: Western Australia Education Department, 1918), p. 9. 3 “The blind, deaf, and mute: Compulsory education for children”, The West Australian, 8 February, 1918, p. 9; “Compulsory education. For blind, deaf, and dumb. Bill drafted”, Daily News, 5 July, 1917, p. 7. 4 “Deaf and dumb institution”, The West Australian, 15 December, 1917, p. 9. 5 Hansard, 28 November, 1919, p. 1801. 6 Hansard, 28 November, 1919, p. 1801. 7 “State Parliament. Legislative Council”, The West Australian, 29 November, 1919, p. 12. 86

Dumb Children”.8 The Minister clearly understood the aims and outcomes of the school as well as appreciating the negative image that the term “institution” conveyed.9 The suggestion was agreed to by the Committee of Management and by 1920 the school had been renamed the Western Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children (Inc.) (WASDDC).10

In doing so, the Committee brought the school into line with many other schools for the

D/HH, who had dropped the word “institution” from their title in reference to the type of work being carried out within them.11 At the same time, Colebatch also strongly supported the initiative of having women serving on the school committee, stating that since the school was co-educational, “the committee would be strengthened by the election of women”. 12

Consequently, two women were elected to the committee in 1922, being Mrs. Violet Murdoch

(the wife of Walter Murdoch, Professor of English and later Chancellor at the University of

Western Australia) and Mrs. I.C.N. Dods, the widow of Rev. George Nisbet Dods.13

The amendment went through a second reading since two changes were proposed; one moving that the compulsory age of attendance be lifted from six to eight and the other that the concept of free public education should also include free maintenance of children who were compulsorily placed in residential educational institutions.14 Of particular concern were the effects of compulsory education on D/HH students who lived in the country or at a distance from Cottesloe that necessitated boarding at the school. It was considered that 6 years was too young an age for children to be removed from their families.15 In regards to boarding itself, the argument was put forward in parliament that if compulsory education

8 “A new world. Effect of education. Future of the deaf and dumb”, The West Australian, 12 December, 1919, p. 7. 9 “State parliament. Legislative Council. New education bill. Quick Legislation”, Daily News, 29 November, 1919, p. 5. 10 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-fourth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Perth, E.S.Wigg & Son, 1921, p. 11. 11West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-eighth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Perth: E.H. Wigg & Son, 1925), p. 29. 12 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Subscription List for the Year ended 30 June, 1922. Together with General Information (Perth: E.S. Wigg & Son, 1922), p. 9. 13 WASDDC, Subscription List for the Year ended 30 June, 1922, p. 9. 14 “State parliament. Legislative Council”, The West Australian, 27 February, 1918, p. 8. 15 Hansard, 26 February, 1918, p. 563. 87

mean that a child had to board at the school, then it would not be fair for parents to bear the cost of boarding.16 Both proposals were opposed by Colebatch in his role as colonial secretary.17 Finally, the amendment was then passed by both houses of parliament.18 It came into force in December, 1919 as the Public Education Amendment Act, No. 55 of 1919.

Under the terms of the amendment, parents of deaf, blind and mute children between the ages of 6-16 years were compelled to ensure that their child received a suitable education

(2.1). Parents, if able to do so, were also required to contribute towards any residential cost of that education (2.3).19 The first two sections of the Amendment were based word for word on Section 47 of the South Australian Education Act (No. 1223 of 1915).20 For parents with a D/HH child, there was only one educational option in WA and that was at WASDDC.

The requirements of compulsory education obviously did not change the view of all families since there continued to be a number of children in Western Australia known to be deaf, but not receiving education at the school.21

Arrival of John Orr Love

The next major change for the school came in 1926, with Henry Witchell‟s death after a long period of illness. Initially, the administrative side was carried on by his widow, Eleanor, as acting head teacher. A kindly and gentle woman in contrast to her disciplinarian husband,

Mrs Witchell was said to be much loved by the children at the school.22 The school was kept

16 Hansard, 26 February, 1918, pp. 560-566. 17 Hansard, 26 February, 1918, pp. 560-566; The West Australian, 27 February, 1918, p. 8. 18 “A new world”, Western Mail, 18 December, 1919, p. 27 19 Public Education 10° Geo.V., No. XLIII. No. 55 of 1919. An Act to further amend the Acts relating to Public Elementary Education, (Assented to 17th December, 1919). 20 GeorgII V Regis A.D.1915. No. 1223. An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to public education, (Assented to, December 23rd, 1915). 21 “Deaf and Dumb School. Progress of pupils. Subscribers meeting”, The West Australian, 29 November, 1927, p. 5. 22 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., A brief history of the Western Australian School for Deaf Children at Cottesloe-Mosman Park 1900-1995 (n.p., 1995(?)), p. 9. 88

going under her guardianship until she tendered her resignation, taking effect on 31

December 1926.23 From this point on, her pathway in life remains unknown.

As a result of these changes, the Committee of Management was unable to open the school at the beginning of the 1927 academic year. However, by 23 March of that year they were successful in the appointment of Mr. John Orr Love, who was expected to arrive in Perth on

21 April, with the school re-opening on 26 April.24

John Love came to the WASDDC following fifteen years as resident master of the NSW

Institution for the Deaf and Blind in Sydney. In effect, he was head-hunted by the WASDDC

Committee of Management, since he was known to the President, Dr. A.E. Martin. On Dr.

Martin‟s recommendations, the Committee offered the position of superintendent to Mr.

Love and the position of matron to his wife, Gladys.25 They took up residence in quarters located in the central part of the school, the eastern wing, facing Oceanic Drive, now Curtin

Avenue.26

Love was born in St. Andrews, Scotland in 1889. His parents managed a sugar plantation known as Vryheid‟s Lust located in Demerara, British Guyana, but were on a family visit to

Scotland at the time of Love‟s birth. He was the third of four children. Both parents died from dysentery within a short space of time, so the orphaned children were brought back to their grandparents at St. Andrews by a Guyanese lady. The grandparents were not well-off, so they continued to look after the two girls while the boys were placed in an orphanage at

23 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirtieth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1927), p. 6. 24 “News and notes”, The West Australian, 24 March, 1927, p. 10. 25 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-sixth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1943), p. 4. 26 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 89

Donaldson‟s Hospital in Edinburgh.27 A school for the Deaf had been set up in conjunction with the orphanage, so it was here that Love mixed with Deaf as well as hearing children in the playground, the dining room and the dormitory. He was educated at Madras College, St.

Andrews and in Edinburgh where he was considered an outstanding student. His son,

Doug, still has many of his father‟s school prizes in his possession. On reaching the age of 16,

Love was offered a place at Donaldson‟s as a resident teacher/housemaster. While there, he undertook various higher study courses and according to his son, Doug, he gained his Scotch

Teacher‟s Certificate and was a medalist at Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh, in physiology,

German and mathematics. He also completed a Scotch Education Department Certificate and Edinburgh College of Art certificate.28 He then applied for and gained a posting at the

NSW Institution for the Deaf and Blind, again as a teacher/housemaster. Arriving in Sydney in February 1912 on board the P&O steamer Marmora, he taught for a short period at the

NSW Institution until 1916, when he joined the A.I.F.29 Interestingly, in that 4-year period between his appointment to the school and his enlistment, Love also somehow managed to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in his spare time. As Doug Love pointed out, at that time the NSW Institution was adjacent to the University of Sydney, so access to the campus for lectures and study time was a simple process.30

Following the end of World War I (1914-1918), Love was granted 12 months leave in Europe because the Australian government was experiencing some difficulty in bringing the troops back home. Love made the most of this time by visiting as many Deaf schools in the United

Kingdom as he could as well as visiting a variety of relatives. He was offered a headmastership at the Aberdeen school, but decided against this, preferring instead to return to Sydney. Back in Sydney, he resumed his duties at the NSW Institution and also completed

27 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 28 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 29 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 27 March 2013; “Teacher of the Deaf”, Sydney Morning Herald, 21 February, 1912, p. 20. 30Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 90

a Bachelor of Economics degree. In his final year, he won the economics prize ahead of

Frank Mauldon who, as lecturer and later professor at the University of Western Australia, was instrumental in setting up the Faculty of Economics and Commerce.31 During his time in Sydney, he coached the Deaf boys in cricket and soccer with considerable success as they won schoolboy‟s titles in 1925 and 1926.32 He elected to remain at the NSW Institution despite opportunities to take up Headmastership positions in Brisbane and Adelaide.33

Apparently, salary issues were a deciding factor in his decision to remain in Sydney.34 The

Western Australian position must have been quite attractive financially in order to lure Love across the country. He had made it clear to the Adelaide school board that he would not consider the position for anything less than £500, given that the Sydney principal was receiving £750 at that time. This request was not accepted by the Adelaide board, so Love negotiated with Perth. Evidence suggests that he must have negotiated a salary at or near the £500 that he sought.35

On 11 December 1926, before departing for Perth, Love married another teacher of the deaf at the NSW School, Miss Gladys Margaret Headford.36 Born on 5 February 1891, Gladys became a qualified teacher of the Deaf/Blind, having trained in Bristol in the United

Kingdom. Her certificate shows that she was trained, by the College of Teachers for the Deaf and Dumb in the use of the oral method.37 She immigrated to Sydney on the advice of her doctor, since her health at the time suggested that she may not have survived another

English winter. Once she was appointed honorary matron at the WASDDC, she built up a

31 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 27 March 2013; Fred Alexander, Campus at Crawley: A Narrative and Critical Appreciation of the First Fifty Years of the University of Western Australia (Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire,1963), pp. 388-389. 32 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 27 March 2013. 33 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 27 March 2013. 34 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 35 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 36 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-fifth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1962), n.p. 37 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 91

very close relationship with the children at the school, due to her gentle and caring nature as well as her ability to communicate with them.38

By the standards of the day, John Love was highly educated. A newspaper report of the time stated that Love was probably the only man in the world with two degrees who was teaching D/HH children.39 A comment from his son supports this view:

This is possibly accurate because in those days, there were very few teachers in the WA Education Dept. who had even one degree. Even when I started teaching in 1955 and for some years to follow, the academic requirement for promotion was the Teacher‟s Higher Certificate. When I completed my second degree in 1963 there were very few others with 2 degrees, though a (few) had Master‟s degrees and a couple in the higher echelons of the Dept. had doctorates.40

Educational Philosophy

Love would have been influenced by Harold Earlam who was in charge of the Sydney school at the time. The pro-oralist Earlam felt that this method of education allowed the D/HH child to “communicate with other people” and “compete with his hearing fellows in industrial life”.41 In Perth, however, Love made some changes to the method of instruction in use at WASDDC, notably introducing the two-handed finger-spelling system in order to bring instruction into line with other parts of Australia.42 This enabled Deaf Western

Australians the opportunity to converse more easily with those from the Eastern States.43

Despite Earlam‟s oralist views, Love ensured that the combined method continued to be used together with the two-handed finger-spelling system at the school. A change in the school‟s educational objectives was also announced, with the greatest emphasis on intellectual development rather than clear and correct speech. Love was of the view that a deaf child‟s intellectual development was best met through language acquisition via fingerspelling and

38 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 39 “Pertinent Paragraphs”, The Mirror, 21 September, 1935, p. 13. 40 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 2 April, 2013. 41 Jennifer Plowman, We Grew Up Together (Sydney: North Rocks Press, 1985), p. 26. 42 WASDDC, Thirtieth Annual Report, 1927, p. 11; The West Australian, 29 November, 1927, p. 5. 43 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 92

writing, but he also believed in developing speech and lip-reading skills if at all possible.

However, he continued his predecessor‟s view that sign language was to be discouraged, and encouraged lip-reading instead.44 Doug Love recalls:

Another aspect of the lip-reading situation was that many of the best students who had considerable intellectual ability had very little ability at lip-reading because they were precisionists and would not continue if they could not follow every word. Conversely there were quite a few students who loved lip-reading and speaking because near enough was good enough for them. I mixed with these kids on a daily basis and was very aware of these personality differences which does not mean that I made value judgements about them, but just recognised their differences.45

John Love, like Henry Witchell before him, based this language philosophy on the view that reading, finger-spelling and writing would enable effective communication with the hearing world, especially in daily situations. He believed finger-spelling was easier for the hearing world to learn, so that form of manual communication was strongly encouraged rather than signing. In one newspaper article, Love was quoted as saying: “Signs are our pet abomination”.46 Oral expression and lip-reading was encouraged but generally only for social situations in which the absolute precision of a communicated message was not vital.47

He was pragmatic enough to realize that the students would use their own signs in the playground and after school hours, but continued to discourage it and actively forbade his own children from using signs when interacting with the boarders.48

Social Opportunities

Within that first year, Love also implemented new social activities including school reunions for former students and a Mother‟s Day, both of which involved opening the school for general inspection.49 A greater emphasis on self-sufficiency was encouraged. Larger areas of

44 “Deaf and Dumb School. Child‟s lip-reading ability”, The West Australian, 3 November, 1928, p. 6. 45 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 27 March 2013. 46 “Deaf mutes boy‟s first sign word is „chocolate‟”, Sunday Times, 1 September, 1946, p. 8. 47 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 48 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 49 WASDDC, Thirtieth Annual Report, 1927, p. 13. 93

the school grounds were used for animal husbandry as well as vegetable and fruit tree cultivation, with new horticultural activities included in the curriculum.50 Skills in craft- work (raffia-work, basket-making and needlework under the supervision of Mrs Love) and manual arts also continued. The quality of the craftsmanship exhibited by the students was said to be very high indeed.51 In 1932, the students exhibited their handiwork at the Perth

Royal Show, an initiative so successful that it was repeated the following year.52 Love also continued the tradition of encouraging attendance at various excursions around the Perth metropolitan area, with reports being made of the various outings carried out each year.53

This not only gave the students a break from the school, but improved their social communication skills. By 1931, social activities were expanding with visits from various social organisations which advanced the cause for the education of D/HH children and gave the children opportunities to practice their communication skills.54

Also in 1931, Girl Guides were introduced to the school, with all the girls joining the local troop.55 The following year, the boys joined the Scout movement with ten scouts and seven cubs meeting every Wednesday night.56 This was made possible through the introduction of the Boy Scouts‟ Association of the Special Test Group initiative designed to enable children

50 WASDDC, Thirtieth Annual Report, 1927, p. 13, 17; Personal diary of John Love (1928). 51 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-fourth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1931), p. 17. 52West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-sixth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1933), p. 11. 53 WASDDC, Thirtieth Annual Report, 1927, pp. 12-13; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-first Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1928), p. 13; WASDDC, Thirty-fourth Annual Report, 1931, pp. 13-14; WASDDC, Thirty-sixth Annual Report, 1933, pp. 11-12; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-ninth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1936), pp. 11-13; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Fortieth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1937), pp. 11-13; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-first Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1938), pp. 10-12. 54 WASDDC, Thirty-fourth Annual Report, 1931, p. 14. 55 WASDDC, Thirty-fourth Annual Report, 1931, p. 14; “Girl Guides. Apt deaf and dumb recruits”, The West Australian, 8 April, 1932, p. 7. 56 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-fifth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1932), p. 15. 94

with disabilities to take part and use alternative merit tests if required.57 Similar groups were set up at the nearby Lady Lawley Cottage, a respite and convalescence centre for sick and disabled children, and at the school for the blind.58

Despite the demise of silent movies and the subsequent popularity of the “talkies”, the students continued to regularly attend screenings in Fremantle and Perth, often admitted free of charge. The nearby picture gardens at Buckland Hill/Mosman Park and Cottesloe were also attended, with an open invitation to the latter being extended to the students by the proprietor Mr Hatfield.59 This venue, which opened in October 1936, was particularly popular with the students and staff of the school. It has been described as operating out of a private residence in Leake Street, with deck-chair seating for 950 people set up on well- maintained lawns.60

New Appointments

The year 1928 is notable in the school history as it marked the commencement of Miss May

Wallace as a teacher of the students along with Miss M. Grant who was appointed to the position of girl‟s supervisor. They were appointed on 1 February 1928.61 Miss Wallace‟s fluent finger-spelling skills were noticed by John Love at a Deaf community picnic. This led him to offer her a position at the school along with the opportunity to train as a teacher of the deaf.62 Miss Wallace, together with John Love, comprised the teaching staff of the school until they were joined by Miss Peggy McDougall who was Miss Grant‟s niece. She

57 “Boy scouts. Extension to institutions”, The West Australian, 2 April, 1932, p. 16; “Deaf and dumb scouts. A flag presented”, The West Australian, 10 August, 1932, p. 7. 58 The West Australian, 2 April, 1932, p. 16 59 WASDDC, Forty-first Annual Report, 1938, p. 11. 60 Max D. Bell, Perth- A Cinema History (Sussex: Book Guild, 1986), p. 57. 61 Personal diary of John Love (1928). 62 “Obituary – Miss May Wallace BEM (1908-2008)”, WA Deaf Society Inc. 2008 Annual Report (East Perth: WA Deaf Society, 2008), p. 13. 95

took up her teaching position on 11 June 1928.63 By 1932, both women had completed their training as teachers of the deaf, taught and supervised by Love.64 Miss McDougall later married Ted Anthony, the first male boy‟s supervisor at the school. She retired in 1960.

Miss Wallace remained at the school until her retirement in 1973.65 She was the hearing daughter of Deaf parents and consequently became a major figure in the WA Deaf community. The W.A. Deaf Society records that she interpreted at many early meetings of the Society in 1921 at the age of 13.66 She was said to be a bright, cheery lady, with a great sense of humour and a “delightfully infectious laugh”.67 Both she and Miss McDougall lived at the school in quarters adjacent to the Loves. According to Doug Love, the two women took it in turns to provide Sunday supervision for the students as well as some Saturdays.

Miss McDougall had some family members away from the school, so was not present during her off-duty hours, whereas Miss Wallace tended to spend much of her off-duty time at the

WA Deaf Society where she was the honorary secretary and had been provided with a room.68 May Wallace never married. She was engaged at one point, but her fiancée was killed in combat during World War II.69 Miss Wallace was described as being “never judgmental and just a very good mate to the deaf of her own age group…always actively engaged in any of the socials/Christmas parties etc which we enjoyed up in Hay St”.70 She has become one of the most respected and well-loved members of the Deaf community in

Western Australia. She subsequently served on the Board of Management from 1929-1984

63 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 6 April 2014; Personal diary of John Love (1928). 64 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014; WASDDC, Thirty-fifth Annual Report, 1932, p. 8. 65 “Teacher signs off…”, The West Australian, 28 April, 1973, p. 12. 66 Karen Bontempo and Josie Hodgetts, History of the WA Deaf Society 1921-2001 (Leederville (W.A.): Western Australian Deaf Society Inc., 2002), p. 5. 67 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 April 2013. 68 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 April 2013. 69 Kerry Reed, personal communication to Geoffrey Smith, 8 December 2014. 70 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 April 2013. 96

and was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1979 for her services.71 Her death in 2008 was two months short of her 100th birthday.72

Showcasing Student Achievements

The school continued to highlight its achievements through the Annual General Meeting.

According to Doug Love the AGM was rather less a formal meeting of the committee members than a showcase for the school:

The day was devoted to showing to the public what the children were capable of doing as well as to display the handcrafts which the visitors were welcome to purchase. To open proceedings, John (Love) would give a demonstration on the platform with a few children at a time doing speedy maths calculations, often from lipreading the numbers John called out. Lipreading can be relatively accurate in such a situation because there is a limited number of numbers to be spoken. The children also answered various general knowledge and current affairs questions firstly presented by John but then offered through John by the audience. Particularly impressive and entertaining was Dudley Jones who had an encyclopaedic (or is it Googalonic?) knowledge of the world map. Dudley could point out obscure towns and rivers which most of his audience had never heard of, while there was no country too small or insignificant for him to locate within a few seconds. When the audience was invited to challenge him, he more than once stood back and spelled to John “too easy!”.73

Gym routines performed to Love‟s verbal instructions were also easily manageable for the children due to rehearsing the patterns for several weeks beforehand.74

The focus on skills that required lipreading ability had the potential to mislead those viewing these demonstrations. During the 1928 annual demonstration given by the students, those present were addressed by Mr. F.G. Barnes, visiting from the National Institute Deaf in

London. Barnes observed:

71 Bontempo and Hodgetts, p. 91, 93; WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. 137. 72 WA Deaf Society Inc. 2008 Annual Report, p. 13. 73 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 74 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 97

One of the dangers of successful displays such as that which had just been seen, was that people who saw the quick response of deaf pupils were apt to think deafness a less serious infliction than it really was. Deafness was, in fact, an appalling infliction entailing lifelong isolation from home and from most social relationships. One of the most pathetic sights in the world was an uneducated deaf mute. He had recently seen one who did not know his name, age, or place of birth, and who had no mentality, morality, no religion, no hope in this life or the next. He was, in fact, a human log. On the other hand, the educated deaf person able to speak fairly intelligibly, to lip-read what was being said, and to take up a responsible job, was prepared for a happy and useful life.75

Like William Thomson who noticed uneducated deaf-mutes in Perth more than thirty years earlier, Barnes felt strongly about educational services for the D/HH. He understood that the displays of educational skills needed to be more than just for show for those who financially supported the school, emphasising instead the actual need for the D/HH to develop these skills to prepare for a self-sufficient life rather than to depend on external sources of support, such as charities and the government. However, his description of deafness as being an “appalling affliction” reinforced the idea that deafness was a medical condition that needed to be overcome, was indicative of an audist view of the Deaf community.

As mentioned earlier, in Western Australia at least ten ex-students of the school were foundation members of the WA Deaf Society in 1921. One of these members, Bert Jennings, also taught boot-making at the school. Many other ex-students had also gone on to satisfying and fulfilling lives, allowing them to enjoy the company of other Deaf people and in some cases, to teach further generations of D/HH children. They certainly would not have seen their condition as being an “appalling affliction”. Education gave them the opportunity to grow together and in doing so, to see themselves as a social group, capable of a degree of independence and self-organisation once they left the secure environment of the residential schools. Barnes suggested that without the provision of educational services, none of these outcomes would have been possible.

75 WASDDC, Thirty-first Annual Report, 1928, p. 18. 98

Catholic Deaf Education in Western Australia

At this time a little-known aspect of D/HH education occurred in Western Australia. In

1929, the Roman Catholic Church used the Castledare Orphanage site to set up a training school for what was described as “sub-normal boys”.76 This included some deaf-mute boys.

At least two Brothers who were involved in this training school, Brother T. Cahill and

Brother P. D. Allen, trained at St. Joseph‟s School for Deaf Boys at Cabra in Dublin, before immigrating to Australia.77 Two boys with the surname Devine, aged 8 and 9, were the first admitted.78 The Castledare training programme was relatively short-lived as numbers dropped between 1930 and 1932. However, some success with the deaf-mute boys may have been achieved as it was proposed during this period that Castledare be used as a home for deaf and hearing impaired boys.79 The programme wound up in 1934. Firstly, the number of

Catholic-raised D/HH children was too small to justify the specialist programme that they required. Secondly, the Department of Child Welfare continued to favour the WASDDC for placement of D/HH state wards.80

Financial Issues, Challenges and the Great Depression

By the early 1930s, the Great Depression was affecting the school, creating some financial difficulties. While funding to the WASDDC did not disappear altogether during these years, it was significantly reduced. In 1930, it was reported that subscriptions and donations had dropped from the previous year, despite once-off financial assistance from the Daily News.

Not only had income dropped, but expenditure had increased, mainly as a result of “urgent

76 “Castledare. Training for sub-normals”, The West Australian, 16 March, 1929, p. 7; “Castledare on the Canning. To-morrow‟s official opening”, Sunday Times, 21 April, 1929, p. 12s. 77 The West Australian, 16 March, 1929, p. 7.; “General interest”, The Advocate, 23 March, 1933, p. 16 78 Richard B. Healy, The Christian Brothers Castledare: 1929-1979 (Perth (?): bro. B. Healy (?), 1979, p. 19. 79 Barry M. Coldrey, The Scheme: The Christian Brothers and Children in Western Australia (O‟Connor (Perth): Argyle-Pacific, 1993), p. 65 80 Healy, 1979, p. 19. 99

building repairs”.81 Similar gloomy news was reported in 1931, with a projected financial shortage of £500, increased expenditure due to an increase in student numbers and the reduction by £100 of the annual government grant.82 In 1932, The West Australian reported that ordinary income had dropped from £1,916 to £1,799 and expenditure (in the form of teachers‟ salaries) was cut by £110 from the previous year.83 Government initiatives to combat the depression also continued to affect the school. As a result of the hospital tax

(where the public was taxed to support hospitals) people were less likely to donate to charitable causes.84 Meanwhile the annual state government grant continued at its reduced level.85 An appeal was subsequently launched to private and public charitable sources. The

Sunday Times in 1932 drew attention to reductions in staff salaries as well as reduced income from the school Collector and from investments. Legacies were now also lower in number, a situation that The Sunday Times described “as rare as hot pies at the North

Pole”.86 The paper concluded its report by stating that it was giving “half the charity quota” of the crosswords competition then being held to the school.87 George Paqualin continued to travel the state in his role as Collector. He reported on the noticeable downturn in funds collected, but did find that the goldfields remained a generous source.88 During much of this time, some repair and maintenance work on the school buildings, furnishings and fittings were carried out by the boys as part of their manual arts lessons and the annual reports of the time often gave details of the work carried out under the supervision of Mr

Henry Scott. However, capital works and extensions were badly needed.

81 “Human logs. Combating deafness. Cottesloe school works”, Daily News, 25 October, 1930, p. 12. 82 “Teaching the dumb to talk. Splendid work at Cottesloe Beach school. Lightening the handicap of affliction”, Daily News, 7 November, 1931, p. 5. 83 “Deaf and dumb school: An appeal for assistance”, The West Australian, 1 November, 1932, p. 3. 84 “Teaching deaf and dumb. School is financially sick. Appeal for funds”, Daily News, 28 October, 1932, p. 5. 85 The West Australian, 1 November, 1932, p. 3. 86 “The eloquence of the dumb: Inarticulate children of the great silence”, The Sunday Times, 20 November, 1932, p. 7 S. 87 The Sunday Times, 20 November, 1932, p. 7 S. 88 Untitled article, Southern Districts Advocate, 12 December, 1932, p. 2. 100

Despite the financial restrictions, student numbers, primarily those for boys, meant that the

WASDDC Committee of Management expressed the view that extra accommodation was urgently required.89 In 1933 and 1934, significant improvements in the financial situation were recorded, so the Committee sought finance for the extensions.90 An approach to the

Lotteries Commission was initially unsuccessful; the Commission felt that the proposed extensions “were more elaborate than was actually required”.91 As a result, the Committee warned that the school‟s activities were likely to be restricted. The Committee felt that it was imperative to move ahead with expansion plans in order to ensure that any boy requiring the services of the school should receive them, especially in the light of compulsory school attendance.92

By 1935, funding of the wing was secured from finance already available together with a loan against the security of the original buildings.93 Plans were also well advanced in the construction of the new wing to the south of the existing building. Because of the drop-off to the side of the school, the new wing was expected to be made up of three levels, comprising a boy‟s dormitory on the top floor, two classrooms on the middle floor and a hall for recreation and general use on the lower level. The extra classrooms were particularly needed; until the construction of this new building was completed, the school had only three classrooms. The educational requirements of D/HH children demanded small class sizes, and yet the school was often forced to increase sizes beyond what was considered appropriate.94

89 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-seventh Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1934), pp. 9-10. 90 “Deaf and dumb school”, The West Australian, 30 October, 1933, p. 10; “Deaf and dumb school. Strong financial position”, Daily News, 14 November, 1934, p. 8. 91 “Overcrowded school. Deaf and dumb children‟s needs”, The West Australian, 14 December, 1934, p. 14. 92 “Deaf and dumb children. New wing at school needed”, The West Australian, 15 November, 1934, p. 14. 93 The West Australian, 14 December, 1934, p. 14. 94 The West Australian, 14 December, 1934, p. 14; “School for deaf and dumb”, The West Australian, 7 January, 1935, p. 16; “For the deaf and dumb. Big extensions to the school”, Daily News, 7 January, 1935, p. 5; “Deaf and Dumb School”, The West Australian, 25 February, 1935, p. 18. 101

The new wing was opened on 3 July 1935 by the Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia,

Sir James Mitchell.95 The final cost was almost £2,873 and a further £499 was spent in repairing and renovating the old building.96 The Committee needed an additional £1,000 to pay for the extensions which was funded by donations from the Lotteries Commission, some sporting clubs and the “diverting of all possible legacies and investment funds”.97 Given that this building programme was undertaken in the aftermath of the Depression, the Committee did well to be able to manage the costs involved.98

In 1936, connection to the deep sewerage system was required at a cost of £473. At the time of the 1936 annual report, a sum of £120 was still owed and the school also experienced increased expenditure due to the fitting out of the new extensions and salary increases for the assistant teachers.99 Matters did not improve the following year. Not only had subscriptions decreased by £93 and expenditure increased by £35, but the funds withdrawn from investment had not been replaced. The same year recorded a drop in the number of children attending the school, no doubt with a corresponding (albeit small) drop in fees received.100 The Lotteries Commission again came to the rescue with a grant of £539 which covered the cost of connecting the school to the deep sewerage system.101 In 1938, income from legacies and some other smaller sums of money were invested in Commonwealth Loans in order to provide a future source of income.102 This was made possible by several bequests made to the school that year, including £2,000 from the estate of Sir Charles McNess and

£600 from the estate of Mrs. E.C. Scott.103 McNess was a successful businessman and active

95 “Deaf and dumb school. Opening of new wing on July 3”, The West Australian, 13 June, 1935, p. 21; “Energy of the dumb. Opening of school wing”, The West Australian, 4 July, 1935, p. 4. 96 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty –eighth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1935), p. 8. 97 “Deaf and Dumb School. Opening of new wing on July 3”, The West Australian, 13 June, 1935, p. 21.WASDDC, Thirty –eighth Annual Report, 1935, p. 8. 98 WASDDC, Thirty –eighth Annual Report, 1935, p. 8. 99 WASDDC, Thirty-ninth Annual Report, 1936, pp. 7-8. 100 WASDDC, Fortieth Annual Report, 1937, p. 8, 10. 101 WASDDC, Fortieth Annual Report, 1937, p. 8. 102 WASDDC, Forty-first Annual Report, 1938, pp. 4-5. 103 WASDDC, Forty-first Annual Report, 1938, p. 5. 102

philanthropist within the Western Australian community. Following his death in 1938,

£32,000 from his estate formed a bequest which was distributed to various churches, charities and institutions.104

Training and Registration of Teachers of the Deaf

During 1934, Mr & Mrs Love took leave from the school, their places being filled by Mr &

Mrs E. H. Goldsmith who came over to Western Australia from the Sydney school for the

Deaf.105 While Love‟s trip abroad was primarily for holiday purposes, he took opportunities to attend the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf conference in Liverpool, visit schools in Ceylon, England and Scotland and present a paper, entitled “Impressions from

Abroad” at the first Australian Conference of Teachers of the Deaf in Melbourne.106 Mrs

Love also took advantage of the trip to collect some new ideas for the handicraft subjects taught to the girls. The result was that the work created was noticeably “better than usual” and put on display, not only at the Perth Royal Show, but also at the School Exhibition held in Melbourne.107

In 1938, Mr Love attended the Second Conference of Australian Teachers of the Deaf, held this time in Sydney. Just prior to the conference, the first Australian examinations for teachers of the deaf were held with thirteen candidates. This marked a change in the manner in which teachers of the deaf attained their professional qualifications as it was the first time that Australia-wide professional accreditation was implemented. The exams were evidently quite challenging as Love described the three-hour papers as covering “The Principles of

Teaching; The Teaching of Language; The Teaching of Speech and Speech Reading; The

104 Wendy Brady, 'McNess, Sir Charles (1852–1938)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcness-sir- charles-7435/text12943 , published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 14 November 2017. 105 WASDDC, Twenty-seventh Annual Report, 1934, p. 8. 106 WASDDC, Thirty –eighth Annual Report, 1935, p. 10. 107 WASDDC, Thirty –eighth Annual Report, 1935, pp. 11-12. 103

History of the Education of the Deaf; Anatomy and Physiology; Hygiene (and) Handwork” as well as a Practical Teaching assessment.108

The implementation of these examinations and of professional registration of teachers of the deaf was indicative of a new era in the education of these children. It formalized the oral approach to the education of the deaf, indicative in the teaching of language and of speech/speech reading. Since the establishment of the WASDDC in 1896, efforts had clearly been made to promote and develop the speech and language capabilities of the students, in combination with the use of finger-spelling. For much of this time, this was considered the most appropriate way in which to develop the oral communication skills of the D/HH child, especially given the absence of amplification equipment. Language development was considered to be of importance along with intellectual development, so whereas Witchell emphasized speech and language skills in the annual reports, Love‟s reports were noticeable for a comparative lack of detail regarding the teaching of expressive and receptive communication skills, instead focused on the activities (such as outings and physical work) which developed the intellect of the child. This is particularly the case in the reports published during the 1930s. This appears to indicate a benign complacency in the manner of the education of D/HH children. By that stage, and in the absence of any new educational pedagogy for these children, the combination method of instruction had become “tried and true” under the guidance of educators such as Witchell and Love. National and international professional conferences for teachers of the deaf allowed many in the profession to engage with others and to share ideas on what did and did not work in the education of these students. Such confidence in the educational methods of the time meant that they could now form the basis of training programmes for teachers wishing to specialise in the education of D/HH children.

108 WASDDC, Forty-first Annual Report, 1938, pp. 9-10.

104

Summary

The students who passed through “the house on the hill” in that period before World War II continued to gain great benefits from the experience as their education and post-school lives were shaped by dedicated professional teachers of the deaf. In 1896, William Thomson was motivated to establish the school by observing the very poor lives experienced by deaf people within the colony. Over forty years later, many D/HH people who were educated at the school left with skills that allowed them to obtain gainful employment and to live independently. Moreover, the friendships and collegiality developed through the years of schooling enabled a group of them to organize themselves into what became the WA Deaf

Society. The formation of the Society in 1921 helped maintain friendships, social and sporting activities with an increasing number of members as more of them graduated from the school.

Because amplification technology was still not widely available to enable at least some of these children to develop their speech and listening skills, lip-reading, finger-spelling and the written word continued to be the focus of communication. John and Gladys Love, Henry

Scott, May Wallace and Peggy McDougall understood this and structured their educational programmes accordingly, following on from what Henry and Eleanor Witchell had put into place. Teachers of the D/HH of that time had an awareness of the educational, social and personal challenges that deafness creates, so a firm and guiding hand was required both in the classroom and in the school boarding environment. Of course, they varied in their approach. Henry Witchell was known to have favored corporal punishment whereas John

Love was more known for his caring personality. May Wallace, due to her family background, had a deep understanding of the Deaf community and maintained a life-long involvement with it. Yet, as far as the children were concerned, there was always an “us and 105

them” situation, with hearing teachers controlling all aspects of their education and recreation. Even the Deaf instructors and collectors at the school were under this “control”, being under the supervision of the hearing supervisors and committee of management. Well into the 1930s, none of the Deaf staff were in a position to influence educational policy and no Deaf person served on the Committee of Management at this time. It was only when they were away from the school and the paternalistic environment that they were able to establish some control over their lives. On this basis alone, audist structures were certainly evident at the school, but were present not just because educational practices demanded a degree of paternalism, but also because the medical view of deafness and the limited options for

“treating” it required a visually-based controlled approach to education.

The use of the combined method of instruction contributed to this sense of paternalism. By this time, the oral approach to the education of the D/HH had been well-accepted by schools for the deaf, though not necessarily by their students. Sign was discouraged not only in the classroom but also during out-of-class time, therefore the natural inclination of students to communicate in their own language met with disapproval. This control of language continued to lie at the core of audism. Many students coming from the school were not fully exposed to Sign language until they joined the Deaf Society and many continued to find it easier to use finger-spelling when the need for manual communication arose, especially when the need for English language spelling and grammatical conventions were required.109

Indeed, even today many of the older surviving students of the school continue to favor finger-spelling as the primary means of communication with hearing people.110

109 Trevor Johnston (ed.), Signs of Australia: A New Dictionary of Auslan (The Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community) Revised Edition (North Rocks (Sydney): Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, 1998), p. 559. 110 Johnston, Signs of Australia, p. 559. 106

The Great Depression and WWII years are remembered with fondness by members of the

Deaf community in residence at the time.111 Certainly, there was a great deal of mutual respect and friendship between the Love family and the Deaf community as a result of the family‟s continued interest in the activities of the WA Deaf Society. John Love took on the responsibility of running the school at a time when severe financial and material hardships were faced as a result of the wider economic situation. Doug Love is of the view that that the financial pressures experienced by the school took up much more of his father‟s time and energy than the actual teaching of the students.112 However, as the 1930s drew to a close, events unfolding in Europe ultimately had a much greater impact on the school and led directly to dramatic changes in the manner in which D/HH education was managed within

Western Australia.

111 The House on the Hill, pp. 131-142. 112 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March 2014. 107

Chapter 4: The War Years

Until the beginning of World War II, the education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) students in Western Australia was relatively consistent in terms of educational practices and the day-to-day welfare of the students. Most, if not all, identified D/HH children attended the Mosman Park school since it was the only institution geared towards the needs of these students at that time. It is likely that some children with mild, moderate or unilateral

(single-sided) hearing loss may have managed in mainstream schools with varying degrees of social adaptability and academic success. However, for those with a severe or profound loss, the Mosman Park school was the only option. In this closed and protected educational institution, life-long friendships were made. It was here that close ties within the Deaf community originated and where an understanding of Deaf culture was passed across to each succeeding generation. However, change was about to occur and the years of WWII resulted in the intrusion of world affairs into the sheltered life of the school. The war years also saw the arrival of a new cohort of D/HH children which threatened to place pressure on the Mosman Park school as well as leading to the emergence of new amplification technology, educational and social services which would ultimately benefit many of the new students. After the war, the rate of change accelerated and the school and D/HH education altered for all time.

In 1939, twenty-seven children were in residence at the school with a further two day- students in attendance. Most of the residential students went home at weekends and others left the school to stay with relatives and friends once a month.1 These students (particularly

1 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-second Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle, S.H.Lamb, 1939), p. 8. 108

the once-a-month ones) frequently found themselves marginalised outside the school environment. This was due largely to their absence from the day-to-day lives of their families along with the communication difficulties created by their hearing loss. Some

D/HH children never really reconnected with their biological families. Rather, they established closer ties to other D/HH students living with them at the school. It is possible that experiences like these contributed to an increasing desire by the parents of D/HH children to have a say in the education of their children in the post-war years.

Residential and academic life at the school certainly had its attractions for the students. The children enjoyed many educational and leisure excursions and were by no means socially isolated within the school.2 Two Deaf teachers, Bert Jennings and Bob Haylock were employed and this gave the students exposure to adult Deaf role-models. Both were also to be involved with the Board of Management of the WA Deaf Society and served terms as president of the Society.3 In addition to these gentlemen, Connie Biddle, the seventh pupil enrolled at Belvidere, was employed as the Boy‟s Supervisor in 1927.4 Mrs Gladys Ryder (nee

Eddy), who was admitted to the school at the age of 9 in 1902, was also employed as a house- maid.5 She was appointed supervisor in 1944 and remained in this capacity until 1959.6

Victor Hague, who entered the school in 1920 at the age of 6, was also known to have been employed there as a handyman.7

Of particular note during this time one of the students at the school, nine-year-old Pamela

Hay who was born deaf, passed the Trinity College of Music examinations and went on to

2 WASDDC, Forty-second Annual Report, 1939, pp. 9-10. 3 Karen Bontempo and Josie Hodgetts, History of the W.A. Deaf Society 1921-2001 ( Leederville (W.A.): Western Australian Deaf Society Inc., 2002), p. 91, 93. 4 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. 138. 5 The House on the Hill, p. 136. 6 The House on the Hill, p. 190. 7 The House on the Hill, p. 68, 137. 109

study at a more advanced level the following year.8 The lack of accurate audiological tests at the time means that it is not possible to ascertain the degree of Pamela‟s deafness, the extent to which she could or could not hear any music and whether or not she relied on the physical sensation of sound waves and vibration. A report in the Daily News quoted her music teacher, Mr. W. Fuller, stating his belief that she gained her sense of tone through finger vibrations. This belief was reinforced by the examiners‟ comment that Pamela‟s playing was

“Very good. Nice position of the hands and smooth touch”.9 It was a promising start for the little girl, but unfortunately, the war intervened and Mr Fuller subsequently joined the army.

With the loss of her teacher who used sign language to instruct her, Pamela was unable to continue with her lessons.10 Nevertheless, this achievement was a significant one for a student at the school, especially since the WASDDC did not provide music lessons in its curriculum.11

At the same time as Pamela‟s achievements were celebrated, Mr Love made special mention of the fact that many current and ex-students of the school did well in a variety of sports.12 It was reported that another ex-student of the school was now an instructor in “pyramid building”. Gymnastics, including the aforesaid pyramid building, was a regular feature of the schools‟ physical education programme for many years. Photographs of the students demonstrating these skills were published in The Sunday Times on two occasions.13 The ex- student concerned was residing in Kalgoorlie where he continued to excel in sport most notably winning the Goldfields featherweight boxing championship.14

8 “Deaf-mute passes second pianoforte exam”, Daily News, 5 November, 1940, p. 3. 9 “Deaf mute wins piano honours”, Daily News, 7 September, 1939, p. 5. 10 The House on the Hill, p. 140. 11 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-third Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle, S.H. Lamb, 1940), pp. 8-9; “School for deaf and dumb children: Children‟s work demonstrated”, The West Australian, 6 November, 1940, p. 7. 12 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-fourth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1941), p. 8. 13 “Young deaf and dumb gymnasts”, The Sunday Times, 30 October, 1932, p. 7; “Ensuring healthy minds in healthy bodies”, The Sunday Times, 22 October, 1933, p. 8S. 14 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, pp. 8-9. 110

Love continued to promote the school and its teaching methods widely. A 1939 newspaper report illustrates how vocabulary levels were built up by the children, using a process labelled “association of ideas”. Essentially, the method involved the teacher writing a word

(say, “run”) on the blackboard, then performing the action. Once this was done, the children were required to do the same thing, so that they built up an understanding of the written term by the physical action it represented. The next step was considered to be the construction of sentences and the challenges of word order. Love continued to make it clear that the development of the intellect was the primary objective of the school and that “finger spelling and writing were encouraged in preference to signing”.15 Speech and lip-reading skills continued to be taught also, with students encouraged to “read” the context of a sentence when it was necessary to work out which of two similar-looking words (such as

“bath” and “path”) was the correct one.16

By 1940, the now 40-year-old school was in need of urgent repairs and maintenance.

Although the specifics of the repairs were not listed in the annual report for the year, it was recorded that the repairs came to £151/4/-.17 This meant that expenditure for the year exceeded income by £148/16/6.18 The school was fortunate that public subscriptions and donations continued to be a significant source of income despite the impact of the war.19

This deficit thankfully proved short-lived as the following year income exceeded expenditure by £89/13/2 aided in part by a grant of £50 from the Western Australian Lotteries

Commission.20 Overall expenditure reported in 1941 was £3,020/13/10 with £46/17/6 going on maintenance and repairs – a significant drop from the previous year.21 Further improvement in the financial situation came in 1942, when government child endowment

15 “Deaf and dumb children: Difficulties in education”, The West Australian, 29 August, 1939, p. 5. 16 The West Australian, 29 August, 1939, p. 5. 17 WASDDC, Forty-third Annual Report, 1940, pp. 6-7. 18 WASDDC, Forty-third Annual Report, 1940, p. 4. 19 WASDDC, Forty-third Annual Report, 1940, p.4; The West Australian, 6 November, 1940, p. 7. 20 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, 1941, p. 4. 21 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, 1941, pp. 6-7. 111

payments began being received for each student. This was a significant income stream as it enabled the WASDDC to receive a total of £475/8/0 in “payments for pupils” as compared to

£183/13/4 in 1941.22 As a result, the WASDDC Committee of Management no longer needed to ask parents to make a contribution towards the education of their children. The endowment payments were shared between the parents and the school. This enabled income received by the school to be more regular and reliable, allowing some degree of forward planning to be made.23 On the other hand, donations from subscribers and others were by now affected by the war, so that in 1943 there was a drop in income from these sources

(£161/12/8 compared to the previous year).24

In 1942, Love reported that the school was showing an upward trend in admissions of young children. He pointed out that the school was unable to admit the children at the early age at which they were first heard of and furthermore the overall number of children with an identified hearing loss were increasing. Despite being unable to accommodate these children immediately upon confirmation of the hearing loss, the school kept in touch with the parents, knowing that these children would need to begin attending the school at the earliest possible time when placement permitted.25 This was an early indication that challenges and change were on the way for the school.

The Intrusion of the War

By 1940, the war was beginning to have an impact on the school‟s teaching programme.

Throughout the era in which John Love was in charge of the school, almost all excursions, both academic and recreational, were reported within the pages of the annual reports. It is

22 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, 1941, pp. 6-7; West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-fifth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1942), p. 6. 23 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 4. 24 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-sixth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle, S.H. Lamb, 1943), p. 5. 25 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 7. 112

evident from these reports that war-time restrictions were creating an impact. Before the war, the children at WASDDC enjoyed outings to a variety of different places around Perth.

Increasingly, however, circumstances affected these excursions as the war escalated. For example, annual picnic trips to Garden Island by 1940, had to be cancelled due to the requisition of the island for war purposes. Ferry trips to Rottnest Island on board the MV

Zephyr continued, but even this was expected to be affected in future along with similar trips to Mundaring Weir.26 Indeed, the Rottnest trip was cancelled the following year, but in a turn-around of events, the picnic to Garden Island resumed as a result of the generosity of the Admiralty.27 Mundaring Weir was said to be “nominally out of bounds”, but apparently this did not prevent the school from enjoying its annual outing there.28

Due to its location, the school was designated an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) post and Love was appointed Senior Warden. This situation placed some responsibility on the school and senior students. Due to its high geographical location, the school came under ARP regulations that required all buildings facing the sea to be not illuminated at night. As a result, the senior boys were put to work in making blackout screens for the windows of the school. They also took some responsibility for the lights and electrical fittings. Love was required to appoint an ARP Messenger to be used to pass communications on to other ARP personnel in the area. A senior boy was chosen and provided with a bicycle to use for school errands (primarily to pick up supplies for the school as far as Cottesloe and Fremantle) as well as the delivery of ARP messages. The boy concerned certainly had some heavy responsibilities, but it is doubtful if he fully appreciated this, given that Love had a tendency to dispatch the boy on errands (at least from the boys point of view) at inconvenient times.29

26 WASDDC, Forty-third Annual Report, 1940, p. 10. 27 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, 1940, p. 9. 28 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, 1940, p. 9. 29 The House on the Hill, p. 133. 113

Other staff engaged in Volunteer Service Detachment (VSD) work although by 1941, the war had not yet affected the school to any great degree.30

Apart from the proximity to Rottnest Island and Garden Island as important defence installations, the school was situated quite close to the Buckland Hill anti-aircraft gun battery. Shots fired from the battery were said to have rattled the windows at the school.

One ex-student mentioned that the children used to put their hands and ears against the dormitory windows on the upper floor facing the hill to feel the shockwaves. Another student recalled how the battery used to practice by firing at a target being pulled by a plane and how errant shots used to get quite close to the plane. Evidently, after several near misses, the length of rope used to pull the target was lengthened considerably!31

The school enjoyed extensive views over the off-shore Gage Roads area and down the coast to Fremantle harbour, so the students were always keenly aware of military and civilian shipping numbers sailing into and stationed in the area. Initially, the vessels were warships and liners such as the Queen Mary; all involved with troop movement to the Middle East.

Once Japan entered the war, smaller ships, carrying evacuees from what is now Malaysia and

Indonesia, arrived and created extra pressure on the harbour. Some children off these vessels were temporarily housed at the school until such time that they were transferred to inland country towns.32 The numbers were quite significant. During the first two months of

1942, thirty to forty evacuees at a time were accommodated at the school, with a total of 136 accommodated at various periods.33 These vessels were followed early in 1942 by the

30 WASDDC, Forty-fourth Annual Report, 1940, p. 8. 31 The House on the Hill, p. 137. 32 The House on the Hill, p. 139. 33 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 5. 114

American Asiatic Fleet, retreating from the Philippines, and the American submarine fleet used Fremantle as a base and repair unit for the duration of the war.34

The war dramatically escalated in 1942, following Japan‟s move south, including attacks on

Darwin, Wyndham and Broome. The sinking of the HMAS Sydney the previous November was a wake-up call for Western Australia in terms of underlining the possibility of invasion and shaking the community out of a degree of complacency evident at the time.35 Although the staff at the school would have been acutely aware of the escalation of the war and the threat posed by Japan, it is unlikely that the students would have fully understood the seriousness of the situation due to the communication challenges created by their hearing loss. Much of the news regarding the war came via radio, including broadcasts of speeches by the Prime Minister, John Curtin, which expressed the grave nature of the situation.

However, this probably could not be adequately conveyed to students at the school. Their hearing loss meant that listening to the radio was out of the question, so they would have depended on the staff to inform them on what was happening. Therefore factors such as the levels of individual manual communication skills of the staff and a possible desire not to alarm the students unnecessarily could well have created a basic understanding of what was happening without a corresponding awareness of the seriousness of the situation.

Blackout regulations and mobility restrictions limited access to the world beyond the school, but the students could hardly have been unaware of the significant American presence in the area. As mentioned earlier, the children would have observed activities in Gage Roads,

Fremantle and Buckland Hill. They also had access to the beach denied by barricades and

34 Anthony J. Barker, “Yanks in Western Australia: The impact of United States Servicemen”, in Jenny Gregory (ed.), On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War II (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1996), p. 119. 35 Penelope Hetherington, “Families and children in wartime Western Australia”, In Jenny Gregory (ed.), On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War II (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1996), p. 95. 115

barbed-wire, so they were never at any stage completely ignorant of what was happening.

However, individual language and communication skills affected by their deafness could well have created in their minds a view of the war that did not extend much beyond what they could observe and were informed of within the constraints of the school environment. Even so, many of the students were actively engaged in war-time support activities such as digging trenches at the school and at the nearby Presbyterian Ladies College. They also acted as

“volunteers” in mock air raid attacks implemented to give ARP personnel practice in dealing with bombing casualties.36

Anthony J. Barker, in writing about the impact of the United States armed forces in Western

Australia, states that a large number of buildings were requisitioned for the Americans not just in Fremantle, but also in Cottesloe and the surrounding suburbs.37 From a defence perspective, the school was attractive to the military commanders given its location and views. Having already taken over the nearby Lady Lawley Cottage and established barbed- wire barriers and patrols along the coast from North Mole, to up past Cottesloe Beach, the army was keen to make use of the school. However, John Love refused to allow this to happen, apparently in the firm belief that Japan would not attack the area.38 The location of the school as well as its physical size, would have made it conspicuous, so black-out regulations were strictly enforced. Likewise, as mentioned earlier, trenches were dug and the children trained in air-raid precautions as they were in all schools.39

Despite the escalation of the war, the school was never in the position of having to be evacuated, although the possibility of having to do so was ever-present. During 1942, plans were made to move the children to a country home if required and parents were given the

36 The House on the Hill, p. 133. 37 Barker, On the Homefront, p. 119. 38 The House on the Hill, p. 139. 39 Hetherington, On the Homefront, pp. 95-96. 116

opportunity to withdraw their children from the school if they wished. Only three children were withdrawn, but two returned to the school after a few weeks.40 Student numbers remained high with 33 in residence, an increase of five from the previous year.41

The Love family purchased a home in the hills suburb of Darlington also as a possible evacuation point, should the school have to be evacuated. The house was acquired early in the war years, but since houses could not remain unoccupied, an elderly relation of John

Love, Maggie Ross, took up residence. Despite ultimately not needing to be used for evacuation purposes, Gladys Love, her sons and some of the boys from the school made regular trips to the house during holidays and also some Sundays in the cooler months.

According to Doug Love, these Sunday trips were fraught affairs since there was only one train up in the morning and one down in the evening. Mrs Love had the reputation of leaving things until the very last minute, so there was frequently a mad scramble to catch the trains in time. Accommodation was limited at the Darlington property, but the boys became used to bunking down on some mattresses on the lounge-room floor. The days were spent exploring the environment around Darlington, including the John Forrest National Park,

Glen Forest, the Helena River and Kalamunda.42

Of greater concern during the war years was the staffing situation. Although no teaching staff were initially lost to the war effort, three other staff left to join the armed forces and replacing them created some difficulty.43 Gail Reekie wrote of the sometimes forced nature of Manpower directives and the intimidating tactics of the Commonwealth government‟s

40 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 7. 41 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 7. 42 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March, 2014. 43 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 7.

117

Manpower Directorate of the time.44 From the descriptions given by Reekie, it can be surmised that staff at the WASDDC, especially domestic staff could well have been among those pressurised into Manpower positions. Domestic staffing problems continued into

1944, creating some concerns for Mrs Love. Carpentry lessons had been suspended in 1943 due to the loss of Bob Haylock, the wood-work teacher, and he had still not been replaced in

1944.45 Bert Jennings was also requisitioned into a Manpower job in 1943, but was still able to teach boot-making classes one evening per week 46 In future years, the boys attended woodwork classes at the Claremont Manual Training Centre at Claremont Teacher‟s College, under the supervision of Mr. H.A. Heygate, the instructor-in-charge. This appears to be the first point at which the Education Department of WA became actively involved in the education of D/HH students, since the college was under the control of the department.47

Compounding these staff losses was the death of George Paqualin in June 1942. Paqualin was employed as a Collector by the school at the age of 21, back in 1898.48 His service to the school had been uninterrupted since then. He travelled widely throughout Western

Australia to collect donations for the school and was well known in the country towns. The nature of his work involved a degree of communication with the hearing population, so

Paqualin must have had the personality and skills necessary to do so despite his own hearing condition. When not travelling for his work, Paqualin lived at the school so for almost half a century he was part of life within the school community. Doug Love recalls that Paqualin was a very heavy smoker and for quite some time after his death his room on the western side of the school, complete with magnificent views of the ocean and Rottnest Island,

44 Gail Reekie, “Shunted back to the Kitchen? Women‟s responses to war work and demobilization”, In Jenny Gregory (ed.), On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War II (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1996), pp. 76-80. 45 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-seventh Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle, S.H.Lamb, 1944), p. 4. 46 WASDDC, Forty-sixth Annual Report, 1943, p. 7. 47 David Mossenson, State Education in Western Australia 1829 – 1960 (Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1972), p. 151. 48 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 3. 118

continued to be permeated by tobacco smoke.49 Paqualin was not, however, the only collector employed by the school. In 1942, another collector, Mr A. Holt, also passed away.

Paqualin, however, was the best-known and the only one to be listed in the annual reports under “Committee and Officials”. After his death and that of Mr Holt, Mr R.B. Bogan and

Mr J. Williams were appointed collectors for the school.50

Mossenson states that the war years created some deterioration in the quality of teacher training due to enlistments and the requisitioning of the teacher training college for defence purposes.51 This hardly helped the WASDDC to maintain the quality of its educational programme. Without the specialist training required by a teacher of the deaf, especially in terms of competency in manual communication, effective classroom interaction between teacher and students was compromised. This teaching situation was seen to affect the quality of the education received by the students and was to become a point of criticism directed towards the school in the post-war years.52 Given the circumstances created by the war, it is unlikely that any alternative courses of action could have been taken, although as early as 1945, the Education Department was moving towards taking over the school while leaving the residential section under the control of the Committee of Management.53 This was an acknowledgement that educational services for D/HH children were becoming more complex and required a reassessment of how these services were managed and financed.

War-time restrictions and shortages also affected the school in other ways. The staff shortage and the need for careful preservation of scarce foodstuffs forced the Committee of

Management to approve the upgrading of certain aspects of the kitchen. A gas stove, electric refrigerator and electric washing machine were all installed, presumably much to the

49 Douglas Love. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 March, 2014. 50 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 3. 51 Mossenson, State Education, p. 150. 52 The House on the Hill, p. 46. 53 “Education for deaf”, Daily News, 14 July, 1945, p. 23. 119

appreciation of the remaining and over-worked domestic staff.54 Materials for technical and handiwork classes were in short supply, but creative thinking enabled some of the senior children to assist the war effort by making camouflage netting. Black-out regulations and restrictions on traffic and movement affected social evenings and excursions.55 Restrictions on craft-work materials continued into 1943, but black-out restrictions were relaxed enabling the school to consider re-introducing the social evenings.56 Attendance at movies continued to be popular and the school developed good relationships with the proprietors of picture gardens and cinemas in Cottesloe and Fremantle. So positive were the relationships, that the school students were often given free admission to screenings.57

The school also helped with the establishment of a new local industry which came about as the result of war-time restrictions. It was reported in 1944 that students at the school were engaged in the collection of Euchima seaweed for the production of agar-agar jelly used in the meat canning industry. Previously, agar-agar was imported from Japan, but the war halted this. Agar-agar was still a required commodity, with 70 tons being the recorded pre- war consumption levels. By 1944, Australia was producing 16 tons, with Western Australia contributing 4 tons. There was an economic incentive to produce more in WA, hence the involvement of the WASDDC children.58

Throughout the war years, the WASDDC continued to provide as high standard an educational programme as restrictions and challenges allowed at the time. Before 1939, life at the school was fairly consistent in terms of educational services and the social benefits that were provided through boarding at the premises. The war years meant that the outside world had an impact on the school and indicated that the school as an institution was no

54 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, p. 3. 55 WASDDC, Forty-fifth Annual Report, 1942, pp. 7-8. 56 WASDDC, Forty-sixth Annual Report, 1943, p. 8. 57 WASDDC, Forty-seventh Annual Report, 1944, p. 6. 58 “Deaf and dumb aid new industry”, Daily News, 1 November, 1944, p. 7. 120

longer separated from the demands of mainstream society. Nevertheless just as Henry

Witchell did, John Love continued to ensure that the social and educational well-being of the students was maintained and that life at the school continued with minimal disruption. Love was certainly highly protective of the school as evident in his determination to avoid handing over the school for war-time purposes and resisting the need to evacuate the students. The

Loves were also challenged by staff shortages which often resulted in the unavoidable need to employ both teaching and domestic staff who had little or no knowledge of deafness and deaf children. The fact that the school was able to keep going under these challenges is indicative of Love‟s determination to maintain a “business as usual” approach as far as war-time restrictions would allow.

This approach also meant that the students at the school were also encouraged to continue in their usual daily lives. The unique challenges of a hearing loss and the impact this has on daily communication would have created an awareness of the war that could well have been different to that experienced by the hearing staff. This awareness would have been built up by visual experiences of what was happening around them and by how they comprehended written, verbal and signed information presented to them by the hearing adults in their lives.

The challenges of English language, vocabulary and grammar would have had the potential to create distorted and inaccurate perceptions of the war within the minds of many of the students. They might also not have an awareness of the importance of tone when used to emphasise the significance or otherwise of information provided. Added to this is the possibility that the staff could have consciously or unconsciously protected the students from many of the more unpleasant aspects of the war, all of which would have made them unaware of the seriousness of the circumstances.

121

Anecdotal evidence from W.A. Deaf community members who attended the WASDDC during

John Love‟s time recall him to be a good teacher but strong on discipline. He was also actively involved with the Western Australian Deaf Society and acted as an interpreter on a regular basis during WADS Board of Management meetings, social and special functions.59

Interpreting was carried out via finger-spelling as Doug Love pointed out:

They (Love and Wallace) both used 100% fingerspelling when interpreting because their audiences could follow their messages. The only signs either would have used would have been single concept signs to a group such as a wave to indicate to a group to all move in a certain direction, or to come out of the water at the beach.60

This involvement with the WADS, as well as his approach to dealing with any bureaucracy that challenged the smooth running of the school is evidence that his career was motivated by a desire to achieve good social, economic and educational outcomes for the D/HH community. In this, he was supported by staff such as Miss Wallace and Miss McDougall both of whom were also highly motivated with the best interests of the students in mind.

The fact that all three teachers were highly regarded is evident in recollections published in

The House on the Hill.61

Love also made it possible for the students at the school to access Deaf role models as shown by his willingness to employ Deaf staff for trades instruction and domestic work. Both Bob

Haylock and Bert Jennings had an active involvement with the WA Deaf Society, including terms as president of the society. Through the involvement of Haylock and Jennings with both the WASDDC and the WADS, along with the support given by John Love and May

Wallace, the students at the school were provided with positive experiences that developed and reinforced their identities as members of the Deaf community. Although it was still expected that competency in the English language was a primary outcome of the school‟s

59 Bontempo and Hodgetts, History of the W.A. Deaf Society 1921-2001, p. 7, 15, 25. 60 Douglas Love. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 April, 2013. 61 The House on the Hill, pp. 132-144. 122

curriculum, it is clear that the cultural aspects and manual communication of the Deaf community was acknowledged by the teaching staff and seen as equally important in achieving post-school educational outcomes. The educational and social environment offered by the school was therefore quite favourable to the students and was one in which deafness was not necessarily seen as a condition that needed to be rectified. Instead, efforts were made to develop usable skills and communicative competence that would enable the students to live within a hearing world but at the same time embracing a Deaf identity. The success of this approach was evident by the end of the war as by then no member of the

WADS was unemployed.62

Mossenson points out that one of the initiatives to come out of the war years was the increasing attention given to pre-school education as well as technical training.63 Technical training programmes expanded with the assistance of the Commonwealth government as a means of addressing the war-time shortage of skilled tradesmen.64 In the post war years, this was to the benefit D/HH students in developing skilled and marketable trades. The expansion of kindergarten and pre-school educational programmes were said to have been a reply to the unique family circumstances that the war situation created. According to

Hetherington, this expansion was based on two arguments: “One focusing on educational benefits for children and the other on women‟s child-care needs”.65 The Kindergarten Union, which had been established since 1913, was instrumental in the setting up of pre-school programmes and in the promotion of the need for day-care centres for the children of mothers involved in the war effort.66 The expansion of these pre-school programmes was a fortunate and important step in the education of D/HH children, coming as it did under war- time circumstances.

62 Bontempo and Hodgetts, History of the W.A. Deaf Society 1921-2001, p. 25. 63 Mossenson, State Education, p. 150. 64 Hetherington, On the Homefront, pp. 101-102. 65 Hetherington, On the Homefront, p. 96. 66 Hetherington, On the Homefront, p. 96 123

In 1944, in the midst of rationing, staffing shortages and student numbers that tended to average around thirty, John Love sounded a word of warning. The school had been in touch with some families who had very young children who were deaf due to maternal rubella.

Love knew that a significant increase in student numbers at the school was looming and warned that this increase would cause considerable pressures on the school and staffing levels.67 These children were the result of a major rubella epidemic which hit Australia in

1938-41. Just as the war was ending, these children were reaching school age and poised to place significant pressures on the existing school system for D/HH children. Their impact, however, was to be much greater than this. They would be the catalyst for significant change in the manner in which D/HH children were taught. Existing educational pedagogies were to be challenged by researchers, teachers and parents, assisted by dramatic improvements in the use of amplification technology, teacher training and early childhood educational services. The years of WWII, challenging in their own right due to the impact of the war, served as a bridge between the old way of educational instruction that changed very little in half a century and the new way at the close of the twentieth century when the WA School for

Deaf Children celebrated its centenary. The arrival of the rubella children changed everything.

67 WASDDC, Forty-seventh Annual Report, 1944, p. 5. 124

Chapter 5: Rubella Epidemics

In Western Australia prior to the 1940s, Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) educational practices remained relatively unchanged since the WA Deaf and Dumb Institute was established in

1896. However, a dramatic change was to occur towards the middle of the twentieth century.

A significant rubella outbreak in Australia in the late 1930s / early 1940s was to lead to a substantial increase in the number of D/HH children, which in turn changed D/HH education completely and with a renewed focus on oralism. The outbreaks not only put pressure on the existing schools and educational services, but also created other challenges.

Of significance was the fact that many rubella children had a hearing impairment rather than being profoundly deaf. Many were also born to hearing parents, who wanted their children to develop speech, language and listening skills. This resulted in an almost complete removal of the Deaf community from any form of decision-making regarding educational practices in

Western Australia. The influence of predominantly hearing educators, audiologists and parents created an era during which audist attitudes were significant and with long-lasting effects on D/HH educational services.

The first major outbreak occurred Australia-wide in 1938-41 and had a long-term impact on

D/HH schools. The epidemic was considered to be a “new and unusual manifestation of rubella”, primarily due to the observation that there had been no previous comparative epidemics in Australia.1 It has been suggested, however, that a noted increase in births of deaf children in 1899 could have been linked to an unidentified rubella epidemic the year

1 H.O. Lancaster, “Deafness as an epidemic disease in Australia: A note on census and institutional date”, British Medical Journal, 2, 15 December, 1951, p. 1429. 125

before.2 This increase was also noted in Western Australia.3 The Australian censuses of

1911, 1921 and 1933, identified elevated levels of deaf-mutism, suggested that various infective epidemic diseases such as scarlet fever, measles, diphtheria and whooping cough were behind the trend.4

The 1938-41 epidemic reached Western Australia in 1940-41 and this resulted in 45 children being enrolled at the Mosman Park school by 1946.5 This was followed by recurring outbreaks up until the end of the 1970s, when the rubella vaccine programme introduced in

1971 led to a significant reduction in reported cases of Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS).6

The most notable of the post-wartime rubella epidemics in WA occurred in 1959, preceding an Australia-wide high-incident period 1964-1970, but the impact of the 1938-41 outbreak was far-reaching. Neville Green, one of the post-war superintendents of the Western

Australian school hostel, commented that this epidemic forced changes in policies and procedures in D/HH education that made parents, teachers, the Education Department and audiologists, significantly more prepared for the subsequent epidemic of 1959.7

Laurie Upfold, in his account of the history of audiology in Australia, writes that there is no accurate record of the number of children affected by the 1938-41 epidemic. However, using various sources, he estimates that at least 371 children were affected.8 A newspaper report in 1949 drew on the 1947 census to cite a population of 3,060 deaf children between the ages of five and 14. However this age range suggests that rubella children are included in this

2 Lancaster, “Deafness”, pp. 1429-1430. 3 Lancaster, “Deafness”, p. 1430. 4 Lancaster, “Deafness”, p. 1429. 5 “Deaf and dumb: School for children”, The West Australian, 16 November, 1948, p. 7. 6 Fiona J. Stanley, Moira Simm, Glenda Wilson and Sharon Worthington, “The decline in Congenital Rubella Syndrome in Western Australia: An impact of the School Girl Vaccination Programme?”, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 16, no. 1 (January, 1986), pp. 35-37. 7 Neville Green, “Hostel accommodation for deaf children in Australia”, in The Western Australian Society for the Advancement of the Deaf, Deafness in Australia 1974 (Perth: WASAD, 1974), p. 106. 8 Laurie Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology (Sydney: Phonak, 2008), pp. 4-5. 126

figure rather than making up the numbers entirely.9 In Victoria, the epidemic created a doubling of the student population at the Victorian School for Deaf Children.10 The

Queensland School for the Deaf recorded 168 students in 1954 compared to 80 in 1932.11 In

Western Australia, where the epidemic hit in 1940/41, approximately 70 cases of children with partial or total deafness resulting from rubella were identified. Of these children, about

50 were known to be in the Perth metropolitan area and the remaining 20 in the country.12

Bill Rourke, in his book My Way, gives an account of how a special school for approximately seven rubella deafened children was set up in the goldfields town of Boulder. He was approached by a mother who was unable to secure school admission for her child.

Questioning revealed that there were several such children in the goldfields and that the

Department of Education believed that the matter was for the Medical (Health)

Department.13 As a result of a meeting with the parents of these children and with subsequent help from members of the Kalgoorlie – Boulder business community, a small school for the rubella children was set up. Rourke states that it was staffed by a teacher from the Department of Education and opened on 14 July 1947.14 However, an article in the

Kalgoorlie Miner of 19 March 1948 refers to the school as having been opened for 18 months.15 The school was referred to in two newspaper articles in 1946. In the first article, the rubella class was reported to have opened at the Boulder RSL Hall on 1 July 1946, following investigations into the number of rubella children living in the Kalgoorlie –

Boulder area. This was said to be at the initiative of Miss E. Miller, a teacher at the Boulder

Infants‟ School, who also observed the work of the Perth-based schools that year. From the

9 “Aids for deaf children”, The West Australian, 19 October, 1949, p. 21. 10 J.H. Burchett, Utmost for the Highest: The Story of the Victorian School for Deaf Children (Melbourne: Hall‟s Book Store, 1964), p. 56, 196. 11 Laurence A. Hough and Barry Knust (eds.), A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf (Marooka (Qld.): Merino Lithographs, n.d.), pp. 18-20. 12 “Plea for deaf children”, Daily News, 23 April, 1945, p. 8; “Deaf children: Pre-school training”, The West Australian, 25 April, 1945, p. 3. 13 William H Rourke, My Way: W.H. (Bill) Rourke’s 50 Years Adventure in Education (Perth: Carroll‟s, 1980), p. 131. 14 Rourke, My Way, p. 132-133. 15 “A lady‟s view. Deaf Children”, Kalgoorlie Miner, 19 March, 1948, p. 2. 127

report, it was clear that the RSL Hall arrangement was temporary and that it was desirable to

“obtain a permanent building in close proximity to an existing school as soon as possible”.16

In the second article, as well as in a Hansard report dated 29 November 1946, the Minister for Education, John Tonkin, referred to several centres set up to cater for the rubella children. The list included Boulder, so both reports clearly indicates that the school was already established prior to the date given by Rourke.17 A small report in 1951 notes that the school was still in operation at that time and had an enrolment of at least twelve.18

The 1938-41 rubella epidemic was a significant medical issue and the impact of this large cohort of D/HH students on the existing Deaf education infrastructure was profound and long-lasting. The WASDDC had a limited intake each year and, as foreseen by John Love, was unable to cope with the sudden upsurge of rubella children.19 Added to this was the fact that many of the children were only partially deaf and many were able to gain significant benefit from the fitting of hearing aids from what was to become the Commonwealth

Acoustic Laboratories (CAL). CAL became committed to providing hearing aids and technical support to D/HH children throughout Australia and the establishment of this institution in 1946, meant that it was well placed to provide the necessary amplification for these children and therefore support the oral education movement.

The Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories (CAL)

16 “Rubella children. An educational problem. Goldfields centre opened”, Kalgoorlie Miner, 3 July, 1946, p. 1. 17 “Education vote. Labor‟s special interest”, The Westralian Worker, 13 December, 1946, p. 5; Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, p. 2309. 18 “School by the seaside”, The West Australian, 16 February, 1951, in L.C. Lake, Centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Newspaper Clippings and Articles 1896-1996 (Perth: L.C. Lake (Desktop published), 1996), p. 99. 19 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children, Osborne Park: Jiffy Printing, 1996, p. 46. 128

The 1938-41 epidemic led to three important initiatives in Australia. Firstly, the connection was made between maternal rubella and congenital defects such as deafness as a result of studies carried out by various researchers between 1943 and 1949.20 Secondly, it was a major factor in the extension of services provided by the Commonwealth Acoustic

Laboratories (CAL) later to be known as the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL),

Australian Hearing Services (AHS) and Australian Hearing (AH). The Acoustic Research

Laboratory was established in 1943 and funded by the Commonwealth government through the National Health and Medical Research Council.21 It was set up as an acoustics testing laboratory. Renamed the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratory (CAL) in 1946, the laboratory became a permanent branch of the Commonwealth Health Department in 1947.22 The audiological testing services provided by CAL used relatively new techniques such as pure- tone tests. CAL also pioneered the provision of free hearing aids which in turn led to a significant shift in educational programmes provided for D/HH children. CAL‟s work with the rubella-deafened children also led to a third ground-breaking initiative. This was the development of a new technique that enabled children under the age of six to be reliably assessed with regards to their hearing loss. The commonly held view was that pre-school age pure-tone assessments could not be reliably carried out.23 The work of a CAL psychologist,

Joyce Wark, resulted in the development of play-audiometry techniques, primarily the “peg- board” response system. This approach reliably confirmed and measured the presence of residual hearing in many of the rubella children, enabling them to be fitted with appropriate hearing aids and subsequent access to early childhood speech and listening programmes.24

20 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 1-4; Cliff Casey and Peta J. Monley, Audiology in Australia: A brief history”, Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research (2002), pp. 14-15. 21 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, p. 12-33. 22 Barbara Lee Crickmore, “An historical perspective on the academic education of deaf children in New South Wales 1860s-1990s”, (PhD dissertation. University of Newcastle, 2000), pp. 122-123; Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, p. 33. 23 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 34-41. 24 Casey and Monley, (2002), p. 24. 129

CAL established premises for the purposes of testing hearing and fitting hearing aids in central Perth in April, 1947; the first branch established away from CAL‟s Sydney base.25 It was located on Wellington Street opposite the Perth railway station.26 The original staff member was a technician, Mr Les Bond, and he was soon followed by Miss Maureen Brown.

Audiological testing was carried out by Brown, an experienced psychologist who had spent time at the John Tracy Clinic in the United States.27 This prior involvement alone ensured that she was well placed for events that were about to occur in Western Australia.

Much of the approach taken in Western Australia towards providing educational services to

D/HH rubella children following the 1938-41 epidemic resulted from the somewhat forceful but dedicated work of Norman Murray, who set up and became Director of CAL. Upfold describes Murray as being convinced that these children could and should be educated in mainstream schools.28 He believed that this could be done with support from CAL in terms of properly diagnosed and assessed measurement of hearing loss and the fitting and on- going maintenance of suitable hearing aids. Murray did not have a high opinion of the existing schools for the deaf, so the arrival of a large cohort of rubella-deafened children gave him the means of promoting his educational philosophy. Although he did not hold any teaching qualifications, his engineering background and insistence on rigorous attention to assessment and testing of equipment and processes, meant that CAL was well-placed to provide a level of service considered to be superior to those in other countries, including the

United States. This gave Murray a level of autonomy in running CAL the way he saw fit, with very little regard to high-level government interference.

25 Casey and Monley, (2002), p. 16; Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, p. 48. 26 “Aid for deaf children”, The West Australian, 4 August, 1955, p. 12. 27 Zoe E. Sampson, “Audiology in Western Australia 1950-2000: Development of a profession”, Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research (2001), pp. 7-8. 28 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, p. 74. 130

Such was the influence of Murray and CAL that in Western Australia his proposal for the provision of educational services to D/HH children was adopted with very little resistance.

According to Upfold, Murray settled on three levels of classification of D/HH children:

 the mild/moderately impaired “normal” acoustic group, who would use hearing aids in normal schools

 the more severely impaired “special” acoustic group, who would use hearing aids in special acoustic schools or special classes in normal schools

 the profoundly impaired “oral” group, who would attend a deaf school, with or without a hearing aid.29

This approach brought Murray into conflict with the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (AATD) since it challenged established educational programmes for these students.30 The AATD responded through their support of a visit to Australia by Professor

Alexander and Dr. Irene Ewing, which will be discussed in more depth in another chapter.

The Ewings were notable supporters of oral education programmes. Clearly, the AATD hoped that as educationalists, the Ewings would support them in opposition to the

Murray/CAL ideas. This hope evaporated as, following their visit, the Ewings essentially endorsed many of Murray‟s ideas such as the fitting of hearing aids and placement of students within suitable programmes in mainstream school settings.31 They also endorsed early intervention programmes, a view supported by John Love, but one which he felt could not be accommodated at the Mosman Park school since, at that time, the starting age was

6.32 Nor were the Ewings alone in promoting the desirability of oralism. By the 1950s, teachers and researchers such as Daniel Ling in Canada and Doreen Pollack and Helen

Beebe in the United States of America were undertaking studies that led to the development

29 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 74-75. 30 “Deaf children: Hearing aids in schools: To the Editor”, The West Australian, 22 March, 1947, p. 11. 31 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 74-79. 32 “Govt. aid wanted for deaf children”, Daily News, 24 August, 1950, p. 13. 131

of oral-aural programmes specifically designed to make use of residual hearing and amplification in the teaching of speech and language.33

Upfold quotes the contents of a CAL document which summarises the approach taken by

Murray (and therefore CAL) to the provision of hearing aids to children:

As the efficiency of hearing aids can be individually determined, children can be graded into the correct (school) group as soon as individual audiometric measurements can be made. Our work is, therefore, concentrated on individually calibrating, measuring and fitting in the most efficient manner, the most efficient aid, and in determining as early as possible in the pre- school period the accurate measurement of the child… in almost all cases between 3 and 4 years old.34

The reference to “correct school group” is indicative of the highly standardised and rigorously scientific approach that Murray insisted on. Every aspect of the assessment of

CAL “patients” was done to a specific standard and with the expectation that children fitted with hearing aids were audiologically suited for placement in one of the three categories of education services.

The use of pure tone audiometry is particularly illustrative of this empirical approach.

Murray insisted on the use of pure-tone tests from properly calibrated audiometers in order to obtain an objective measure of hearing loss. This form of testing involves presenting tones of different frequencies (or pitches) at different volumes to each ear individually. The results are then plotted onto the child‟s audiogram, giving a clear measure of hearing loss in terms of decibel levels and across different frequencies. The Ewings had promoted the use of

“meaningful sounds”, that is environmental sounds using a variety of musical instruments and noise-making objects along with the human voice, to assess the hearing levels of young children. Murray did not consider this approach to be a reliable measure. He did not

33 Marion Ernst, “Certification of Auditory-Verbal Therapists now a reality”, The Auricle, vol. 7, no. 4 (Winter, 1995), p. 26. 34 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, p. 163. 132

discount the use of meaningful sounds, feeling that they had their place in preliminary assessments and behavioural conditioning prior to undertaking pure tone tests.35 Likewise, the Ewings understood the value of pure tone audiometric tests with older children.36

Hearing aid technology was a major focus of CAL research and service. The rapid development of transistorised hearing aids came about partially through the need to repatriate ex-servicemen from World War II who had suffered hearing loss as a result of exposure to gun-fire and explosions. CAL was therefore also well placed to address the amplification needs of those children deafened by rubella during the 1938-41 epidemic by the time these children were school age. This enabled the Commonwealth Health

Department to begin to address their acoustic needs and to take responsibility for the supply, fitting and maintenance of hearing aids.37

CAL was therefore faced with the challenge of providing appropriate assistive amplification for two distinctly different groups. Generally, the ex-servicemen suffered from mild to moderate levels of hearing loss whereas the rubella children tended to have a greater level of loss. In addition, the majority of rubella deafened children were born into hearing families, where the desire for the child to develop listening, speech and language skills to “overcome” their deafness provided significant motivation for changes in the manner in which deaf and hard of hearing children were supported and educated. CAL subsequently produced its own hearing aid model, the Calaid, which was to be provided free of charge to D/HH children and to returned servicemen. Provision of the Calaid to the latter group was a controversial matter, as servicemen previously had access to American-manufactured hearing aids. In order to access CAL services, they needed to change to the Calaid, which were viewed as

35 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 39-40. 36 Irene R. Ewing, “Screening Tests and Guidance Clinics for Babies and Young Children”, in A.W.G. Ewing (ed), Educational Guidance and the Deaf Child (Manchester: University Press, 1957), p. 37. 37 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, p. 39; Crickmore, “An historical perspective”, p. 123; The West Australian, 19 October, 1949, p. 21. 133

being inferior to the American products.38 However, from CAL‟s point of view, imported hearing aids were not cost effective, being expensive to import and repair. This situation was not ideal for the fitting to young children, hence the decision to manufacture and supply the

Calaid in Australia.39

The first Calaid was designed and fitted in 1948-49. It was a body-level valve hearing aid, which was quickly superseded by a smaller, transistorised version in 1955-56. This new and smaller version, powered by a single AA battery, was known as the Calaid T. Like the earlier valve Calaid, the Calaid T was a body level hearing aid, connected to a button earphone via a cord. It was a robust and effective enough hearing aid, serving CAL clients well for almost twenty years until its replacement by a smaller and lighter version known as the Calaid G.

The effectiveness and sturdy construction of the Calaid T meant that it was ideal for young children. The youngest child fitted with one of these hearing aids was Shelley Hornsby, a sixteen-month-old Western Australian girl from the town of Quairading in the wheat-belt.40

The Calaid T suffered from all of the problems associated with body-worn hearing aids, including that of clothing rub on the microphone and situations in which the microphone was not always directly in line with a sound source, a condition known as an “acoustic shadow”. By the 1960s, acoustic research was demonstrating the effectiveness of ear-level microphones for hearing aids, leading to progress in the design and development of Behind- the-Ear (BTE) and In-the-Ear (ITE) hearing aids. CAL developed the Calaid E, an ITE hearing aid that was to become its most frequently fitted hearing aid over a ten year period from 1964-65. The easy availability of the Calaid E was a factor in the federal government‟s

38 John Marshall and Janette Thorburn, “Evolution of the hearing aid”, in Ellaine Downie (ed.), Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974 to 2006 (Nunawading (Vic.): Deafness Foundation (Victoria), 2006), p. 90. 39 Laurie Upfold and Ray Piesse, “The Calaid: Australia‟s own hearing aid”, Acoustics Australia, vol. 28, no. 3 (2000), p. 105. 40 “Now Shelley sits up and takes notice”, Daily News, 28 November, 1955, p. 2. 134

decision to supply free hearing aids to pensioners. Together, the Calaids T and E satisfied the government requirements for the provision of hearing aids to all clients until the mid-

1970s.41 ITE hearing aids remained a part of CAL‟s range, although not in great numbers, until the 1980s when there was resurgence in demand for these hearing aids by some consumers. CAL/NAL then produced its final ITE model known as the Calaid J, which was made available for two years until production of all Calaid models ceased.42

Education of the Rubella Children

The Register of Pupils 1897-1956, held by the WA School for Deaf Children, indicates that the first rubella-deafened child enrolled at the school was Rona Anne McKenzie, born in

1940. She was followed by 23 other students also known to be rubella-deafened. The records also suggest that the first hearing aids fitted to these children in Western Australia occurred in or soon after May 1947. Three children, Peter Boyer, Daphne Moulton and

Raymond (Darryl) Beamish, were “withdrawn May 1947 for hearing aids”, but were all readmitted at different times between September 1947 and February 1952.43

As early as 1945, the Department of Education in Western Australia was beginning to act on the needs of the rubella children, partially through the assistance of CAL and Norman

Murray. Events over the new few years indicate that the Minister for Education, the Hon.

John Tonkin, was an important figure in the history of D/HH education in Western

Australia. He later became premier of W.A. and was a teacher before he entered parliament in 1933. Newspaper reports of the time suggest that Tonkin was motivated by pressures from both parent groups and an awareness of the impact that the rubella children would be likely to have on the resources of the WA School for Deaf Children in Mosman Park. He was

41 Acoustics Australia, pp. 105-107. 42 Acoustics Australia, p. 108. 43 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, “Register of Pupils, 1897-1956”. 135

also aware, from sources such as Murray and parents of the children, of the need for amplification technology, specifically hearing aid devices, to assist the children.44 The epidemic resulted in the department taking over responsibility for the education of all D/HH children, prompted in part by the inability of the WASDDC to accommodate all children at

Mosman Park.45 The Department also later ensured that financial support and teaching staff was forthcoming for pre-school programmes that were being set up to meet the educational challenges of these children.

In 1945, a deputation approached Tonkin to request government assistance with kindergarten services to prepare rubella children for mainstream schooling. The deputation represented the Oral Pre-School Group Committee which represented many parents of rubella children who did not want an association with the WASDDC, primarily because of the

“institutional” image that it continued to create.46 A newspaper report at the time made reference to a newly established kindergarten operating in the Nedlands area for this purpose, but it appeared to be overwhelmed by demand.47 Shortly afterwards, it was reported that Tonkin acknowledged the looming issue of providing adequate educational support and that the existing school for D/HH children would not be able to cope with the sudden increase in numbers as the children reached school age.48

The Oral Pre-School Group Committee had been set up to investigate the possibility of a formal pre-school programme for the rubella D/HH children. The move was supported by the Kindergarten Union, based on the fact that a similar kindergarten had begun operating in Sydney. They aimed to use oral communication skills (via lip-reading) rather than the

44 Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, pp. 2310-2312. 45 Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, p. 2312. 46 Margaret I. Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, unpublished manuscript, 24 November, 1995, p. 3. 47 “Plea for deaf children”, Daily News, 23 April, 1945, p. 8. 48 “Deaf children. Pre-school training. Aftermath of German Measles”, The West Australian, 25 April, 1945, p. 3 136

combined system then in use at Mosman Park. Consequently, specialist staff such as teachers of the deaf and speech therapists was needed. This, together with the desirability to provide for children outside the metropolitan area, was then beyond the existing resources of the group.49

The support from the Kindergarten Union was important as it had set up the Sydney facility

(Samuel Cohen Kindergarten) at Pyrmont in April 1945. Tonkin visited the school during one of his trips to the Eastern states and what he saw confirmed the suitability of this approach for Western Australia.50 Its Director had qualifications in speech therapy as well as kindergarten teaching. The facility was supported by CAL in the provision of hearing aids and technical support.51 Adelaide also had a facility to meet the needs of an estimated 200 rubella deaf children.52 The South Australian group was set up in very similar circumstances to that in Western Australia, in that it involved a cooperative effort between the parents of rubella children and the Kindergarten Union.53 In Melbourne, the Victorian School for Deaf

Children took the initiative to provide for rubella D/HH children in the state by setting up a kindergarten facility, but this was not officially opened until 1952.54

Initially, the Kindergarten Union of WA (Inc.), led by the principal, Miss (later Doctor) Isla

Stamp, suggested the formation of groups of parents of D/HH pre-schoolers. Once the Oral

Pre-School Group was set up and the committee formed, some children provisionally

49 “Deaf children: Pre-school training: Aftermath of German Measles”, The West Australian, 25 April, 1945, p. 3 50 “Minister sees rubella kids progressing”, Sunday Times, 17 February, 1946, p. 3; “Aids for the deaf: Oral teaching method: Progress of Pre-School Group”, The West Australian, 19 February, 1946, p. 10; Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, p. 2310-2311. 51 Crickmore, “An historical perspective”, p. 119. 52 The West Australian, 25 April, 1945, p. 3. 53 “Parents plan education for rubella children”, The Advertiser, 31 October, 1945, p. 3 54 Burchett, Utmost for the Highest, pp. 52-58. 137

attended a kindergarten in Lake Street, Perth. Shortly afterwards, plans were put in place to develop premises for the early education of these children.55

The Oral Pre-School Group decided that a private facility should be set up until the

Education Department was ready to take over the education of the children, something that was already being planned by the Department and the WASDDC Board of Management by mid-1945.56 A garage at the Nedlands home of Mr. G.D. Allan, the Chairman of the group, was deemed to be the most suitable premises and was converted via a series of busy-bees and work projects undertaken by the fathers of the children. The 15 Stirling Highway property was completed in just seven weeks and all furniture and fittings were constructed by the fathers.57 Some funds were raised for the establishment of the premises through a benefit concert given by the Francis Goodwill Choir on 15 June 1945.58 The new facility was also the beneficiary of war-surplus material from the State Shipyards, the United States Navy and the

Civil Defence Council. This donated material was put to good use; ARP helmets (from the

Civil Defence Council) were converted into wash-basins, complete with plugs and chains.59

By May 1945, the Nedlands kindergarten was ready to commence services again under the direction of the Kindergarten Union.60 Children attended the kindergarten four times a week. From the beginning, the emphasis was on active and extensive oral communication lessons since many of the children were partially deaf rather than profoundly and because those involved believed that signing was “detrimental to oral teaching”.61 These sessions

55 “Oral Pre-School Group Movement: Deaf children learn as they play”, The Western Mail, 16 August, 1945, p. 40. 56 “Education for deaf”, Daily News, 14 July, 1945, p. 23. 57 The Western Mail, 16 August, 1945, p. 40. 58 “New school for partially deaf”, Daily News, 26 May, 1945, p. 23. 59 “Deaf children are taught to hear”, Daily News, 4 August, 1945, p. 14. 60 “Helping children: A year of progress: Work of Kindergarten Union”, The West Australian, 26 March, 1946, p. 8. 61 “Deaf children: Pre-school groups: Movement to be extended”, The West Australian, 13 June, 1945, p. 4. 138

included two full days of speech instruction from a speech therapist, Mrs Elsie McCallum, and two days of general kindergarten activities. Gaining the services of a speech therapist was a significant achievement in its own right, since at the time, there was only one speech therapist working in Perth.62 Support was provided by parent volunteers and plans were made for other groups to be established in the South Perth and Mount Lawley areas.63 By the following month, and after the launch of the Nedlands Kindergarten, committees had been set up to form rubella deaf kindergartens in Mount Hawthorn, Victoria Park, Perth, and

Fremantle.64 Because of the focus on intensive oral training, the Oral Pre-School Group looked overseas for assistance with a suitable training programme for D/HH children. This was found via the John Tracy Clinic in the United States, which made their course available to all parents of D/HH children without cost.65 This was a significant saving to the Group.

The objectives of the group were summed up in an article in the Western Mail of 16 August

1945:

1. To promote the pre-school education for the mentally sound, deaf or partially deaf children subject to a medical certificate being supplied in respect of each child, as to its physical capabilities of its undergoing prescribed kindergarten training.

2. Each group to consist of no greater number than 10 children.

3. Children will be acoustically tested whenever possible.

4. Sense and habit training (sic).

5. Spontaneity, not formal instruction to be the method of teaching.

6. Language development Lessons to be brief and will be given through the instrumentality of toys and games. To be taught lip reading through the tactile, visual, auditory approach. Hearing aid to be used when and where necessary and when obtainable.66

62 The West Australian, 13 June, 1945, p. 4 63 “Nedlands plan for deaf mute kiddies”, The Sunday Times”, 27 May, 1945, p. 15. 64 Deaf children: Pre-school groups: American courses sought”, The West Australian, 29 June, 1945, p. 3; “Oral Group”, Daily News , 16 July, 1945, p. 6; “Deaf children are taught to hear”, Daily News, 4 August, 1945, p. 14; “Fremantle plans to assist deaf children”, Sunday Times, 25 November, 1945, p. 5. 65 The West Australian, 29 June, 1945, p. 3; “U.S. clinic helps the deaf”, Daily News, 21 July, 1945, p. 11. 66 “Oral Pre-School Group Movement: Deaf children learn as they play”, The Western Mail, 16 August, 1945, p. 40. 139

The oral approach was encouraged by all involved in the Pre-School Oral Group. The group followed the view of Mrs Spencer Tracy, founder of the John Tracy Clinic, that progress in oral communication by D/HH children could be achieved with a positive commitment from parents and a refusal to accept children as being “sub-normal” due to the hearing loss. The group believed that in terms of educational placement, the rubella children fell somewhere in between mainstream schooling and that provided by the WA School for Deaf Children.67

They acknowledged that placement in mainstream schools might not necessarily be best for all the children, but that equally they might not be sufficiently well catered for at the

WASDDC.68

The group very quickly developed a working relationship with CAL and Norman Murray. By that time, Murray was in the process of undertaking a Commonwealth survey on rubella children in Australia. He stated that:

Our investigation has as its object to see to just what extent these children may be assimilated into normal life, and how far we can go by the use of specially-developed aids to assist them to hear, and so develop normal speech and be educated to any desired standard. This has required, firstly, special techniques for the measurement of the hearing loss of the child. This is to be followed by the design of aids so that these children may be reached with normal speech sounds… The final goal is to see just what professions or jobs these people can be assimilated into so that training will not be wasted on the wrong lines.”69

Words such as “assimilated into normal life” and “normal speech” points clearly to Murray‟s focus on deafness as a condition to be rectified if at all possible. Given that the Oral Pre-

School Group made up of hearing parents held the same desires and goals for their D/HH children, it is not surprising that Murray was welcomed with open arms. He visited Perth in

November 1945 to talk with parents individually and in groups, but did not do any

67 “Special schools for deaf”, Daily News, 20 July, 1945, p. 6. 68 “Rubella victims: Labour women offer support”, The West Australian, 14 August, 1945, p. 5. 69 “Rubella children: Commonwealth survey: Research officer coming”, The West Australian, 20 October, 1945, p. 8. 140

audiological testing at that time.70 John Tonkin also met with Murray at that time; Tonkin was persuaded to change his existing plans for the educational provision of these children. 71

Originally, he had proposed the setting up of another school for D/HH children as the

WASDDC could not accommodate the extra numbers created by the rubella epidemic.

However, Murray convinced Tonkin that most of the rubella children could be successfully educated in mainstream schools with the use of amplification technology.72 Murray again visited Perth in August 1946 and continued to advise the government on matters to do with the use of amplification in the education of the D/HH children.73

By February 1946, the Oral Pre-School Group was able to present its first annual report.

During this meeting, the secretary, Mr W.L. Black, emphasised the commitment to the oral movement, despite differences of opinion as to which teaching methods to employ. This had resulted in the withdrawal of the Perth branch of the group, but all other branches reported significant progress despite restrictions in accommodation and the availability of suitable teachers.74 A letter to the editor of the Daily News by one of the parents drew attention to the lack of follow-up services in audiological testing by Norman Murray, as well as touching on the lack of appropriately qualified teaching staff.75 In effect, the letter accused the

Education Department of being unprepared for the movement of the rubella children into the state school system. The Director of Education, Murray Little, was given a right of reply in the same issue. He stated that although a teacher had been offered to the group at the onset, “her services did not appear to be fully appreciated” and that both she and the

Departmental Inspector of Schools, Mr V. Box, had made trips to the Eastern states to assess

70 “Aid for rubella victims”, Western Mail, 25 October, 1945, p. 33; “Will organise survey here of near- deaf children”, Daily News, 7 November, 1945, p. 5. 71 “Rubella children. Minister optimistic, changes local plans”, Sunday Times. 11 November, 1945, p. 3. 72 Legislative Assembly Tuesday 13th November, 1945, Hansard, p. 1848. 73 “Help for deaf children”, Daily News, 9 August, 1946, p. 9. 74 “Aids for the deaf: Oral teaching method”, The West Australian, 19 February, 1946, p. 6. 75 “Partially deaf children”, Daily News, 11 April, 1946, p. 14. 141

services in place there.76 In Perth, Little said, “the teacher spent her time organising groups of parents and helping in the formation of kindergarten groups of these afflicted children”.77

Little reinforced his commitment to providing an appropriate level of service for the rubella children, reminding readers that the Cottesloe school was up and running, with another to come.78

Further plans for the education of D/HH students in WA took place when Tonkin met with the Federal Minister for Health, Senator James M. Fraser, in January 1946.79 Fraser responded positively towards Tonkin‟s views and subsequently authorised Norman Murray‟s services to the WA Education Department, with the immediate aim of testing the hearing of all rubella children.80 A newspaper report that same year indicates that the state government took Norman Murray‟s views seriously and that Murray in turn saw the progress in WA as being ahead of that in all other states except New South Wales.81 Murray‟s focus on the progress made in these two states was indicative of the fact that, at the time, only two states had adopted the Murray/CAL system.82

In April 1946, Tonkin announced that Maureen Brown from CAL would be working closely with the Oral Pre-School Group and the Education Department, to test all D/HH pre-school and school age children.83 The aim was to assess the most suitable educational placements for the children; the choice was between a planned residential facility in Cottesloe and attendance at mainstream schools.84 It was also expected that these tests could determine

76 Daily News, 11 April, 1946, p. 14. 77 Daily News, 11 April, 1946, p. 14. 78 Daily News, 11 April, 1946, p. 14. 79 “Education of deaf children”, Daily News, 3 January, 1946, p. 6. 80 “Deaf children‟s hearing measured”, Daily News, 30 April, 1946, p. 7. 81 “Deaf children: School facilities: Sydney expert‟s visit”, The West Australian, August 14, 1946, p. 10. 82 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 75-79. 83 “Deaf children: Department tests: Arrangements in this state”, The West Australian, 17 April, 1946, p. 6; Daily News, 30 April, 1946, p. 7. 84 “Hearing aids may help deaf children”, Daily News, 19 February, 1946, p. 12. 142

the most appropriate amplification required for each individual child, something that

Murray was always keen to promote.85 Later that year, Murray was able to report that hearing aids were soon to be available to D/HH children in Western Australia to enable them to “be absorbed into the ordinary education system”.86 The hearing aids were to be supplied to government-run schools, but parents would also have the opportunity to buy sets for use in the family home.87

The hearing tests, when carried out, found that most of the rubella children had some residual (remaining) hearing, so “amplifiers” of the “right type” were expected to be obtained by the Education Department and installed in the centres for the purposes of speech training.88 By early 1947, CAL had selected a hearing aid from the United States considered suitable for the amplification needs to the rubella children, but the cost at the time was £40 per child.89 Batteries were to cost an estimated 4/- per week.90 However, in November,

Tonkin reported to parliament that batteries were expected to cost in the region of 10/- per week, primarily due to the need to ensure that the hearing aids were powered at optimum levels via maximum battery strength. He was, however, hopeful that the hearing aids and batteries could be supplied for a lower cost.91 The Oral Pre-School Group were keen to work with CAL to get hearing aids supplied, but Tonkin cautioned against this, hoping that first of all, the sets could be first trialled properly.92 Undaunted, the Group launched a street appeal on 28 March 1947 to raise funds for all children to be fitted with the hearing aids regardless of the financial capacity of the parents. Further financial assistance for the purchase of

85 Daily News, 19 February, 1946, p. 12; “W.A. girl tests child deafness”, Daily News, 23 May 1946, p. 8. 86 “Hearing aids for deaf children”, Daily News, 24 October, 1946, p. 10. 87 Daily News, 24 October, 1946, p. 10. 88 “Rubella children”, The Westralian Worker, 13 December, 1946, p. 5. 89 Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, p. 2311. 90 “State to teach rubellas”, Daily News, 13 June, 1946, p. 7. 91 Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, p. 2311. 92 Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, pp. 2311-2312. 143

hearing aids was given via a £700 grant from the Lotteries Commission.93 The Apex Club also raised money for these hearing aids.94

Despite the fact that the hearing aids had been in use in the United States, and fitted by CAL to students in New South Wales, it was reported that some parents felt that they were not really suitable for the children. In reply, Murray, no doubt exasperated by these views, made it clear that rigorous assessments would be made of each child‟s potential to benefit from the hearing aids. Any failure to wear or benefit from the hearing aids would not result in the parents having wasted their money.95 By 1949, however, the Commonwealth government had announced that hearing aids and batteries were to be supplied free to any eligible child.

The hearing aids were to remain the property of the government, following a recommendation by the Minister for Health.96

Murray was clearly not a person sitting around waiting for things to happen. Tonkin reported in March 1947 that Murray had announced a series of initiatives for Western

Australia. These included the establishment of the branch of CAL in Perth, the delivery from the United States and subsequent calibration of the hearing aids for the Pre-School Oral

Group and liaising with the group for ear impressions to be taken of the children, so that individual ear moulds could be made in Sydney.97 Clearly, both Murray and Tonkin were keen to provide a high level of service to the rubella children.

93 “They cannot hear but they can talk”, Daily News, 27 May, 1947, p. 6. 94 Daily News, 13 June, 1946, p. 7. “Apex Ball”, Western Mail, 27 June, 1946, p. 4S. 95 “Hearing aids: Work of oral group: Progress with education”, The West Australian, 7 February, 1947, p. 8. 96 “Free hearing aids for the young”, Westralian Worker, 28 October, 1949, p. 8. 97 “W.A. is to have first laboratory for rubellas”, Sunday Times, 23 March, 1947, p. 9. 144

The Oral Pre-School Group ceased operations in 1947 as the Education Department established special classes for the rubella children (who were now of school age) not only at

Cottesloe and Boulder, but also East Victoria Park and Highgate State Schools.98 They were not necessarily well equipped, however. A newspaper article reporting on the lack of equipment and resources for teachers working with disabled children drew special attention to the fact that the Highgate classroom was initially completely bare, although it was made usable through the committed efforts of the parents.99 Tonkin reported to parliament that amplifiers, “gathered from various sources” and inferior to those at the Pyrmont (NSW) school, were available only at the Victoria Park school.100 Because the group only focussed on pre-school education, once the children were of school age they became the responsibility of the Education Department. By establishing classes at the above schools, the Department undertook that the children were given opportunities to mix with hearing children as well as able to undertake oral skills training in special classes. Parents still had the flexibility to enrol their rubella D/HH children at the WASDDC if they so wished.101 By 1950, the

Department reported that the numbers of rubella children being educated in state-run schools comprised 15 at Highgate, 16 each at Cottesloe and East Victoria Park, 8 at Boulder and another 50 children at the WASDDC.102

Further Developments in the 1950s

Because their remit was no longer necessary by 1947, the Oral Pre-School Group changed its name to the Oral Group in 1946, with a new focus on helping the rubella children in alternative ways, such as the establishment of a residential school and additional support for

98 Val Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap. A history of the provision of education for the hearing impaired with special reference to Western Australia 1896-1963”, (MEd dissertation, Murdoch University, 1984), p. 52; Daily News, 27 May, 1947, p. 6. 99 “Poor equipment for retarded children”, Westralian Worker, 18 February, 1949, p. 3. 100 Legislative Assembly Friday 29th November, 1946, Hansard, p. 2311. 101 Legislative Assembly Wednesday 4th December, 1946, Hansard, p. 2456. 102 “Education of backward children not neglected”, Daily News, 12 October, 1950. p. 4. 145

country students.103 In a report published in The West Australian, the secretary, Mr Black, commented on the work carried out by Miss Dorothy Doepel, who was then in charge of the

Education Department‟s section for children with physical disabilities. The report stated that Doepel “formulated the method of teaching the children by the oral method.”, although no clarification was given as to how this was implemented within the group‟s classes.104 Val

Stephens states in her thesis that the Oral Pre-School Group were not considered to have been successful in achieving their goals of oral pre-school training. Nevertheless, they did have a far-reaching effect on the provision of D/HH education in Western Australia through the mobilization of parental advocacy groups and recognition of the differing educational needs of profoundly deaf and partially deaf children.105

By 1955, the 1940-41 rubella children were in their teens. The 1955 WASDDC Annual Report stated that this resulted in a situation whereby the educational programme offered by the school was not as efficient and rigorous is it could be.106 This statement suggests that John

Heatly, who by then was Supervisor of Deaf Education in W.A. as well as Headmaster of the

WASDDC and superintendent of the boarding facility at Mosman Park, was conscious of the shortcomings of the educational programme of the school. This resulted from the pressures of staffing levels, high student numbers and varying levels of deafness experienced by the students. With considerable foresight, he warned that even though the rubella children would soon be leaving school, this did not necessarily mean that the school numbers would drop. He felt instead that numbers would continue to rise as the population of Western

Australia also increased.107

103 Daily News, 13 June, 1946, p. 7. 104 The West Australian, 7 February, 1947, p. 8. 105 Stephens, “Deafness: The invisible handicap”, p. 52. 106 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Fifty-eighth Annual Reports (Mosman Park: Elswood Press, 1955), n.p. 107 WASDC, Fifty-eighth Annual Reports, n.p. 146

The Education Department was conscious of the same trend, since it continued to address the matter of pre-school education for D/HH children. From 1956, educational services to these children expanded. Heatly worked in conjunction with Bruce Baker of the Guidance

Branch of the Department of Education to establish a Pre-School Clinic to provide help and advice to new parents of D/HH children and to commence oral education as early as possible. A programme of instruction was provided through a Nursery-Infant school attached to Cottesloe State School. Enrolments began at three years of age and, although the facility was set up primarily as a day-school, some children, mainly those from country regions, were accommodated at Mosman Park at the WASDC‟s boarding facilities.108 In

1957, 26 students were enrolled at the Cottesloe programme, with ten boarding at Mosman

Park.109

During 1958, premises at Cottesloe were renovated with the needs of oral education programmes in mind. Three classrooms and a playroom received acoustic treatment to cut down on problems associated with sound reverberation and background noise. Once this was completed in September 1958, John Heatly commenced administration of the school.110

Later, another junior school for the D/HH children was established at Claremont Primary

School and a secondary school facility was provided at Swanbourne Senior High School. The provision of services at these schools enabled the Department of Education to provide those

D/HH children who were receiving an oral programme with the means of integrating with hearing children in many classes and extra-curricular activities. The children were transported between home and school by bus and country children continued to board at

Mosman Park.111

108 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Fifty-nineth Annual Reports (Mosman Park: Elswood Press, 1956), n.p; Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 6. 109 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixtieth Annual Reports (Mosman Park: Elswood Press, 1957), n.p. 110 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-first Annual Reports (Mosman Park: Elswood Press, 1958), n.p. 111 Heatley, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 6. 147

Also by the mid-1950s, the issue of post-school employment began to take effect.112 The

Commonwealth Employment Service provided support for many of the D/HH students. The

Premier of Western Australia at the time, Mr Albert (Bert) Hawke, met with both the

WASDDC P&C Association and representatives of the trade unions to discuss apprenticeship opportunities for these students. Many of them had been forced into low pay/ low status jobs, even though they were considered by the school and the P&C to be capable of working efficiently at many other trades, providing allowances, such as the use of written material rather than lectures, were made for their hearing loss.113 Public service employment was considered problematic since in some states the presence of deafness meant failing the

Public Service medical examination, resulting in lack of opportunities for permanent placement and superannuation benefits.114 In 1956, those students who were due to complete their education were interviewed by officers of the WA Department of Education and the Commonwealth Employment Service. By 1957, all of these students had been placed in employment or were receiving further training.115 One boy attended technical school on a part-time basis that year and he was followed by others in subsequent years, with several securing positions such as in newspaper compositing on equal terms with hearing boys.116 By the 1960s, a Vocational Committee had been set up, consisting of representatives of the

Technical Division of the WA Department of Education, the WA School for the Deaf and the

Commonwealth Employment Service. The Committee was chaired by Mr Baker, then the

Superintendent of the Special Education Branch within the Department of Education. The

112 “Deafness often no handicap”, Daily News, 18 June, 1954, p. 14. 113 “Hawke sees social conscience stirred”, The West Australian, 12 May, 1956, p. 10; “Rubellas ready for work”, Daily News, 24 October, 1956, p. 15. 114 “More jobs are wanted for deaf people”, The West Australian, 15 June, 1954, p. 13. 115 WASDC, Sixtieth Annual Reports, n.p. 116 Heatley, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 9; WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-fifth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1962), n.p. 148

Committee met on a regular basis and was successful in placing most students in suitable employment once they left school117

In conclusion, the years of WWII, through a combination of circumstances, brought about a significant and long-lasting change in the approach to the education of D/HH in Western

Australia as elsewhere. The 1938-41 rubella epidemic demanded change since the children affected were in significant numbers and their approaching school years threatened to place pressure on existing schools and facilities. They were, however, extremely fortunate that the events of WWII created an environment conducive to new approaches to their education.

The Kindergarten Union‟s focus on pre-school education and childcare, for example, came into being due to the need to support families affected by war-service and manpower requirements. The Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories also had its genesis in the war, initially focussing on the needs of returned servicemen, but then applying the technology and research to the rubella children. Even the establishment of centres by the Oral Pre-School

Group were aided by the availability of war-surplus material as in the case of the Nedlands school.

These factors meant that the rubella children could be well looked after, but in doing so, the oral method of education was heavily subscribed to by teachers employed at the kindergartens, actively encouraged by educational research and audiological ideology.

Professionals such as Norman Murray were adamant that these children could and should be taught to hear and to speak. Every opportunity was therefore used to promote oral language skills. Sometimes it worked, especially with children with a partial hearing loss, and these successes tended to be publicised in the local newspapers. Creating a public awareness of the success of various teaching methods in the education of D/HH children has occurred

117 WASDC, Sixty-fifth Annual Reports, n.p.

149

throughout history and in this regard, post-war success with the rubella children followed a time-honoured “tradition”.

The medical, educational and audiological professionals who took on the task of teaching these students did so to the best of their ability and making full use of equipment and resources available to them. As always with the education of D/HH children, results were mixed. Speech and listening lessons were concentrated on to a significant degree, often to the detriment of other academic subjects, so the D/HH child would often leave school with a below average academic record and questionable oral language skills. What was also lost in the quest for oral competency was exposure to manual communication. This put these children at a disadvantage during their post-school years when they wished to be involved in the Deaf community. They certainly had exposure to other D/HH children if they were educated within oral deaf schools and units, but unless their hearing loss was so severe that hearing aids (and therefore the acquisition of speech and verbal language) were of minimal benefit, the emphasis was on oral communication alone. Those with significant (that is, severe or profound) hearing loss, continued to attend the Mosman Park school as students and sometimes as boarders. In doing so, they gained some exposure to manual communication and therefore access to the Deaf community.

In terms of audism, the emerging approach to D/HH education as illustrated by the rubella children supports the concept. Prior to WWII, D/HH education was generally in the hands of a small group of dedicated and hard-working teachers and staff, supported by an equally hard-working Committee of Management. As a private organisation, the goals of the school were narrow and well-defined, focussing primarily on educating the D/HH children for post- school independence. It also provided them with the means of entry into the Deaf community, with its language and social structure and therefore its culture. Exposure to 150

Deaf role models was also evident through the employment of such staff at the WASDDC as well as the close relationships between the school and the WA Deaf Society. However, with the rubella children, a wider variety of professionals were involved in their education, with the primary focus being oral competency. Decisions on hearing aid usage, educational programmes and language access were again being made by hearing professionals with little or no input from the Deaf community at any level.

It must be emphasised that these professionals were also dedicated and hard-working, doing what they truly believed to be the best interests of the D/HH child. They did not, however, necessarily have the best interests of the Deaf community in mind. This approach had the effect of fragmenting the Deaf community, creating for the first time in Western Australia a distinction between Deaf and partially deaf children, between hearing aid users and non- hearing aid users and between oral communicators and signers. This created a clear distinction in D/HH education between the manual communication approach and the oral/aural approach. As amplification technology progressed, the oral approach continued to strengthen and gain support. It was not until the 1980s when research on Sign Language identified it as a valid linguistic code, that the role of manual communication was again considered to be of importance.

The interests of the Deaf community may have been neglected, but it was a different group of people that exerted increasing pressure on educational programmes and technological advances for D/HH children. This was a group that until the birth of the rubella children, had for the most part taken a back-seat role in the education of their D/HH children. In the post-war years, with rubella children being born with a hearing loss into an increasing number of families, their parents began to take on a more active role. In doing so, they 151

created a permanent change in the manner in which D/HH educational service were to be provided in Western Australia.

152

Chapter 6: Parental Advocacy and Support in Deaf Education

Throughout the history of Deaf education in Western Australia, there has always been a degree of parental advocacy and support evident. This goes back to the foundation of the

Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution (WADDI) in 1896. Much of the support from hearing parents tried to ensure that their Deaf or Hard of Hearing (D/HH) child received opportunities to live productive adult lives. Specifically, they desired their child to develop skills that could be utilised in the hearing world. Exposure to D/HH adult role models was limited, especially given these adults rarely if ever had input into the framing of educational practices. Hence exposure to Deaf community and culture was also limited. Parents were also guided by hearing professionals in education, audiology and medicine, reinforcing the medical model of deafness.

Early Parental Support

Early parental support at the WADDI mostly took the form of payment of fees for tuition by the school staff. The report of the first annual meeting of the institution indicates that payments for the students to the end of June 1898, totaled £192/4/0 and “collections by

State schools, parents and friends” came to £235/6/1, contributing to a reported income for the period of £1,338/19/ 2.1 Financial support from parents to the institution accounted for a significant portion of the income available. This was vital to cover the institution‟s heavy expenditure, mainly for teacher salaries and rental costs.2 By mid-1904, private

1 “West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution: First Annual Meeting”, The West Australian, 2 August, 1898, p. 2; West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, First Annual Report (Perth: n.p., 1898), p. 12. 2 The West Australian, 2 August, 1898, p. 2. 153

subscriptions and donations had risen to £1,128 for the preceding 12 months.3 By this stage, the institution was able to accept any student in need of the services provided, but those parents financially able were expected to make financial contributions to their child‟s education.4

The school continued to rely to a certain extent on income from board and tuition fees paid by the parents over the couple of decades, but the financial statements in the early annual reports indicate that this source of income came in a very distant third to that raised by public subscription, legacies and bequests. In any case, if financial hardship was a factor affecting a child‟s enrolment at the school, the fees were waived. For the year ending 30

June 1913, the balance sheet shows that the total income collected from parents for school fees amounted to almost £113.5 In the same period, 25 students were enrolled.6 This came to just over £4 per student, which compared favorably to the individual amounts received from donations and public subscriptions that year, the majority of which tended to be £5 or less.7 Even allowing for the fact that at least some of these students were admitted free of charge, the school fees appear to have been affordable.

By and large, parental involvement in the day-to-day affairs of the school remained minimal for most of the first half of the twentieth century. As early as 1900, the WADDI Committee of Management expressed concerns that parents were delaying enrolling their children at the institution, probably in the hope that the child‟s hearing loss might be corrected with the passage of time. The committee made it clear that early enrolment (by the age of seven or eight) provided the best opportunity for children to access an education appropriate to their

3 "Deaf and Dumb Institution: Annual meeting of subscribers”, The West Australian, 28 July, 1904, p. 3. 4 The West Australian, 28 July, 1904, p. 3. 5 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Sixteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1913), pp. 14-15. 6 WADDI, Sixteenth Annual Report, p. 9. 7 WADDI, Sixteenth Annual Report, pp. 21-51. 154

academic, social and communication needs.8 The school sometimes had to admit older

D/HH children, which made positive educational outcomes difficult.9 At this stage, there were no regulations in Western Australia making the education of D/HH children compulsory. The committee was justifiably concerned by what they saw as a failure by parents to appreciate the need for an appropriate education for their children and the ability of the staff at WADDI to provide this.10

There was also a trend for parents to enroll their children for only a short period of time.

Not only were students enrolled quite late in childhood, they were often also withdrawn once they were old enough to help at home or to earn an income.11 The superintendent, Henry

Witchell, quite rightly pointed out that once the D/HH child left the school and its specialist teaching programme, there were few if any opportunities available for further skills development.12 The age at which the students tended to be withdrawn was around 16-18 years of age, whereas it was felt that at 20 years their education would have “been established with greater thoroughness”.13 The Governor of Western Australia at the time,

Sir Harry Barron, suggested that withdrawing students early for purely financial reasons was not an acceptable approach by parents. He felt that it was instead “highly desirable that they should enter the world able to do something to help their parents.14

The 1930s – 1950s

8 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Third Annual Report (Perth: n.p., 1900), pp. 8-9. 9 WADDI, Third Annual Report, p. 9. 10 WADDI, Sixteenth Annual Report, p. 12. 11 West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fourteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1911), pp. 7-8; West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, Fifteenth Annual Report (Perth: Church Book Depot, 1912), p. 9. 12 WADDI, Fifteenth Annual Report, p. 9. 13 WADDI, Sixteenth Annual Report, p. 13. 14 WADDI, Sixteenth Annual Report, p. 13; “Deaf and Dumb Institution. Sixteenth annual meeting. A successful year”, The West Australian, 28 July, 1913, p. 5. 155

In the 1930s, the school experienced steadily improving enrolment figures, mostly made up of those of primary school age. Although Witchell‟s successor, Mr John Love, ascribed this trend to an increasing awareness of the school within the community, he felt that too many other D/HH children were not being enrolled. He suggested that in some cases, parents may have simply not been aware of the school. If they were, the parents might have chosen to avoid admitting the presence of deafness in their child or keep him/her from the school in the hope that the deafness might be “cured”.15 Like Witchell, Love strongly believed that early education and enrolment was the key to success.16 Furthermore, Love also did not believe that school fees were a barrier. He confirmed that payment was expected only in accordance with the parent‟s ability to pay and these contributions were never set at more than 10/- per week.17 By the time of the Great Depression, the ability of parents to contribute towards the cost of tuition had fallen further. In 1931, some were paying as little as 2/6 each week. Of the 27 students enrolled, there were seven for whom no payment was received.

Many of the remaining parents had also fallen behind with their payments.18

Love also touched on the possibility that some parents might withhold their D/HH child from the school in the belief that the child would not be happy living there. He countered this by noting that the students frequently elected to remain at the school rather than go home at the weekends. Even those whose family home was within the Perth metropolitan area and who could be educated as day-pupils, rarely indicated any wish to change from boarding to day attendance.19 The school was by no means an asylum only allowing minimal contact with the outside world. Witchell, Love and their staff encouraged the students to maintain contact with their parents and for the parents to take an interest in the affairs of the

15 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-third Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1930), p. 11. 16West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-second Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1929), p. 12. 17 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Twenty-third Annual Report (Perth: V.K Jones &Co., 1920), p. 12. 18 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Thirty-fourth Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle: S.H. Lamb, 1931), p. 9. 19 WASDDC, Thirty-third Annual Report, p. 12. 156

school. As part of their English language lessons, the students were encouraged to write home regularly and to read the letters they got in reply.20 Home visits were also encouraged: four times per year for the city children and twice a year for those whose family resided in the country.21

On the other hand, according to the “General Information” section of the annual reports of the pre-WWII era, visits by parents to the school itself appeared to be grudgingly allowed rather than actively encouraged. For many years during this period, parent visiting hours were restricted to Thursday afternoons (changed to Wednesdays from 1924) between the hours of 2pm and 4pm. Nevertheless, visitors (evidently not the parents of enrolled students) were given considerably more freedom, being welcomed to the school from 11am -

12 noon in the morning and from 2pm in the afternoon during school term weekdays. In

1944, Love changed the visiting hours to allow parents to visit at any time by arrangement with him.22 Further interaction was encouraged with the children having the opportunity to go home either daily, on Friday afternoons or one weekend each month. Letter writing also continued to be encouraged on a regular basis.23 Mention was also been made of “Mother‟s

Nights”, held twice a year and giving both parents (despite the name), the chance to meet with school staff, other parents and other children.24

During the pre-WWII years, the Deaf community in Australia was mostly made up of those for whom the cause of the deafness was genetic. The families involved were used to poor, underfunded and under-resourced educational services. They were frequently undereducated themselves, so they often lacked the literacy and communication skills to

20 WASDDC, Twenty-third Annual Report, p. 13. 21 WASDDC, Twenty-third Annual Report, p. 13. 22 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-seventh Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle, S.H.Lamb, 1944), p. 9. 23 WASDDC, Twenty-third Annual Report, p. 12, 18. 24 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Forty-third Annual Report and Financial Statement (Fremantle, S.H.Lamb, 1940), p. 11. 157

challenge these services and push for changes. The attitude was one of acceptance of the status quo and the belief that any assistance given should be received without complaint.25

However, the 1938-41 rubella epidemic struck at all levels of Australian society and consequently a “new, more educated class of parent” became involved in deaf education.26

These parents were not willing to accept the standards of deaf education provided. Some of these parents were politically and socially active and used their connections to improve the standard of educational services for their children.27

As mentioned in the previous chapter, following the 1940-41 rubella epidemic in W.A., a number of parents formed the Oral Pre-School Group which resulted in the Western

Australian Department of Education assuming responsibility for oral pre-school training and education of rubella-deafened children and operated until 1947.28 In that short period of time, the Group actively influenced D/HH education in Western Australia in the provision of services for pre-school children.29

The Speech and Hearing Centre for Deaf Children

Another parent pressure group emerged in 1956, when a group of interested people called a public meeting to discuss the need to further improve education services for very young

D/HH children.30 This was the beginnings of the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group. In

November 1949, the then Director of Education, Mr Murray Little, advocated the need for all

D/HH children to start their formal schooling as early as age three. This belief resulted from

25 Ellaine Downie, “The deafness revolution of the 1950s”, in Ellaine Downie (ed), Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974-2006 (Nunawading (Vic): Deafness Foundation, 2006), p. 6. 26 Downie, “The deafness revolution of the 1950s”, p. 6. 27 Downie, “The deafness revolution of the 1950s”, p. 6. 28 Val Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap. A history of the provision of education for the hearing impaired with special reference to Western Australia 1896-1963”, (MEd dissertation, Murdoch University, 1984), p. 52. 29 Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap”, p. 63. 30 Stephens, Deafness: The Invisible handicap, p. 63. 158

a trip he carried out to the UK and USA to observe teaching methods for children with a variety of disabilities.31 This view was supported by the Head of the South Australian Oral

Kindergarten, Mrs. W. Steele, who also mentioned that the SA school was set up by a number of parents of deaf children who were keen to commence the education of their children at an early age.32

The Speech and Hearing Centre for Deaf Children WA (Inc.) (S&HC) therefore had its beginnings in 1956 with the new-found desire for a collaborative approach by the parents of

D/HH children. Like the Oral Pre-School Group, the S&HC was founded on the basis of parents addressing their concerns regarding the education of their D/HH children. In 1956, the education of very young D/HH children was carried out by the Department of Education in less than suitable premises on the grounds of the Cottesloe Primary School, positioned between that school and what was then the Cottesloe Infant School. The building, now long demolished, was said to have been a small house, initially earmarked as accommodation for the school principal or the caretaker of the school.33 Despite the poor physical condition and the lack of basic teaching facilities, three teachers, Vince McCudden, Bernice Stewart and

Carrie Briedahl, provided conscientious and professional services to the students, with support from the principal of Cottesloe Primary School, Mr Ernie Charlton.34 A public meeting was called that year to address the lack of facilities at the school. It was attended by parents, interested citizens and representatives of the Education Department. Much of the concern was due to the lack of educational facilities which were then available for D/HH children, including the WASDC. The parents made it clear that they wanted the facilities

31 “Deaf children need early school start”, Daily News, 3 November, 1949, p. 6. 32 “Kindergarten for deaf”, The West Australian, 17 January, 1950, p. 14. 33 Vince McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre: The First Twenty Five Years (1967-1992), (Perth: n.p.,1994), p. 9; Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap”, p. 63. 34 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p.9. 159

upgraded and the following year some improvements were made including provision of a suitable playground and an outdoor toilet block.35

By the early 1960s, there was again controversy over D/HH education and discontent among the parents. Vince McCudden describes a situation when the special class for D/HH students at Mt. Lawley Senior High School was transferred to Swanbourne Senior High

School. According to McCudden, this decision was not accepted lightly by the teachers and parents. A good relationship existed at MLSHS between the D/HH unit and the mainstream school but this goodwill was threatened by the proposed transfer. So effective was this relationship that some students from the unit were sitting for their Junior Certificate. The facilities set aside for the D/HH students at Swanbourne, however, were acknowledged to be

“well below acceptable standards”.36 Informal meetings were soon held by some of the parents, who took the opportunity to express their views over the poor conditions at both

Swanbourne SHS and Cottesloe PS. The teaching staff were also said to be less than happy with the facilities available to them.37 Mrs. Mavis Gravenall, the mother of one of the D/HH students, requested that a meeting be organized between concerned parents and the

Department of Education. The Department agreed to this and letters were sent out to parents of all the students then in the MLSHS unit. Gravenall felt that wider issues regarding the education of D/HH children also needed addressing. She subsequently sent out notices of the meeting to as many parents of D/HH children that she could, with the result that “a wide and representative body of parents” were in attendance.38 The parents discovered that they all had similar concerns, one of which was the quality and professionalism of teachers of the D/HH.39

35 Stephens, Deafness: The Invisible handicap, p. 64. 36 Western Australian Council for Special Education, Education of Hearing Impaired Children in Western Australia: Report to the Minister for Education (Perth: The Western Australian Council for Special Education: 1976), p. 39. 37 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p.10. 38 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p.10. 39 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p.10. 160

During the WWII and rubella epidemic years, Western Australia as well as the WASDC experienced a shortage of trained teachers. As was the practice at the time, trainee teachers were sometimes awarded a provisional status after the completion of a six-month training programme at the Claremont Teacher‟s College. Once granted this “conditional” teaching certificate, a trainee teacher was able to work in the classroom and was also expected to continue their studies to improve the level of their qualifications.40 Some of the teachers who worked in D/HH education at the time did not complete their full Teaching Certificate, much less gain qualifications as a teacher of the deaf. Up until 1959, the Education Department sent a suitable and qualified teacher each year to Melbourne to train as a teacher of the

D/HH, but from the early 1960s this programme was suspended until 1967.41 In any case, the practice of selecting only one candidate per year (and only if a suitable one was found), could not have been enough to address the educational needs of an expanding population of

D/HH children that resulted primarily from the rubella epidemics.

These issues contributed to the formation of the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group in 1966. The following year, the Group gained significant publicity when they published a newsletter for members which contained some complaints regarding the operations of the WASDC.42 The president of the group told The West Australian that members had been “rejected as registered subscribers to the WA School for the Deaf”.43 This rejection appears to be the basis for much of the dissatisfaction felt by the group as they were formed with the hope of representing deaf children‟s parents within the WASDC. This was motivated by dissatisfaction with the qualifications held by teachers of the D/HH at the WASDC as well as

40 John A. McKenzie, Twenty-Five Years: A History of Claremont Teachers College 1952-1977 (Claremont, W.A.: Claremont Teachers College, 1981), pp. 39-40, 63. 41 Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap”, p. 67-68. 42 “Parents complain of deaf school”, The West Australian, 23 April, 1966, p. 13. 43 The West Australian, 23 April, 1966, p. 13. 161

issues relating to the facilities and to the meals served at the school.44 The criticisms in the newspaper article were swiftly answered by John Heatly, the then supervisor for deaf education in W.A. Heatly rejected the accusations concerning the qualifications of the staff and the quality of the facilities.45 However, he failed to adequately address the concerns of the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group, falling short of refuting the allegation that many staff lacked proper qualifications as teachers of the D/HH and not giving any reason why members of the Group were rejected as registered subscribers.

Heatly was not blind to the limitations at the WASDC. Even before the formation of the Deaf

Children‟s Welfare Group he attempted to improve the situation at the school but was hindered by a lack of co-operation from the Department of Education.46 This view seems to be reinforced by the lack of support shown by the Department during the months following the publication of The West Australian article and the subsequent reply from Heatly.

However, it also appears that the Department of Education was not totally insensitive to the matter of inadequate facilities and equipment since it announced in June 1966 that two auditory training units had been ordered from Denmark and a further 20 power amplifiers had also been ordered.47

As a result of these initial letters, a spate of correspondence to the editor of The West

Australian was published throughout 1966. Some letters supported the criticisms raised by the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group, but others came out in support of the school and Heatly.

The outcome of these letters will be described in more detail in the chapter covering the

Heatly years.

44 The West Australian, 23 April, 1966, p. 13. 45 “Reply to school critics”, The West Australian, 28 April, 1966, p. 12. 46 The House on the Hill, p. 51. 47 “Help for the deaf”, Daily News, 25 June, 1966, p. 2. 162

Throughout the letter campaign and into the second half of the 1960s, the Deaf Children‟s

Welfare Group continued to be active and grew in size as a result of more parents becoming aware of and attracted to the group. Indicative of the confusion, passion and ambiguity surrounding the educational pedagogy of D/HH children, the meetings of the group generated heated moments as various educational methodologies were debated and discussed. McCudden states that the relative merits of oral and of manual communication were never seriously rejected. The attendees at the meetings really only wanted flexible educational opportunities so that the needs of the child could be more closely met, rather than to have a “one size fits all” educational programme.48 The issues were identified by

McCudden as:

1. The need for more trained personnel

2. Methodologies suited to the needs of individual children

3. Small classes

4. Suitable and specially designed classrooms

5. Appropriate aids and equipment

6. Parent counselling through schooling

7. Early educational intervention49

As a result of these meetings, the philosophy of what was to later form the basis of the constitution of the Speech and Hearing Centre was set. By 1966, the group reached consensus on educational programmes. They actively considered the idea of establishing an independent school for D/HH children in order to put these ideas into practice. A committee was set up to develop plans for the new school and a formal meeting organized at the R&I Bank building in the city on 12 September 1966 to adopt a constitution for the proposed school.50 Further progress occurred with the enlisting of assistance from two members of state parliament, Bill Crommelin and Colin Jamieson, who were to become

48 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 11-12. 49 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 11. 50 “School for deaf planned”, The West Australian, 2 September, 1966, p. 8; McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 13. 163

active and influential in D/HH education.51 Primarily through these members, questions were presented in parliament to the Minister for Education, Mr Edgar H. M. Lewis, regarding the education of D/HH children in Western Australia.52 Consequently, the

Department of Education made plans to reorganize facilities for these students. During term

3 of 1966, children were removed from the old Deaf Kindergarten and Infant School at the

Cottesloe Infant School building. This old building subsequently became the Pre-School

Training and Parent Guidance Centre. The Cottesloe Infant School was given a new name:

Cottesloe Junior Primary School for Deaf Children.53

The new Cottesloe school accommodated severely deaf children between the ages of five and nine. It was to be separate from the WASDC at Mosman Park, which would instead specialize in teaching upper primary and secondary students.54 The existing school premises required extensive modifications which were carried out in 1967-68. This was not enough, since by 1972 extra accommodation in the form of demountable classrooms was required along with other additions and renovations. This was completed in 1974 after a successful tender of $249,874.55

At the same time, plans by the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group progressed to the point where a school was formally established by the group in a tennis club building in nearby

Claremont.56 Opening in February 1967, the new pre-school centre could accommodate up to twelve children. The initial enrollment was 5 children, aged four to five and the school

51 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 11; Stephens, “Deafness: The Invisible handicap”, p. 66. 52 “Education: Deaf children: criticism and defects”, Hansard, 3 August, 1966, p. 74. 53 Western Australian Council for Special Education, p. 12. 54 “Changes in schools for the deaf”, The West Australian, 17 December, 1966, in Lake, Centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), p. 135. 55 Western Australian Council for Special Education, pp. 12-13. 56 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 15. 164

very much followed the oral method of instruction.57 The centre was not under Department of Education control, but instead administered and staffed by many who had been involved in the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group. The foundation principal was Mrs Marie McCudden, a teacher trained in oral communication methods. She was supported by Louise John, a trained teacher of the D/HH from Ballarat, Victoria. They were later joined by Carrie

Briedahl, who had previously worked at the facility at Cottesloe Primary School. From this small start the school expanded rapidly as more students were enrolled by their parents who heard about it.58 The school quickly outgrew its Claremont location and in 1968 moved to 78

Kings Park Road in West Perth, on the corner of Thomas Street. The premises, described as being a “substantial family home”, initially had enough room for four classrooms until expanding student numbers required additional space, rectified by making use of an adjoining property.59 Being on such a busy intersection, the school found it necessary to bring in some new procedures, including highly visible and distinctive uniforms in the expectation that motorists would take extra precautions on roads around the school.60

Since its establishment, the S&HC emphasised parental involvement in all aspects of its activities. This was articulated in the 1993 Chairman‟s report:

Principles and educational philosophies of the Speech and Hearing Centre acknowledge the importance and responsibilities of parents in early intervention, classroom activities and fund raising, and I would encourage parents, particularly new parents to become members of both the fund raising committee and the Board of Management.61

In 2017, the Centre celebrated its 50th year of operation. More details of its work will be covered in further chapters which will show how that 50-year period included some

57 “Pre-School for the Deaf will be first in W.A.”, The West Australian, 1 February, 1967, p. 19. 58 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, pp. 15-16. 59 Sheward, Julie, Dare to be Normal: Living in Deafness with Confidence (Duncraig East (W.A.): Silent Sea, 2007), p. 21. 60 Sheward, Dare to be Normal, p. 35; “Watch for the red caps”, The West Australian, 18 June, 1970, p. 37. 61 The Speech and Hearing Centre for Deaf Children WA (Inc.), 1993 Annual General Report (Perth: n.p., 1993), n.p. 165

challenging times. However, the commitment to the school by the parents and interested members of the community has ensured that the Centre continues to prosper and reflect the desire by the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group to have a greater say in their children‟s education and an alternative to the WA School for Deaf Children.

The post-WWII involvement of parents in the education of their D/HH children was ahead of its time in terms of special needs education. The Beazley Report of 1984 stressed the need for a close working partnership between school and parents, to ensure that educational programmes for each child were effective.62 Both the S&HC and the government schools encouraged parental participation well before the Beazley Report recommendations were made. In the case of the S&HC, parental involvement was central to both the running of the school and to the educational outcomes achieved by the children. By the 2010s, parental involvement was the rule rather than the exception and continues to be encouraged across all areas of the child‟s education. With the relocation of the WA Institute for Deaf Education

(WAIDE) to the northern suburb of Padbury in 2013, the WA Foundation for Deaf Children,

(which evolved from the WASDC committee of management) chose to remain at the old school in Curtin Avenue, developing the premises for the provision of support to families of

D/HH children. A Family Network Group was implemented in 2013, followed by a Parent

Mentor programme the following year. Support services such as the Lions Club EAR bus,

Australian Hearing and Better Hearing Australia were leasing space in the building by mid-

2014.63

Audism in Post-WWII Educational Practices

62 Committee of Inquiry into Education in Western Australia, Education in Western Australia: report of the Committee of Inquiry appointed by the Minister for Education in Western Australia, under the Chairmanship of Mr K. E. Beazley (Perth: Government Printer, 1984), p. 308. 63 “WA Foundation for Deaf Children – Family Network Group (FNG)”, WAIDE News, Semester 1, Term 1, 2014, p. 5. 166

The developments in D/HH education that occurred during the post-war period were very much influenced by oral education approaches developed since the 1880 Milan Conference.

Work carried overseas out by educationalists such as Alexander and Irene Ewing tended to hold sway over D/HH education in Australia. In addition, parents were becoming more actively involved. Being almost exclusively hearing, their motivation lay in the desire for their child to function effectively in the hearing world. With the developments in hearing aid technology, the oral movement provided the means by which this access could be achieved since advances in audiology demonstrated the presence of some residual hearing in most

D/HH children. As a result, hearing parents embraced the audist approach already present in D/HH education, by choosing to medicalise their children‟s hearing condition. They sought “treatment” through the fitting of hearing aids and enrolment in oral education programmes from the very early years of the child‟s life. To ensure that the child‟s “needs” were met, the parents became very pro-active such as through the Deaf Children‟s Welfare

Group. They then set about creating educational programmes that reflected their views on what was best for their children. These views and ideals were influenced and supported by oral educationalists, audiologists, speech pathologists and medical specialists, all of whom took the medical view of deafness as a condition to be treated. It is interesting to note that there appears to be no evidence of any Deaf community parents being involved in the establishment of the educational institutions set up during the post-war period.

How strong were audist viewpoints behind the establishment of institutions set up to provide the best possible educational services for D/HH children in Western Australia? This question is especially relevant when we consider that this major expansion in educational services occurred at a time when not only there were more D/HH children as a result of the rubella epidemics, but also that hearing aid technology was becoming readily available through the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories. These developments, along with a 167

possible sense of guilt experienced by the parents regarding their child‟s deafness, may have been a motivating factor towards seeking out the most ideal educational environment.

Whatever the circumstances, those involved in these schools and educational programmes genuinely wanted the best for the children. This is reflected not only in the amount of work that went into setting up schools such as the S&HC, but also the way in which the media of the time (the newspapers) was used to bring about community awareness and a change in existing educational practices. Those involved genuinely believed in what they were doing and that they were acting in the best interests of their children, so much so that the views of the Deaf community appear not to have even been sought let alone acknowledged.

So strong was the oral movement at this time that those involved in the setting up of the

Speech and Hearing Centre, the Cottesloe Junior Primary School and the Parent Guidance

Centre were actively influenced by this approach despite their educational philosophies sometimes allowing for other methods. The Speech and Hearing Centre is a prime example.

Among the issues raised by parents during the early meetings leading up to its formation was

“methodologies suited to the needs of individual children”.64 Although the Centre is

“dedicated to the development of oral competency”, it acknowledged the need for the individual skills and abilities of the child to be taken into account and that a purely oral-aural approach may not necessarily be of benefit to all students. Such students were considered to be able to benefit from “supplemental help/assistance”, which took the form of cued speech.65 The use of the word “speech” is to be noted. Although cued speech makes use of hand signs, it is not sign language and was developed to assist the understanding of speech.

Therefore even though the S&HC acknowledged the need for some form of visual cues to speech and language, the oral-aural approach was firmly in place in the educational

64 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 11. 65 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 77. 168

philosophy of the school. This is by no means a criticism of the school, since many of its students achieved success through the programme. However, it underlines how the focus on oral/aural training represents an approach that does not necessarily accommodate the viewpoints and wishes of the Deaf community. In fact, the S&HC has affiliation with the

Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which as mentioned in the introduction to this thesis, is named after and honours the man actively dedicated to the oral education of D/HH children.66

The post-WWII period saw a significant increase in the numbers of deaf children in Western

Australia, which put pressure on the existing educational facilities. Many of the children had a partial hearing loss, so in many cases they were assisted by amplification technology and could access enough sound to develop at least speech and language skills. Accordingly, they could be said to gain social benefits from inclusion within schools such as Cottesloe Junior

Primary School and the Speech and Hearing Centre, where their experiences as D/HH people were shared with others with similar degrees of hearing loss. Many of these children continued the friendships formed at the schools well into adulthood. They joined groups such as the WA Deaf Society and widened their social network within the Deaf community by learning Auslan. Even some students who were successfully taught speech and language skills enabling interaction with the hearing world, evidently found that embracing the Deaf community provided them with positive social experiences that they do not always have access to in the hearing world.67

In the light of the Deaf community‟s current thinking and current attitudes to the audist approach, it is easy to conclude that these children were the recipients of an audist

66 “International affiliate locations”, archived at Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired [http://nc.agbell.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=608], accessed 25 April, 2010. 67 „Michael Lockrey‟s Personal Story‟, archived at The Rebuttal [http://the-rebuttal.com/?p=915], accessed 15 June, 2010. 169

philosophy. The motivation among the hearing parents to help their children to listen and to speak was probably very strong and emotionally driven. They often had the socio-economic means to devote time and money to oral-aural programmes and had access to significant government support, not only through state educational and medical services, but also through the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories. Freely available amplification technology, hand-in-hand with almost total acceptance of an oral-aural approach among teachers and educators of the D/HH, meant that parents mostly embraced this approach as the only way to ensure a gainful future for their D/HH child. The manual method was frequently considered to be out-dated and irrelevant. If the manual communication approach is virtually ignored as a result of all the evidence suggesting that an oral/aural approach, assisted by amplification is the only way to educate a D/HH child, then parents would be expected to accept this viewpoint without question. This is especially the case if this viewpoint corresponds to their own wishes in regards to the development of speech and listening skills by their child. Because no real alternative to oral/aural education was ever seriously considered, except for the most profoundly hearing impaired, the parents themselves cannot really be accused of being consciously audist. Rather, audist attitudes would have been unconsciously absorbed via the views of hearing professionals reinforcing the view that any form of communication other than the oral-aural approach (such as Sign) was an inferior outcome.

Through active involvement in parent groups such as the Deaf Children‟s Welfare Group and with support from the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories and eventually the Education

Department, parents demonstrated that they wanted to provide the best possible future for their child. They believed that oral/aural education was the way to achieve this. The process of achieving the best possible outcomes for D/HH children using the oral method was to become consolidated throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s.

170

Chapter 7: Post WWII life at the School

As discussed earlier, during World War II deafness became even more strongly identified as a “medical” condition and one that needed to be “treated” appropriately, often with active parental support. In this chapter, life at the WASDDC will be looked at with particular attention as to how the combined method became challenged by oralism as the dominant means of communication. Audism is a strong theme, since the education of the children was to become almost the total preserve of hearing professionals, with very little, if any, advice or participation by the Deaf community.

Recollections by ex-students published in The House on the Hill suggest that John Love was much loved and respected, certainly more so than Henry Witchell appeared to have been.

Relationships between the school and the WA Deaf Society were strengthened through

Love‟s leadership. Staff such as Love and May Wallace actively contributed their services to the Society. Both continued to be friends with the Deaf community until their passing. Mr

Charles Harper also provided a link between the two organisations, serving as president of the WA Deaf Society (1929-1966) and of the WASDDC Committee of Management (1952-

1965).

Post-War Challenges

In the aftermath of WWII, life at the WASDDC began to change almost immediately.

Student numbers steadily increased during this time of post-war economic recovery. A record number of 45 students were enrolled in 1946.1 Even this record was broken by 1948

1 “Deaf and Dumb: School for Children”, The West Australian, 16 November, 1946, p. 7. 171

when 52 students were in attendance.2 The high student levels meant extra pressure on the school, so more teaching and supervising staff were employed and a new wing was completed in order to provide accommodation for them.3 This “new wing” was actually an extension of the existing northern wing terminating in a timber and fibro enclosed verandah- type extension at the back (western) end of the building.4 The costs of this wing, and indeed any details concerning it, are not contained in the annual reports of the school. All that identifies it is a photograph in the 1949 annual report.5 Around 50% of the ground floor area was for a new laundry, which was of great benefit to the house staff. The enclosed verandah was a very popular addition especially for the staff who made use of the coastal views it offered. Previously, they could only relax in the grounds of the school or in their rooms, since the other verandahs could not be accessed from their private rooms.6

The escalating costs involved in running the school and the need for new amplification technology in the classrooms, led to negotiations between the Committee of Management and the Western Australian Department of Education. The West Australian reported that the department was in negotiations with the school “with a view to taking it over, staffing it with departmental teachers and equipping it with hearing aids and other appliances”.7 The then Minister for Education, John Tonkin, expected that the WASDDC Committee of

Management would continue to maintain responsibility for the residential and amenities of the school.8 The move towards greater involvement by the Department of Education demonstrates that the committee were aware of the increasing number of potential students

2 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, “Annual Report: Superintendent‟s Report”, L.C. Lake, Centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Newspaper Clippings and Articles 1896-1996 (Perth: L.C. Lake (Desktop published), 1996), p. 92. 3 “Deaf and Dumb: School for Children”, The West Australian, 16 November, 1946, p. 7. 4 Heritage Council of Western Australia. Register of Heritage Places, Assessment Documentation: WA School for Deaf Children. Perth: Heritage Council, 2000, p. 18. 5 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Fifty-second Annual Reports, Financial Statements and List of Subscriptions (Fremantle, S.H.Lamb, 1949), n.p. 6 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 14 April, 2013. 7 “State education: Minister‟s review. Help for deaf children”, The West Australian, 2 December, 1946, p. 14. 8 The West Australian, 2 December, 1946, p. 14. 172

resulting from the rubella epidemic and the pressure they would place on the existing infrastructure. It also reflected the realisation that D/HH education was moving in a new direction; expenditure on amplification technology in particular would be a crucial and unavoidable drain on the school‟s budget. John Love was by then pushing for the school to purchase the new Multitone group hearing aid for classroom use. This technology, invented in Russia and constructed in the UK, consisted of a microphone for the teacher and several sets of earphones which could be adjusted to the individual hearing levels of up to twelve students. Love had visited the UK during 1946 to investigate its use, where it had been in use at least as early as 1936. At the time of his visit, the equipment was still considered to be in the experimental stages, but by 1946 Love believed that the technology was sufficiently refined to be incorporated into the WASDDC educational programme.9

The Department of Education did not appear to be in a great hurry to take formal control of the educational side of the WASDDC. Throughout 1947, the school struggled to meet the demand for places, unassisted by the Department of Education and disadvantaged by an increasing deficit in the school budget. The Lotteries Commission of Western Australia assisted with a £160 grant which was used to purchase a group hearing aid.10 Further assistance was forthcoming two years later, when the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories

(CAL) commenced the provision of hearing aids to suitable children.11 The Department formally took control of the academic side of the school on 1 January 1949, leaving the

Committee of Management in charge of the boarding establishment and out-of-hours care of the students. However, by October of that year, the school still faced heavy expenses and teaching staff shortages that the Department seemed unwilling to rectify.12 By that stage, the school had experienced three consecutive years of financial loss, peaking in 1948. Student numbers continued to rise with 53 being on the roll in 1949. The financial situation and lack

9 “New hearing aids will benefit deaf”, Daily News, 19 December, 1946, p. 7. 10 “Deaf and dumb: Need for school additions”, The West Australian, 20 November, 1947, p. 21. 11 “Help for the deaf pleases”, Daily News, 19 October, 1949, p.8. 12 WASDDC, Fifty-second Annual Report, 1949, p. 5. 173

of teaching staff meant that the school had no option but to turn down some applications for admission.

The teaching and domestic staff worked under challenging conditions. Teaching staff had to cover the loss of two teachers while the domestic staff faced a high turn-over rate.13 The

Department of Education and its Minister, John Tonkin, appeared to be more concerned with setting up Oral Deaf units with the support of the Oral Pre-School Group, CAL and the

Kindergarten Union so it is easy to imagine John Love and his staff feeling somewhat aggrieved. Love made his feelings known to the Daily News. Discussing the overcrowded conditions at the school and the need for another teacher, Love believed that:

…there would always be room to squeeze in “just one more” child if there were enough teachers to handle them.

We could easily fill the vacancy were it not for the fact that the Education Department is taking over control of the academic side of the school.

The trouble is that the department insists on certain qualifications which are not held by many people willing to teach at the Deaf and Dumb School.

There is much to be said for the department‟s policy, but we realise that there are those who are born teachers even though they are not particularly bright under examination conditions.14

By 1952, 60 children were enrolled at WASDDC. From the Department‟s perspective, teaching staff levels were clearly insufficient as there were five teachers for those 60 children.

The Department had hoped to obtain additional teachers from South Australia, where the ratio was eight teachers for 46 children, but this was unsuccessful.15

For the WASDDC Committee of Management, now having sole responsibility for the out-of- school welfare and accommodation of the boarders, the problem was the continuing lack of

13 WASDDC, Fifty-second Annual Report, 1949, p. 7. 14 “Wanted: A teacher for the deaf and dumb, Daily News, 29 April, 1950, p. 4. 15 “Cleaning up school fence”, Sunday Times, 3 February, 1952, p. 5. 174

available accommodation. This created a waiting list for the school which also compared unfavourably with the South Australian situation where there was no waiting list.16 By 1950, it was reported that operating costs had continued to increase, prompting an appeal from the committee president for supporters of the school to consider increasing their contributions.

This was despite the WA government accepting responsibility for maintenance of the grounds and buildings.17 It was not until November 1951 that estimates for repair and renovation to the school were submitted by the then Minister for Works, David Brand, for

Treasury approval.18 Among the repair work requiring urgent attention was the

“dilapidated” wood fence around the perimeter of the school. The fence had started to collapse during the WWII years, but the post-war shortage of building materials made it impossible for repairs to be made. The cost was estimated to be around £850.19

Further evidence of the school‟s financial challenges comes from the memoirs of Mrs

Margaret Heatly who was heavily critical of the post-war condition of the school. On her arrival at the school with her husband John, who took up the post of Superintendent in 1955,

Mrs Heatley described the children as “having breakfast of porridge with bread and roast beef dripping (and) in their bare feet and hand-me-downs”. She described the grounds as being “very sadly neglected” and “with the whole of the wooden Fremantle bridge” sitting in a pile near where the swimming pool existed.20 The timbers were donated to the school as firewood. Going by a 2009 Engineering Heritage Panel Report, the wooden bridge in question appears to be the renovated “High Level” bridge which was demolished in the

1940s, following the opening of the existing Fremantle Traffic Bridge in 1939.21 The same

16 “Sunday Times, 3 February, 1952, p. 5. 17 “Problem of finance: Big deficit at Deaf and Dumb School”, The West Australian, 11 November, 1950, p. 11. 18 “Renovations at Deaf and Dumb School”, The West Australian, 15 November, 1951, p. 13. 19 Sunday Times, 3 February, 1952, p. 5. 20 Margaret I. Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, unpublished manuscript, 24 November, 1995, pp. 3-4. 21 “Engineering Heritage Panel, Swan & Canning Rivers Bridges: Australian Engineering Week Tour 2009”, archived at Engineers Australia, [http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Divisions/Western%20Australia%2 175

report shows a photograph of both bridges, so if Mrs Heatly was accurate in stating that the whole of the bridge was donated, the pile of wood would have been very substantial indeed.

The material lay unused for a while, but once the Heatlys organised the cutting of the timbers by the local Apex club, there was enough firewood to last a year and a half.

According to Mrs Heatly, the school had accumulated an enormous amount of discarded material. Anything un-needed was either stored within the buildings or buried at the back of the school. Newspapers, for example, were stored for toilet paper, tied together using strings from potato sacks.22 These descriptions suggest that the school staff made every effort to

“make do” during the years of the Depression and WWII. This reflects John Love‟s approach to eliminating any wastage at the school. His son, Doug, recalled:

I clearly remember that I was at Uni or even out working when I discovered that people bought string in balls. For my whole life string came in shanks and that you tied two or three of these together if you wanted a longer piece. No piece of string was too short to be added to the boxful in his drawer. Similarly no piece of wrapping paper was ever discarded. Every gift was carefully opened to avoid unnecessary tearing of the paper and all pieces, torn or untorn, small or big were folded and put in the wrapping paper drawer.23

The highlight of the 1948 school year was a visit to Australia by Miss Helen Keller and her companion, Miss Polly Thomson. The pair spent three weeks in Western Australia and were able to visit the school and meet with the students, something which proved to be quite inspirational to all who met them.24 Part of this time was spent at the Claremont Teacher

Training College and the Kindergarten Union premises to provide some training in the instruction of D/HH children.25

0Division/Panels%20and%20Societies/Heritage/Heritage_Bridges_Tour_Lo_Res.pdf ], accessed on 10 March 2013. 22 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, pp. 3-4. 23 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 22 March, 2013. 24 “Banner for the deaf: Miss Keller talks to children”, The West Australian, 17 June, 1948, p. 8. 25 West Australian School for Deaf and Dumb Children, Fifty-first Annual Reports, Financial Statements and List of Subscriptions (Fremantle, S.H. Lamb, 1948), p. 5. 176

As late as 1949, some aspects of the educational programme remained unchanged. As before the war, a varied programme of excursions remained in place, so the students were by no means isolated at the school. However, a polio scare in 1948, when a staff member was suspected of infection, proved to be a false alarm, Given the risks involved in the polio epidemic, school outings no longer included visits to local cinemas, although open-air outings to the football and cricket were still possible. The students continued to be involved in many of the same pre-war handiwork classes, with woodwork, household management, handwork and boot repairing all being carried out, although woodwork and household management were now conducted through the Claremont Training Centre.26

Medical concerns also occupied the school. The children were x-rayed for tuberculosis in

1949 and all were cleared. Polio and tuberculosis issues appear to have resulted in the school paying more attention to the medical records of the students. Prior to the appointment of

Margaret Heatly as Matron in 1955, the school seemed to have kept no medical records apart from some details entered into the Register of Pupils.27 John O. Love, another son of John and Gladys Love, feels that the reason for this lay in his mother‟s desire to treat all the children in her care as family members and therefore “that is probably why, in common with most parents of the time, she didn‟t keep detailed medical records of any of us”.28 A second polio epidemic convinced Mrs Heatly to arrange for polio and tetanus vaccinations via the school G.P. and the Health Department mobile clinic. All records were then kept and filed.29

Continued use of the Combined Method and the Pressure of Oralism

26 WASDDC, Fifty-second Annual Report, 1949, p. 7. 27 Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution, “Register of Pupils, 1897-1956”, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/29, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 28 John O. Love, written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith, undated, [2013]. 29 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p.5. 177

The school continued to use the combined method in classroom instruction as it had done since establishment in 1896. The successful use of this method at the school attracted favourable comment from elsewhere in Australia. John O. Love recounts the time when the school was expecting a visit from Mr Sam Holby, at the time the Superintendent of the Deaf

School in Brisbane. Holby arrived at Fremantle by boat, and according to Love, his father expected to meet Holby there and escort him to Mosman Park. Love was unable to meet as arranged, so rang through to Fremantle, asking if Holby could be taken to the train station and put on the train. He was to disembark at Mosman Park Station where he would be met by some senior students who would then take him to the school. Love states:

These two young chaps found him, introduced themselves and welcomed him while giving my Dad‟s apology for having missed the contact at Fremantle. They obviously had quite a conversation on their way back to the school. So impressed was Mr Holby with the mastery of language and the confidence with which these lads conducted the meeting, that we were to hear about it from amongst the deaf communities in the eastern states for years.30

Despite the value of the combined method, the tide was beginning to turn in favour of oralism. As mentioned in the previous chapter, in 1950 Professor Alexander and Dr. Irene

Ewing visited Australia on the invitation of the Commonwealth government and the state departments of education. The Ewings were to observe teaching practices in schools for the deaf in Australia and to report their findings through the Commonwealth Office of

Education.31 Their views on oralism and rejection of the combined method of instruction created challenges for the Mosman Park school. This also drew into question the suitability of the school given the changing circumstances of D/HH education and greater expectations shown by parents and the Education Department.

Alexander and Irene Ewing

30 John O. Love, written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith, undated, [2013]. 31 “Deaf children to be studied”, Daily News, 20 June, 1950, p. 4. 178

The emphasis on early detection and education of D/HH children received added support from the Ewings. Arriving at Fremantle on 16 June 1950, the Ewings already had a reputation for their research into the education of the D/HH. A newspaper report of the time gives a succinct description of the department:

The Manchester University‟s Department of Education for the Deaf trained teachers who went on to schools for the deaf. All work was based on oral methods and it was the only department of its type attached to a university. It was founded in 1919 as a result of funds made available by a rich Manchester merchant in memory of his son, who had been born deaf.

Only patients who had been recommended by medical practitioners were accepted. On its staff were psychologists, doctors, physicists and mechanics. Finger spelling and the use of gestures were not allowed and children up to three years were first examined at a clinic and their parents given guidance.32

The Manchester programme was not in any way complementary of the combined method then in use at WASDDC. Furthermore, it did not appear to involve any input from the Deaf community. Although she was deaf herself, Dr. Irene Ewing supported the use of hearing aids and lip-reading and appeared to completely reject the notion of manual communication.

There was also a part-time worker at the Manchester Clinic, Molly Sheavyn, said to be profoundly deaf from birth and with high levels of lip-reading and speech skills.33 Ms Seavyn provided the “deaf perspective” to parents attending the clinic.34 In doing so, she was considered a role-model for the effectiveness of the programme, despite the possibility that her skills could well have created unrealistic expectations for parents.

Both the Ewings felt strongly that children needed to be trained from an early age in the use of their hearing aids and could “learn” to hear.35 In this, they were and continue to be absolutely correct, providing the child had some degree of residual hearing which could be increased through hearing aid usage. This made the Manchester method ideal for the rubella

32 “Deafness aids doctor in work for deaf”, The West Australian, 22 June, 1950, p. 6. 33 Dorothy M. Watson and Aileen M. Pickles, “Home training”, in A.W.G. Ewing (ed.), Educational Guidance and the Deaf Child (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1957), p. 70. 34 Watson and Pickles, “Home training”, 1957, p. 70. 35 “Deafness in children: Professor to study cases in W.A.”, The West Australian, 17 June, 1950, p. 5; “Instructing the deaf: Results of treating young children”, The West Australian, 28 June, 1950, p. 10. 179

children, many of whom did have some residual hearing and received hearing aids from CAL.

The method was less suited to those who were profoundly deaf. It was this situation that was to create pedagogical challenges for the WASDDC.

Professor Ewing made it clear that the successful education of D/HH children required a cooperative effort involving parents, doctors, teachers and the government, but made no reference to input from the Deaf community. He emphasised the need for special educational services, while at the same time pointing out that these services required

“organisation and money to prepare trained teachers and this cost had to be borne by the community”.36 In his view, services in Australia generally lagged behind that provided in the

United Kingdom. It was clear that the major deficiencies of deaf education in Western

Australia involved the need for more funding, government intervention and teacher training.

One of the outcomes from the Ewing‟s visit was that the Australian states were given the opportunity to decide for themselves how they were to address the issue of employment and training of teachers of the deaf. Most of the states sent trained teachers to the United

Kingdom to study under the Ewings at Manchester. Western Australia, however, continued to recruit qualified teachers from overseas. Because of Australia‟s close links to the UK as part of the British Commonwealth, many of these recruited teachers came from the UK anyway, with the result being that most were trained in the oral approach only and had little experience with alternative methods of communication.37 This situation added to the predominance of the oral method in Australia at that time.

36 “Joint efforts to aid deaf children urged”, The West Australian, 1 July, 1950, p. 11. 37 Stephen Lamar Winn, “Pre-service preparation of teachers of the deaf in the twenty-first century: A case study of Griffith University , Australia, American Annals of the Deaf, vol. 152, no. 3 (Summer 2007), p. 314. 180

Further Challenges

From the time of the Ewing‟s visit onwards, problems were experienced by John Love and the school. A letter to the Editor of The West Australian in January 1950 suggests that Love had not been invited to a conference given by the Ewings when they were in Perth and that he had to personally ask to be able to attend.38 As the oral method grew in popularity, Love made it clear in newspaper reports and during school demonstrations that it was the lack of language rather that speech that affected educational outcomes. He remained convinced that D/HH children had the same learning ability as other children, so that when they were taught things and remembered them, good progress could be made.39 He continued to take pride in the achievements of the students at the school, reminding the public that in some cases the students arrived at the school, even “eleven and twelve years of age”, not even knowing that they had a name. He doubted “whether there is any school in existence at which a loss of six or seven years‟ education can be made good… we certainly lay no claim to be able to repair the damage.”40 The school had by then (at least in the view of the committee of management) established a good reputation for its educational standards.

Nevertheless, some external criticisms were still persisted.

Love‟s view that language, not speech, was the key issue in the education of D/HH children was not necessarily shared by the Education Department, which insisted that the oral approach be adopted.41 The guidance superintendent of handicapped children at the

Department, Mr J. McCall, made it clear that the oral method was departmental policy, even though it made „very great demands‟ upon both parents and teachers”.42 To support this, he announced a three-month training course for teachers working with D/HH children, to be

38 “Letters to the Editor”, The West Australian, 27 June, 1950, p. 15. 39 “Teaching of the deaf and dumb”, The West Australian, 12 November, 1951, p. 9; “Handicap in learning”, Daily News, 17 November, 1952, p. 2. 40 “Governor praises deaf mutes”, The West Australian, 24 November, 1952, p. 6. 41 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 42 “Oral training is best for deaf children”, The West Australian, 9 November, 1952, p. 7. 181

conducted at the Claremont Teachers‟ Training College.43 The department realised that by taking over the running of the WASDDC, they had now taken on responsibility for the provision of a more oral-based programme, in line with the expectations of parents as well as following a trend towards oralism world-wide.44 Love was aware that the oral approach required a significant investment in terms of teacher time, equipment and resources, which the school simply did not have. Since the school was still recovering from the effects of the

Depression and WWII, as well as a shortage of trained teachers of the deaf, such a significant investment was certainly more than they could have managed. However, the Education

Department now having responsibility for the school, “insisted on suitable qualifications”, something that Love felt was not held by many people willing to teach at the school.45

Presumably, these “suitable qualifications” involved specialist skills as a teacher of the

D/HH.

Love continued to defend the combined method in use at the school into the 1950s:

He always argued that it (fingerspelling) gave the deaf the best access to information as well as the ability to communicate in accurate detail with the hearing community by transferring this skill into handwriting. Yes, it might be slower, but it was accurate so that if they wanted to go to Kalgoorlie, they could buy two tickets to that City and not end up in Kunnonoppin (sic.) or Katmandoo (sic.).46

According to John O. Love, his father “stressed that if you can spell on your fingers, you can spell on paper and be understood by any hearing person who could read”.47

Love‟s defence of the combined method resulted from his appreciation of it affording access to academic subjects at school without the heavy emphasis on speech and language training

43 The West Australian, 9 November, 1952, p. 7. 44 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p.3. 45 Daily News, 29 April, 1950, p. 5. 46 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 2 April, 2013. 47 John O. Love, written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith, undated, [2013]. 182

that the oral approach required. It also enabled the Deaf to socialise with their friends at school and at the WA Deaf Society, free from the constraints and limitations of oral communication, especially given the lack of amplification equipment until the late

1940s/early 1950s. Clearly, Love had his doubts as to the effectiveness of the oral approach.

Given his association with the WA Deaf community, he had the foresight to see the threat that oralism posed towards the Deaf community and their language.

Battles with the Department of Education

This defence of the school‟s educational programme translated into an element of non- cooperation with the Department of Education. Love was known to refuse at times to admit the Education Departmental Guidance Branch staff onto the school premises. The Guidance

Branch by then had responsibility for the education of students with a range of disabilities.

Unfortunately, the officer responsible for D/HH children, together with other representatives of the Department, were said to have experienced difficulties moving the school to an oral-based programme due to Love‟s attitude.48 Love‟s non-co-operation had more to do with a lack of respect for departmental officialdom than anything else. However, this became less intense over time and he later developed a very good working relationship with and respect for McCall.49

Doug Love confirmed that his father demonstrated a lack of enthusiasm for some of the

Department of Education‟s policies. He recalls that Harold Dettman, later to become

Director-General of Education, once visited the school and proposed a new staffing policy.

The main problem with this policy was that it left the boarding students unsupervised between classes ceasing at 3.30pm and dinner time at 5.00pm. The proposal did not go

48 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p.3. 49 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 22 March, 2013. 183

down at all well with John Love, who had not only grown up in an orphanage from the age of six, but had also been a resident housemaster from the age of 16 until his marriage. It was felt that Love‟s non-co-operation resulted from his inability to respect Dettman “and by association with other Department officials who came up with similarly madcap ideas”.50

Doug‟s brother John, recalls that their father also had some battles with department officials over the effectiveness of lip-reading as a skill used by the students. A view by the department that lip-reading skills was the key to the children being home schooled rather than attend the

WASDDC, did not go down well with John Love or later with his son, either of whom was better versed in the challenges of lip-reading.51

Doug Love gave another example of his father‟s exasperation with officialdom:

Dad went to Education supplies to get some boxes of chalk because the school was running out of the standard Ed Dept ration of one box per teacher per year and was knocked back with the clerk responding to Dad‟s more forceful insistence with “You must have a very different way of teaching than all the other teachers!” Dad‟s reply was the rather obvious “Yes we probably do because we are the only deaf school in the State”. He won his case but it didn‟t do anything to improve his opinion of Dept officers.52

Further Criticisms

The external criticisms of the school continued in 1953 when a Fulbright Fellow at the

University of Western Australia, Professor Franklin Hunt from Hamilton College in New

York, attacked the use of manual communication at the WASDDC. Professor Hunt was trained in the oral method and claimed that the manual method (specifically finger-spelling) was now obsolete. He supported this view by stating that 75% of D/HH children in the

United States “were taught some form of the oral method”.53 An article in The West

Australian stated:

50 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 22 March, 2013. 51 John Love, written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith, undated, [2013]. 52 Douglas Love, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 22 March, 2013. 53 “Expert faults a school system”, The West Australian, 16 July, 1953, p. 13. 184

Advocates of the oral method claimed that the objective was communication; if you could teach a person to talk normally and lipread he could take his rightful place in the community with hearing people.

On the other hand, if you taught him a new language- fingerspelling- you limited him.54

Hunt also claimed that there was inadequate use of amplification equipment at the school, despite the services provided by the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories in the provision of hearing aids.55

Not surprisingly, Love objected to this assessment. He was given right of reply in the same newspaper article, and made clear his annoyance with Hunt‟s comments. He pointed out that Hunt had only visited the school on one short occasion and therefore did not understand what was being done. Love also took issue with suggestions that he was “behind the times” as an educator of the deaf; he outlined his professional qualifications and the extent of his experiences as a teacher. He concluded by stating that “if he had seen anything better than the system he was now using… he would certainly have adopted it”.56 He expanded on his comments a few days later, drawing on the difference between the Clarke

School in the United States (where Hunt was an advisor) and the WASDDC. He claimed the

Clarke School placed greater emphasis on hard of hearing children, rather than profoundly deaf ones, stating that “nine-tenths of the children at the Mosman Park school would have been rejected by the Clarke School…because of their lack of residual hearing”.57

Hunt‟s comments also attracted criticism from outside the school. F.L. Jardine, a relative of one of the students and later president of the school‟s P&C Association, drew attention to the difference between the Clarke School and the WASDDC in terms of teacher-pupil ratios and the effect this had on the ability of students to learn using the oral method. Jardine

54 The West Australian, 16 July, 1953, p. 13. 55 The West Australian, 16 July, 1953, p. 13. 56 The West Australian, 16 July, 1953, p. 13. 57 “Deaf children of Perth prove they are not so dumb”, The West Australian, 22 July, 1953, p. 4. 185

commented that part of the problem facing the WASDDC was the inability to get more teachers. Class numbers of 12 students to every teacher made any form of instruction apart from the combined method a challenge. The oral method required a significant amount of one-to-one teaching, which was not possible under the current circumstances at the

WASDDC.58 Mrs Ivy Ritchie of the WA Deaf Society also wrote to The West Australian in support of Love and the combined method.59 A group of ex-pupils from the school voiced their support as well.60

In addition to attacks on the teaching programme at the school, it continued to face financial pressures. By the end of 1953, it was reported that the school was showing a loss of £2119 and had been forced to make use of some of the funds held in legacy. Sixty-four students were enrolled that year. This created significant pressures, but the Committee were confident that the situation would improve as the rubella children reached school-leaving- age and the enrolment numbers dropped.61 This did not eventuate immediately as the numbers continued to increase in 1954, with 66 children enrolled.62

John Love’s Legacy

John Love retired early in 1955. He had actually stayed on at the school for two to three years beyond the mandatory retirement age of 65 in order to give the Education Department enough time to find an appropriate replacement.63 He had worked with D/HH children for almost 50 years, including 28 years at Mosman Park. As mentioned above, his goal for

D/HH children was not necessarily speech, but the use of language skills to improve academic knowledge and practical skills. Consequently, he followed on from Henry Witchell

58 “Letters to the Editor: Teaching the deaf”, The West Australian, 18 July, 1953, p. 16. 59 “Letters to the Editor: Teaching the deaf”, The West Australian, 27 July, 1953, p. 15. 60 “Letters to the Editor: Teaching the deaf”, The West Australian, 6 August, 1953, p. 22. 61 “Deaf and Dumb School falls £2,119 behind”, The West Australian, 13 November, 1953, p. 16. 62 “People Show Interest in Deaf School”, The West Australian, 13 November, 1954, p. 16 63 John O. Love, written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith, undated, [2013]. 186

in making use of the combined method which he defended consistently throughout his career. He made one key change in following Witchell and that was to introduce the two- handed finger-spelling system to the school, bringing it into line with the other Australian states. By the time of his retirement, the combined method had been in use at the school for over half a century.

Love passed away on 10 September 1962, not long after being made a Life Member of the

Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (AATD) at their conference held in Perth in

January of that year.64 The Depression and WWII years created significant economic pressures, during which John Love with his economics background and frugal Scots mentality ensured that the school was able to survive. He confronted the impact of the

Depression and the war years with little in the way of government funding and with a heavy reliance on private donations and school fees. He was personally determined to run the school as frugally as possible. At times, he was known to have taken a cut in his salary to enable the Committee of Management to provide for the students.65 At the time of his retirement, for example, the committee recorded a deficit of £1,000.66 There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Love was not all that well-paid in the first place. His son, John, commented that “when the Department [of Education] had finally assumed full responsibility for the payment of teachers, he [Love] could hardly believe the size of the generous cheques he received”.67

The post-World War II period was a time of transition towards an almost total focus on oralism, driven not by the needs of the Deaf community itself but by government,

64 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-fifth Annual Reports (Mosman Park: n.p., 1962), n.p. 65 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p.4. 66 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-second Annual Reports (Mosman Park: Elswood Press, 1959), n.p. 67 John O. Love, written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith, undated, [2013].

187

educational and technological influences. The focus on oral programmes of instruction was intense by that stage, driven by visitors such as the Ewings and Hunt, supported by others such as Norman Murray of CAL. Even though Love understood and appreciated that the oral method worked with some but not all D/HH students, he was placed under significant pressure to justify the combined method and the work carried out at Mosman Park. His position was not just based on ideological grounds; the oral method required significant resources in staffing and equipment to have any chance of working, something the school lacked at that stage. Love supported the school in the face of departmental pressures and defended the teaching practices then in use. However, his dedication to D/HH education, as well as his experience and knowledge, was not readily appreciated by the educational authorities.

What is notable about the increasing focus on oralism during this period was that it was driven almost solely by hearing professionals in the education, medical and engineering/audiological fields as well as the desires of many hearing parents themselves.

The Deaf were not seen as being a community in their own right and their views certainly did not carry weight with the oralists who were faced with the educational needs of a large number of rubella-deafened children. During this period, the Deaf community was almost completely marginalised with no effective input into these changes. There was no say in any aspect of the daily running of the school, the formulation of Education Department policies and the means by which the students would be taught. The Deaf community became victims of quite strong audist attitudes among service providers, primarily because they were seen as evidence that the old way of teaching D/HH children had in some way failed. Their cause was not helped by the fact that Dr. Irene Ewing, despite being deaf herself, supported oralism and was seen as proof that the method could work.

188

This marginalisation indicates that audist attitudes were particularly strong in the mid- twentieth century. However, despite the considerable external influences creating an audist environment, the WASDDC and the Deaf community in Western Australia continued to be supported through the friendship, understanding and advocacy skills of professionals such as John Love and May Wallace.

The external influences driving the future of D/HH education were building and change became inevitable. Oralism increasingly dominated the education of D/HH children, especially since the advent of amplification technology and the desire of parents to become involved in the education of their children. Rather than accept that the Deaf community was able to assimilate, support and assist each new generation of Deaf school-leavers through the use of their own language, social networks and culture, various external organisations were inclined to view deafness as a disability that needed to be “treated”.

John Hay, a Deaf Historian from the University of Wolverhampton (United Kingdom), views the Ewings‟ visit as Australia‟s “equivalent of the Milan 1880 Resolutions”.68 Just as the

1880 Milan Conference brought oralism to the fore in D/HH education world-wide, it is claimed the Ewings‟ had the same impact in Australia. However, their influence, while important, was only part of the story. Just as important was the establishment of the

Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories. The fact that CAL was established at a time when there were large numbers of partially deafened children from the rubella epidemics meant that the provision of free amplification technology allowed these children to benefit from the oral approach. For the Ewings, this was an ideal situation with which to advance the cause of the oral approach, given the easy availability of hearing aids.

68 John A. Hay, John down under: Report on the lecture tour undertaken in Australia, Unpublished document, March, 2013, Western Australian Foundation for Deaf Children / Deaf Heritage Programme archival collection, p. 2. 189

From the mid-1950s, the oral programme became predominant in Western Australia.

Government policy supported the change which came with the appointment of John Love‟s successor, John Heatly. The pathway that D/HH education took in Western Australia was to last until the 1980s, when the Deaf community began to gain a sense of social and political self-awareness.

190

Chapter 8: The Heatly Years

By the 1950s, the impact of the war-time rubella epidemic had changed the way in which

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) education was being carried out in Western Australia.

The post-war years brought together significant medical, technological and social factors which drove D/HH education towards a mostly oral approach. The combined method, along with the residential school model which had served the WA School for Deaf Children for so long under the management of Henry Witchell and John Love, was now considered unsatisfactory for a new generation of D/HH children. These children were to be the first to gain access to widely-available and reliable amplification technology. They were also the first generation to benefit from increasing parental involvement in their education. As a result, D/HH education reflected post-war prosperity with new technology and the sense of financial security that enabled parents to challenge the old ways of education. Between the end of WWII and the end of the 1960s, D/HH education changed completely. This change in

Western Australia was guided primarily by John Love‟s successor, John Heatly.

With the retirement of John Love, there was a clear division between the “old way” and the

“new way”. Love‟s replacement, Mr John H. Heatly, arrived in Fremantle with his wife,

Margaret, and two children, Kay and Hume, on board the P&O Liner Strathnaver, in March

1955. Heatly graduated from Edinburgh University, having read for the degree of Master of

Arts with Honours in Mathematics. He then chose to focus on D/HH education. Prior to his arrival in Western Australia and his appointment as Supervisor of Deaf Education and

Headmaster of the Mosman Park school, Heatly was the Head of the Junior School at

Donaldson‟s School for the Deaf in Edinburgh. During World War II, he took leave from

Donaldson‟s to join the RAF as a meteorological officer. After postings to Scotland, England 191

and Northern Ireland, he attained the rank of Flight Lieutenant and was transferred to West

Africa, where he served for the remainder of the war before he returned to Donaldson‟s. He was a protégée of Professor Alexander and Dr. Irene Ewing, having learned the oral method, while up-grading his qualifications at the University of Manchester.1 Like the Witchells and

Loves before them, the Heatlys were a husband-and-wife team, since Mrs Heatly accepted the position of Matron at the WASDDC.

Heatly‟s appointment in W.A. meant an almost complete shift to oralism, something Mrs.

Heatly commented on in her account in The House on the Hill.2 She also mentioned that those teachers who had trained under John Love expected to be dismissed by Heatly. All were retained, although any new teachers appointed by the Department of Education had to have been trained in the oral method in Victoria.3 The teachers retained were Peggy

Anthony, Lil Buckwell, Marie Kolinska and May Wallace. Heatly considered them to be too valuable for the school to lose, so he approached the Education Department via the Guidance

Branch headed by Bruce Baker, on behalf of these teachers, offering to up-skill them in oral education methods. Because of his good relationship with Baker since he arrived in Western

Australia, Heatly was able to gain permission to retain and retrain these teachers.4

Heatly‟s appointment coincided with a shift in Education Department policy towards an oral approach, when the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories provided free hearing aids to all children who could benefit from them. These hearing aids were the early Calaids, made up of a chest-worn receiver (usually secured in a bag on the chest) with an electrical cord running from the receiver to an ear piece incorporating custom-made ear moulds. Only one

1 Margaret I. Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, unpublished manuscript, 24 November, 1995, p. 1. 2 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. 160. 3 The House on the Hill, p. 160. 4 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 4. 192

ear was aided, so binaural amplification was clearly not considered necessary at that time.5

Heatley understood that in addition to amplification, one of the means to positive oral educational outcomes was the use of small teaching groups to enable more individualised assistance to the students. Within the classes, English was taught using written work on the blackboards, graded and drilled every day. The most important subjects remained speech and English, although mathematics was also taught daily.6

Despite the near-total focus on oralism and the discouraging of signing and finger-spelling, the school and the Education Department still acknowledged that some students were so profoundly deaf, and in some cases with additional learning challenges, that they were unable to benefit from the fitting of hearing aids and an oral programme of instruction.7 One of the retained teachers, May Wallace, was given responsibility for one class of these children, using finger-spelling as the mode of communication. Margaret Warden recalled that these students tended to communicate between themselves using sign language during playtimes, but that this practice was still discouraged by the school. 8 May Wallace continued to devote herself to encouraging students to achieve what they were capable of. In doing so, she continued to be a friend and supporter of the Deaf community in Western Australia.

A significant initiative implemented soon after Heatly‟s appointment was the change of name of the school from the WA School for Deaf and Dumb Children (WASDDC) to the WA School for Deaf Children (WASDC), dropping the word “dumb” since it misrepresented the academic abilities of the students. By that stage, the term “dumb” was seen less as a description of those unable to produce speech and more to describe stupidity. Both meanings were clearly not characteristic of the students at the school. This change

5 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 6 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 7 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 5. 8 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 193

represented the start of a major upgrade of the facilities at the school as well as addressing the need to promote the school more positively in the minds of parents who tended to have negative views of the school as an “institution for the deaf and dumb”. The public image of the school was also enhanced through the implementation of a uniform. Margaret Heatly had never been comfortable with the children being in “bare feet and hand-me-down clothes”, so in conjunction with John Broom, an artistically-inclined teacher at the school, they created a simple school uniform of shirt and plain grey shorts for the boys and a tunic for the girls. The most successful addition to the uniform was the blazer with its very own school crest on the pocket, which proved highly popular with the students and their parents.9

There was also the need to upgrade and modernize the school buildings and grounds after years of neglect resulting from economic and war-time constraints. The grounds received a complete make-over in 1957 and extra classrooms and recreation facilities were added in

1958 and 1959. The Department of Education primarily paid for these improvements. In the case of the recreation hall, completed in 1959, the costs were covered by the Committee of

Management through a bequest from a private estate of Mr Adolphus Yeovil (A.Y.) Glyde, best known as the state government‟s Registrar of Titles from 1918 until his retirement in

1924.10 Glyde had been employed with the state government for 41 years, making him one of the oldest and longest serving public servants at the time of his retirement. He attended

Perth Boys School and was a noted sportsman in his younger days, including a period playing league football for the Rovers club. His link with WASDC may have been due to entering the public service when F.A. Moseley held the position of Registrar of Titles.11

Moseley, as a long-serving committee member and president of the school, could well have made the school known to others with whom he worked, thereby interesting Glyde. Glyde lived in Peppermint Grove at 58 The Esplanade, so his relative proximity to the school may

9 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, pp. 5-6. 10 “Mr A. Glyde dead”, The West Australian, 30 April, 1951, p. 3. 11 “Land Titles‟ Department: Mr. A.Y. Glyde‟s retirement”, The Sunday Times, 6 July, 1924, p. 3. 194

also have been a factor in his awareness of the work being carried out there.12 There appears to be no record of him being involved in the management of the school.

Student numbers at the WASDC continued to rise during the 1950s and 1960s. This again created pressures in terms of accommodation and educational resources. The units for partially hearing children attached to mainstream schools in Claremont and Cottesloe were full.13 Educational and residential facilities at the WASDC were operating at full capacity, so two new school blocks were erected in 1964 and 1970.14 These were very modern in terms of their construction and design, both of which took into account the building site with its exposure to prevailing coastal winds. The buildings also incorporated the latest technology for the promotion of oral education. By that stage, amplification technology had developed to the point where it was considered desirable to fit induction loops to each of the classrooms, so that the students would be able to hear the voice of the teacher through group amplifiers. The loops were installed under the concrete floors, but their effectiveness turned out to be severely limited as transmissions from neighbouring classrooms interfered with each other. Consequently students could hear conversations transmitted in the other classrooms.15 The only practical solution was for classrooms to take it in turns using their systems. Altering the steel framework of the building to act as a “Faraday Cage” was considered, isolating each classroom‟s transmissions, but this was found to be impossible to achieve.16

12 “Heritage on huge riverside block”, archived at Community News, [http://www.communitynews.com.au/PublicPDF/Archive/2013/G_July/23.07.13/RE20130723_STA _003.PDF], accessed 9 March, 2014. 13Val Stephens, Deafness: The Invisible handicap. A history of the provision of education for the hearing impaired with special reference to Western Australia 1896-1963, (MEd dissertation, Murdoch University, 1984), p. 68. 14 The House on the Hill, p. 47. 15 Martin Wall, conversation with Geoffrey Smith, 11 March, 2010. 16 Martin Wall, conversation with Geoffrey Smith, 11 March, 2010. 195

Individual amplification systems for the students continued to progress during the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1957, CAL in Western Australia then under the direction of Mr Peter

Sarfaty (who replaced Maureen Brown as Clinical Psychologist in Charge in 1949), had fitted all children who required hearing aids with the new transistorised models. 17 Audiological research was beginning to highlight the benefits of binaural amplification as opposed to single-sided amplification, so the children were issued with two hearing aids, still worn in bags on the chest. Margaret Warden states that the hearing aids were becoming smaller and more effective, but still could not provide sufficient amplification to assist profoundly deaf children who continued to struggle to understand language through lip-reading and oral speech alone.18

The WASDC Committee of Management continued to oversee the significant costs of the residential facilities. In 1960, the female basic wage increased from 65% to 75% of the male basic wage. Due to the large percentage of female workers at the school, this resulted in an increase in the cost of salaries and wages at the hostel of £433. According to the committee,

“careful management” enabled the annual cost of providing for the boarders to rise by only

£125 during 1960. The committee felt that this was a good outcome considering the boarding students numbered 58 for that year, including some very young children who were taught at the Cottesloe Infant Centre.19 The committee continued to rely on a variety of sources of income, but with less emphasis on traditional sources such as that raised by the school-employed collectors. Instead, payments from Child Endowment and Education

Department Allowances increased as did interest received from Commonwealth Bonds.20

Increasingly, the Committee of Management and the staff were becoming aware that, for all its success in steering the school through the Depression and WWII, the level of frugality

17WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixtieth Annual Reports (Mosman Park: Elswood Press, 1957), n.p. 18 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 19 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-third Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1960), n.p. 20 WASDC, Sixty-third Annual Reports, n.p. 196

experienced during the years of John Love‟s leadership was no longer necessary in the more economically stable post-war period of the 1950s and 1960s. The care of the children required more attention on their physical and emotional comfort.

1960 was the year that television arrived at the school. A set was donated by the Subiaco

Apex Club and installed in the supper room of the Glyde Hall for “recreational purposes”, but which also “made the work of the Supervisors easier, especially in the winter”.21 Even in those early years, television had become an electronic child-minding resource, keeping high- spirited boarders occupied, especially in the winter months when it was too cold and wet to play outside. In 1961, almost all beds were replaced with inner-spring mattresses, a move considered to be healthier for the children.22 In the same year, increasing attention was paid to maintaining the school buildings and grounds in a clean and tidy condition. The aim of this was to ensure that the school:

…should not have the severe appearance of the old time Charitable Institution but should have the feeling of the ordinary family home which makes for the happiness of all the children.23

Despite the aim of making the premises more “homely”, the school continued to have difficulty attracting and retaining domestic staff. A considerable turnover occurred during the early 1960s, creating difficulties for Mrs Heatly in her role as Matron.24 In 1963 alone, 71 students were boarders so the pressures involved in caring for such a large group were considerable, not just for the domestic staff, but for the Heatlys as well.25 By 1965, the committee felt that with the increased numbers of children boarding at the school extra domestic and supervisory staff were needed, but as had always been the case, finding

21 WASDC, Sixty-third Annual Reports, n.p. 22 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Sixty-fourth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1961), n.p. 23 WASDC, Sixty-fourth Annual Reports, n.p. 24 WASDC, Sixty-fourth Annual Reports, n.p; WA School for Deaf Children, Sixty-sixth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1963), p. 6, 9. 25 WASDC, Sixty-sixth Annual Reports, pp. 6-7. 197

suitable people proved difficult.26 In 1968, staff turnover was so frequent that Heatly was unable to refer to all of the staff by name in the annual report.27 It is probable that the domestic turnover also unsettled the students. Due to their hearing condition, these students experienced communication difficulties on a daily basis, feeling comfortable only in the company of those who they knew and who understood and addressed the challenges involved.

By this stage, many of the children were now making use of hearing aids and the oral method predominated. Such was the dependency of the children and the school on properly functioning hearing aids, when the aids were broken or lost, it became a major disruption.

The school developed close links with CAL to ensure that hearing aids in need of attention were collected every Monday and returned the next day.28 Additional support was provided by Dr Lindsay P. Gray, the ENT specialist-in-charge at Princess Margaret Hospital He carried out a complete evaluation of each child‟s hearing and ENT health during 1963.29

The large number of boarders, including infants, led the Committee of Management to investigate the viability of installing a swimming pool. The school was situated quite close to the beach but this was not considered safe for the very young children. The committee considered a 25-metre pool to be necessary, despite its cost, and felt that this would be justified through many future years of usage.30 The cost was expected to be £7,000.31 The committee budgeted £1,500, together with a £500 grant from the WA Lotteries Commission and financial assistance from the school P&C Association.32 The importance of having access

26 WA School for Deaf Children, Sixty-eighth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1965), pp. 5-6. 27 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-first Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1968), p. 7. 28 WASDC, Sixty-fourth Annual Reports, n.p. 29 WASDC, Sixty-sixth Annual Reports, p. 10. 30 WA School for Deaf Children, Sixty-seventh Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1964), p. 5. 31 “School for deaf sets record”, The West Australian, 15 December 1964, p. 18. 32 WASDC, Sixty-seventh Annual Reports, pp. 4-5. 198

to a swimming pool and of providing lessons was reinforced by the drowning of Oliver Guidi, one of the infant students, at a private swimming pool in Scarborough during 1964.33

The following year, the Committee of Management made a further allocation to the swimming pool fund of £1,960.34 By then, the remaining debt on the pool was recorded as being £1,606, which the committee was keen to clear as soon as possible.35 Expenditure that year totalled £14,476, with a surplus income of £1,980. Much of this surplus came from increased rates of government child endowment payments and Education Department allowances.36 The pool was installed between January and March 1965 by Frank O‟Neil

Swimming Pools (WA) Pty. Ltd. It justified the cost involved and enabled many years of enjoyment by the students. It also facilitated swimming lessons which had to be tailored to the needs of D/HH children who otherwise were unable to participate in formal swimming lessons.

The financial situation continued to be healthy in 1966 when a surplus of $103 was announced by the Committee of Management. Much of the increase in income came from the living away from home allowance payable by the Education Department. Despite continued significant expenditure on staffing, recreational equipment, new beds and bedding as well as the replacement of washing machines, the committee was still able to report that the swimming pool had been paid for entirely. It was recorded that the cost was met by contributions from the P&C Association ($3,000), the Lotteries Commission ($1,000), the

Education Department ($2,000) and the balance of $8,000 by the committee.37

33 WASDC, Sixty-seventh Annual Reports, p. 10. 34 WASDC, Sixty-eighth Annual Reports, p. 6. 35 WASDC, Sixty-eighth Annual Reports, p. 6. 36 WASDC, Sixty-eighth Annual Reports, pp. 5-6. 37 WA School for Deaf Children, Sixty-ninth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1966), p. 6, 10. 199

During 1965, Mr and Mrs Heatly took leave from the school and travelled overseas, visiting other schools for the D/HH in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Mr John

Wray was appointed acting Principal and Supervisor of Deaf Education. Mr Bob McLaren and his wife Stella took responsibility for the boarders. The Heatlys were away from early

April to late August of that year. They hoped that the visits to other schools would provide valuable ideas that would enable the WASDC to continue to improve and also confirm that the school compared well with other institutions.38 It is possible that Heatly may have been under some pressure at that time to demonstrate to the Education Department and to parents of the students, that the school provided an up-to-date and effective programme.

During the Heatlys‟ absence, letters were written to The West Australian, by Mrs J. Clifton and Mrs M. Gravenall which criticised the school for its approach to auditory training and use of the oral method.39 Gravenall felt that while she supported the school on the use of auditory training methods, she felt that this should be extended to what she described as the

“sadly neglected Kindergarten for Deaf Children”.40 Clifton had similar concerns regarding the school.41 Since Heatly was unable to respond, one of the teachers, Mrs. Alice Cordwell, replied. She did not give much detail except to confirm that the school used auditory training, but stated that there were “many other factors just as important” in the education of the children at the WASDC, one of which was to have an up-to-date understanding of the needs of the individual D/HH child with the result that Heatly‟s overseas trip involved looking into some of these issues.42

38 WASDC, Sixty-eighth Annual Reports, pp. 9-10. 39 “Teaching the deaf”, The West Australian, 21 August, 1965, p. 6; “Deaf children”, The West Australian, 23 August, 1965, p. 6. 40 “Teaching the deaf”, The West Australian, 21 August, 1965, p. 6. 41 “Deaf children”, The West Australian, 23 August, 1965, p. 6. 42 “Letters – Training for the deaf”, The West Australian, 25 August 1965, p. 6. 200

Due to their absence, the Heatlys were unaware about what was happening and had not been told by their friends or by Bruce Baker. Mrs Heatly believes that this was because nobody wanted the issue to affect the holiday that she and her husband were enjoying after ten years of work for the WASDC.43 Nevertheless, they returned to a situation which they found very difficult to comprehend and deal with. Mrs Heatly recalls that in the aftermath of the “smear campaign” as she called it, she and her husband, the school itself and the committee of management received many letters and expressions of support. However, it is clear from her recollections that the matter severely affected them both and that they took a long time to recover from it.44

This was the beginning of a concentrated letter campaign conducted through the pages of

The West Australian in 1966. The parents who had formed The Deaf Children‟s Welfare

Group complained to the newspaper that some parents within the group had been rejected as potential registered subscribers (or members) of the WA School for the Deaf community.

The group had been formed in order to provide a parents‟ representative group separate to the school‟s P&C Association. In April 1966, a year after the group was formed, they published a newsletter that criticised the WASDC and of staff employed at the school.45

Heatly‟s reply on 26 April 1966 addressed criticisms concerning what the group saw as poor educational facilities and staff. Pointing out, quite rightly, that the Education Department had spent a lot of money on deaf education in the state, more so than on any other special education group, Heatly noted that eight of the eighteen teachers at the WASDC had special qualifications and that others had attended courses on the teaching of D/HH children.

Heatly concluded his reply by stating that “the school‟s achievements had been praised by overseas experts”.46

43 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 9. 44 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 9. 45 “Parents complain of deaf school”, The West Australian, 23 April 1966, p. 13. 46 “Reply to school critics”, The West Australian, 28 April 1966, p. 12. 201

From 29 April to 14 September, a debate raged in the letters page of The West Australian.

Mrs Clifton, the mother of one of the students at the WASDC, began by asking a series of questions in relation to Heatly‟s reply. Her main concern was the overcrowding of the school and the lack of facilities and auditory equipment for the infant students. She expressed some apprehensions about her daughter‟s lack of progress and continued to do so quite strongly through several letters. Her views were generally endorsed by a few other parents. However, it was not long before a letter signed by 16 parents supporting the school, the staff and the

Committee of Management was published. Other parents, including those who had some knowledge and connection to the school, followed up with their own support. Heatly initially responded to one of the earlier letters, but made no further published contribution to the debate.

Although the Education Department, along with the press and the school, received many expressions of support from parents and friends, some of the criticisms were acknowledged by the Department which subsequently moved swiftly. It was announced that the infant students then housed at Cottesloe State School (now Primary School) would not be transferred to a new building on the WASDC site. Instead, they were to remain at Cottesloe

Primary School in newly modified and furnished accommodation set up for four classes to cover thirty children.47 The lack of auditory training equipment was also acted on. Training units which could be used by two children at a time were ordered from Denmark, along with

“eighteen to 20 power amplifiers for schoolroom use”.48

The biggest change was to John Heatly‟s position as Superintendent of Deaf Education. The

Department separated the kindergarten and infant school at Cottesloe from the junior and

47WA School for Deaf Children, Sixty-ninth Annual Reports, p. 9. 48 “Help for the Deaf”, Daily News, 25 June 1966, p. 2. 202

senior schools at Mosman Park, creating administrative posts for both campuses. John

Wray, originally placed at the Cottesloe State School by the Education Department in 1955, was subsequently appointed to the position of Headmaster at Mosman Park.49 The following year, Wray was selected to attend the Teacher of the Deaf training course in Melbourne.50

Mr Vince McCudden was appointed to the Cottesloe position.51 Like Wray, McCudden was a graduate of the Victoria training programme.52 Heatly, effectively demoted, retained responsibility for the boarding facilities as well as in-service training and refresher courses for teaching staff. His position became that of Supervisor of Deaf Education and

Superintendent of the residential facilities.

The WASDC Committee of Management continued to support the teaching programme at the Mosman Park school. In the 1968 annual report, the President stated that there were two basic essentials of D/HH education:

One is to give the child a good working knowledge of the every-day use of the English language and the second is to enable deaf children to have a quick and easy means of communication when conversing with the general public and amongst themselves. Your Committee feels that for the profoundly deaf, the critics of the School are not perhaps giving enough thought to the second of these objectives.53

From this comment, it is clear that the committee broadly supported oralism in terms of providing access to the English language but were also aware that the programme did not necessarily suit all students, especially those who were profoundly deaf. Considered to be equally important was the goal of providing all students with access to communication with not just the hearing world, but also the Deaf community. This was an endorsement of the combined method as a means of communication within the Deaf community and with the wider hearing community. The committee continued to acknowledge the views of John

49 WASDC, Sixty-ninth Annual Reports, p. 9. 50 “Course for WA teacher”, Daily News, 4 February 1956, p. 2. 51 “Changes in schools for the deaf”, The West Australian, 17 December 1966, in L.C. Lake, Centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Newspaper Clippings and Articles 1896-1996 (Perth: L.C. Lake (Desktop published), 1996), p. 135. 52 Daily News, 4 February 1956, p. 2. 53 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-first Annual Reports, p. 4. 203

Love by accepting the need for an alternative means of communication for those students unable to benefit from oralism.

The committee was also conscious of the need to continue to provide up-to-date facilities at the school. In 1969, the C.S. Harper library building was officially opened. The building, on the northern side of the boarding house, was architecturally attractive, providing a modern, light and airy environment. The Hon. E.H.M. Lewis, MLA, Minister for Education and

Native Welfare, carried out the opening on 27 June 1969. Several state parliamentary representatives, Education Department officials, a Lotteries Commission representative and members of Charles Harper‟s family attended. Many parents and children were also in attendance.54 Coming as it did only a few years after the newspaper controversy, the attention given to the opening of this building suggests that the committee wanted to promote the school and its facilities in a positive light and as widely as possible.

This positive attitude was also evident in steps taken to ensure that the second stage of the teaching block was built. The extension, planned for some time, was postponed since the completion of the first block in 1964 due to demands on the Education Department budget as well as a re-assessment of the needs of the school. However, by 1969, the committee felt that the extensions, in a modified form, were urgently required. An allocation in the departmental budget was made, but in order to guarantee the provision of all the facilities required for design and technology teaching, the committee offered to provide a loan to the

Education Department. This loan was approved by the State Treasury.55

54 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-second Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1969), p. 4. 55 WASDC, Seventy-second Annual Reports, p. 6. 204

During the 1960s the facilities at the WASDC became more focused on the social needs as well as the physical comfort of the students. This was evident not only in the new buildings, but in the attention paid to recreational pursuits during and after school hours. The students gained great benefit from what the Heatlys, the Committee of Management and the

Education Department put in place. Heatly embraced the oral method of instruction, but like John Love, he understood that it did not necessarily benefit every student at the school.

His concern was more in providing a well-rounded education, hence the attention to recreational facilities. The 1970 Annual Report stated that the Heatlys “lifted the school out of the ranks of an institution to a level equal to the best of Australian Boarding Schools for

Handicapped Children”.56

For many students, this period enabled them to develop an enduring emotional connection with the school and with the people they grew up with there. However, not all students have fond memories of their time at the WASDC. Some retain memories of a period of sexual abuse, a situation acknowledged by the WA Deaf Society in the minutes of a meeting held in

February, 2012.57 It appears from records that James Patrick Berry, a hearing teacher, employed at the school as Boy‟s Supervisor, was convicted of these crimes in 1994.58 The

WASDC annual reports indicate that he was employed between 1968 and 1973, before leaving to return to the UK. At some stage, he returned to Western Australia and served a prison term in relation to his crimes. Berry‟s activities remain common knowledge within the Deaf community. His conviction and imprisonment enabled the WA Deaf Community to feel some sense of justice over the matter, but it is clear that the memory of Berry is still very strong. The House on the Hill records a recollection by one ex-student drawing attention to

56 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-third Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1970), p. 7. 57 Minutes. Western Australian Deaf Society. Stakeholder‟s Representative Forum, Tuesday 21st February, 2012, p. 2, archived at Western Australian Deaf Society, [http://www.wadeaf.org.au/media/docs/WADS_Stakeholder_representative_FORUM_notes_21_2_ 12.pdf ], accessed 29 April, 2012. 58 MAKO Files online. Listing Australian paedophiles/sex offenders, archived at http://www.mako.org.au/temp_wa.html, accessed 29 April, 2012. 205

younger boys complaining about a “supervisor‟s activities” which were not believed by the teachers. Consequently, the boys vandalised the supervisor‟s bicycle, an act which all the boys in the school owned up to at a later assembly.59 Although not actually named, it seems likely that the incident relates in some way to Berry‟s activities at the school during that time.

John Heatly‟s tenure remains controversial among the students from that era since they recall what they describe as bullying and abuse from Heatly and other staff, including Berry, at that time.60 Heatly was also said to be an alcoholic, with at least one ex-student recalling that his breath always smelt of whiskey.61 As mentioned earlier, Heatly‟s workload was divided into two separate positions, but changes were made to the position of superintendent of the boarding facilities. This came about due to a new subsidy provided by the

Commonwealth Health Department arising from the National Health Act, 1953-1968.

Eligibility for the subsidy required the WASDC to employ a full-qualified nurse on call twenty-four hours a day. Three nurses, Sisters Francis, Edgar and Gomme were employed to cover the shifts required.62 The Health Department subsidy recognised that financial assistance was needed for the care of children with disabilities, so it also made the appointment of a full-time superintendent financially possible for the WASDC. This was a windfall for the Committee of Management since income from collectors had dropped, primarily due to difficulty in attracting suitable people to the job. Income from

“subscriptions and donations” dropped from $12,193 in 1967 to $6,411 in 1970.63 The establishment of the Speech and Hearing Centre referred to earlier also had an impact on charitable donations which might otherwise have flowed to the WASDC.

59 The House on the Hill, p. 151. 60 Members of the WA Deaf community, anonymous discussions with Geoffrey Smith, January, 2015- October, 2016. 61 Members of the WA Deaf community, anonymous discussions with Geoffrey Smith, January, 2015- October, 2016. 62 WASDC, Seventy-second Annual Reports, p. 8. 63 WASDC, Seventy-third Annual Reports, p. 3. 206

John Heatly retired from the WASDC on 13 March 1970 after 15 years of service. Mr H.V.

Ellvey had been formally appointed to the position of superintendent in January 1970, however, the appointment was abruptly terminated in June, 1970.64 Prior to then, and probably as a result of management concerns within the hostel, Bruce Baker made enquiries within the Department of Education about Ellvey‟s teaching background. It was discovered that he had been employed as supervisor at the Narrogin High School hostel before being dismissed. This was not mentioned when he applied for the WASDC position. When challenged about this by Baker and the committee chairman, Mr R.J. Greenwell, Ellvey claimed that the employment “had been a brief unhappy experience and he had forgotten it”.65

At about the same time, some of the committee members became aware of deep-seated dissatisfaction within the WASDC hostel in regards to Ellvey. This resulted in Baker,

Greenwell and another committee member following up these complaints and finding them to be quite widespread. They discovered that several staff at the school were unhappy with

Ellvey‟s management and planned to resign from their positions. The complaints dealt with

“over economical” meals, locking the telephone when he left the school building, countermanding actions of the staff, failing to adequately address the issue of non-suitable visitors to the school and “in general making working conditions difficult”.66 The committee members also became aware of serious issues surrounding Ellvey‟s immediate previous position at Fremantle Hospital.67 The committee met on 18 June 1970, to discuss the situation and resolved to terminate Ellvey‟s appointment as superintendent of the hostel.

Ellvey was replaced on a temporary basis by Mr Berry for a two-month period. In August

64 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 7 January, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 65 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 18 June, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 66 Minutes, 18 June, 1970. 67 Minutes, 18 June, 1970. 207

1970, Mr (now Dr) Neville Green was appointed to the position, which he held until 1979.

Green had unsuccessfully applied earlier when the committee was seeking a replacement to

Heatly.68 Ellvey did not take his dismissal lightly. He was eventually persuaded to hand in his keys and leave the premises, but not before a key to the school safe was found to be missing.69 Unfortunately, his appointment had a permanent effect on the school, since he appears to have disposed of many significant school records.70 At the Committee of

Management meeting on 26 August 1970, it was reported that items which could not be found included:

1. A complete set of the Annual reports,

2. Two School Admission Registers – one prior to 1947, one prior to the current one.

3. Nearly all the photographic records of the school.

4. All files except current and recent records of children.

5. A unique collection of books being part of the Oxley Collection.71

The committee resolved to contact Ellvey by letter to seek an explanation for the disappearance of these records, but received no reply and none of the missing documents could be found. Mrs Heatly recalls:

Books, records, John‟s films and many other important documents were incinerated. Books on the deaf and blind from America that John Love had collected and had been carefully stored in a special cupboard, monthly bulletins to and from the Board of Management and irreplaceable records of the children were all destroyed.72

68 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 2 July, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 69 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 24 June, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 70 Minutes, 24 June, 1970. 71 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 26 August, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 72 Heatly, Memories of a dogsbody, p. 10. 208

Heatly‟s retirement also did not go smoothly. He requested paid long service leave and superannuation entitlements, to which the committee agreed only to the former. An offer of

$750 was subsequently made to him. At the same meeting, concern was expressed that the

Heatlys were continuing to make use of the superintendent‟s accommodation at the school even after John Heatly had officially retired. After Ellvey‟s appointment, Mrs Heatly initially remained in a flat on the premises, sometimes with her son, Hume, also there. At one stage,

Ellvey mentioned to the Committee of Management that John Heatly had visited the premises for a few days, also staying in the flat. While doing so he also made unauthorised use of the superintendent‟s office, making frequent phone calls and being “in the way of interviews with parents”. Hume also caused some concerns due to his age, his tendency to invite his girlfriend to the flat when his mother was absent and the proximity of the flat itself to the girl‟s dormitories.73 After Ellvey was dismissed and before Neville Green took up his appointment, Mrs Heatly offered her services to assist the transition, especially given the loss of the school records and a looming influenza epidemic. In the end, the Committee of

Management decided that this was not required and that they would reaffirm their confidence and appreciation in the abilities of the existing Matron and superintendent to manage the medical needs of the students.74

John Heatly passed away in 1989. Regardless of feelings about him, many former students and their parents attended the funeral. He took D/HH education in an oral direction but not just as a result of his own teaching background and training. The oral movement had gained strength world-wide, including Australia, so the Education Department in WA took this approach as policy for the WASDC. Of course, both Heatly and the Education

Department were aware that some children could not benefit from the oral approach, hence the class that was given to May Wallace. Broadly, however, the oral programme was deemed to be suitable for the majority of D/HH children, especially given the technical support from

73 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 25 March, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 74 Minutes, 2 July, 1970. 209

CAL. There was some anecdotal evidence, however, to suggest that the children were unofficially allowed to use signing and finger-spelling out of the classroom despite the adherence to the oral programme.

The Education Department, John Heatly and the WASDC Committee of Management, along with many of the staff at the school, attempted to create a positive environment for the students, especially those who were boarding. In terms of the physical environment, the changes were largely successful, given the rapid pace at which new facilities were built.

Efforts were made to ensure a high standard of comfort within the boarding facilities, to a far greater extent than was the case under the supervision of Henry Witchell and John Love.

Despite these gains, the school still struggled to attract good staff, particularly professionally trained teachers of the deaf. This in no way lessens the importance of the work done by those teachers employed and trained by John Love and retained by John Heatly. Post-war shortages of teachers affected overall availability, but Heatly and the Education Department did what they could. The same situation occurred with the delays in the purchasing of classroom amplification equipment necessary to run an effective oral programme. These issues created concern among some parents of children attending the school at a time when they were demanding a greater say in the education of their children. For the students already at the school, the bullying they encountered, Heatly‟s alcoholism and the effect of

Berry‟s abuse created lasting negative memories which are still being talked about within the

Western Australian D/HH community as well as conveyed to the writer of this thesis.75

The large number of rubella children that had passed through the school system had a lasting and considerable impact. Many of them were partially deafened rather than profoundly deaf. With support from CAL and most having parents with no previous

75 Members of the WA Deaf community, anonymous discussions with Geoffrey Smith, January, 2015- October, 2016. 210

exposure to the Deaf community, these students required a different approach to their education. The facilities that Heatly inherited from John Love were no longer considered appropriate for all D/HH children, hence the subsequent parental agitation and the establishment of the Speech and Hearing Centre which did affect the WASDC. Concern was expressed by some members of the Committee of Management that the S&HC was aggressively publicising its services. Despite CAL providing information on both schools to its clients and approval being given by the Department of Education to the S&HC, the committee was sufficiently concerned by the impact of the new school to give consideration to updating and modernising its own facilities and services.76 The Department of Education subsequently acknowledged the need for change through the reorganisation of the administrative structure and the establishment of units at mainstream schools.

Increasingly, educational, health and audiological services acknowledged that there was a considerable range of D/HH children with variations in age at onset of deafness, degree of deafness, educational capability and the presence or otherwise of additional learning challenges. Institutionalisation of these children was no longer considered necessary or even desirable in most cases. Instead, the students were often living at home where oral communication was the norm. Therefore they were beginning to become spread across several schools in an environment which emphasised oralism. The educational system tended to fragment these children, giving them access to fewer friends like themselves and fewer older D/HH role models. Essentially, many children were missing out on exposure and access to the Deaf community and its culture at cost of their placement in oral programmes outside of the WASDC.

76 Minutes, 25th March, 1970, p.2; Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.). Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 27 May, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection.

211

The move towards these changes involved no obvious input from the Deaf community.

There were no deaf teachers of the D/HH employed by either the Department of Education or the Speech and Hearing Centre. No Deaf people worked in positions of influence within these organisations. It is probable that the changes made were carried out without any consultation with the Deaf community in Western Australia. Certainly, there appears to have been no means by which the Deaf community was able to voice its concern, if they had any.

The process of management and of change in D/HH education during the Heatly years was entirely in the hands of hearing teachers, health professionals, academics and support staff.

Competency in oral communication was considered to be the desired outcome and the programme was mandated for the education of these students. This is not to say that this focus was wrong, although in hindsight, it would appear that way. At that time, the focus on the oral approach as an educational philosophy excluded serious consideration of any alternatives, let alone input from the Deaf community, was not taken into account. The approach assumed that the majority of D/HH would benefit from oralism, regardless of their degree of hearing loss. However, as oralism gained traction, this assumption began to be challenged. Some severely and profoundly deaf children failed to make satisfactory progress with their speech and language skills, despite the fitting of hearing aids to give access to some sounds. It became evident that oralism did not suit all students and that there were clear differences in the needs of profoundly deaf and culturally Deaf children as opposed to those with partial hearing.

This growing awareness of the need to consider different language and communication needs within the context of D/HH education influenced educational programmes in Western

Australia as the 1970s progressed. Factors such as Heatly‟s retirement, the rise of parental 212

involvement and the consolidation of the Speech and Hearing Centre, created an environment conducive to further change. This began with the arrival of Mr Brian Fisher in

1974 to take up the position of Co-ordinator of Deaf Education in Western Australia.

213

Chapter 9: Into the 1970s

By 1971, the WA School for Deaf Children was ready to celebrate its long-standing role in deaf education in Western Australia. The 75th Anniversary celebrations that year were marked by three significant activities. The first was a tree planting ceremony on 25 August to commemorate the work of superintendents/headmasters, Witchell, Love and Heatly.

Three Rottnest Island Pines representing them were planted near the main entrance to the school. Mrs Witchell, in recognition of her role as the first teacher of the deaf in Western

Australia and first matron of the school, was remembered with the planting of a eucalyptus tree in the same area. This ceremony formed part of a wider programme during which almost 100 trees and shrubs were planted within the grounds of the school.1 In the second significant activity, John Tonkin, Premier of Western Australia, attended further celebrations on 24 October. This was appropriate not only because he was Premier, but also due to his support for D/HH education in the post-WWII years as Minister for Education.

Tonkin unveiled a commemorative plaque donated by the building company which was a direct descendant of the original company that built the first stage of the school which was opened in 1900. The third event was an anniversary dinner for ex-students held on 5

October. This was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Perth and hosted 370 guests.2

By the beginning of the 1970s, the WASDC reached a point of consolidation and stability after the challenges of the 1950s-60s. The oral approach was well-established in most of the classrooms. The buildings and grounds of the school were well-maintained, providing an attractive and liveable environment for the staff and students. The management structure

1 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-fourth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1971), p. 10. 2 Karen Bontempo and Josie Hodgetts, History of the W.A. Deaf Society 1921-2001 (Leederville (W.A.): Western Australian Deaf Society Inc., 2002), p. 63. 214

and the division of administrative roles of the school and the boarding facilities enabled the

Education Department and the WASDC Committee of Management to guide the school relatively smoothly after the events of the past two decades. However, further changes were to occur in the 1970s, not so much in the way in which D/HH children were taught, but the way which the Education Department managed the school. There was also some reassessment of the oral method in the light of overseas research. This resulted in the

Department considering different approaches, though again not necessarily with any input from the Deaf community.

Technical and Educational Developments

The National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), as CAL was known from 1973, continued to provide support to the schools as well as refining the equipment fitted. The acoustic benefits of bilateral hearing aids were beginning to be understood, with the result that those children able to benefit from binaural listening were fitted accordingly.3 Likewise, the introduction of high-powered behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids enabled children with a severe to profound hearing loss to receive some amplified sound. NAL‟s first BTE hearing aid was the Calaid H issued in 1974. This model provided sufficient power through updated acoustic technology to virtually replace the body-worn hearing Calaid T aids for a large percentage of users. The

Calaid RE, a high powered BTE, followed two years later. Initially, NAL was expected to continue to develop and commission its own hearing aids such as the RE, but design problems delayed making them available to the target clients. NAL was keen to make high- powered hearing aids available to children whom they believed would benefit so, in order to avoid delays, six thousand commercial hearing aids were purchased.4 Although

3 Cliff Casey and Peta J. Monley, “Audiology in Australia: A brief history”, Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research (2002), p. 29; Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 180-182. 3 Upfold, A History of Australian Audiology, pp. 12-33. 4 Ray Piesse, “Trends in hearing aids”, in Australian Deafness Council and Deafness Foundation (Victoria), Deafness-1975: A seminar held at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, May, 1975, p. 32. 215

manufactured under tender to NAL, the RE was later supplemented by a locally-designed version, known as the Calaid P. These two hearing aid models provided significant amplified sound to profoundly deaf children. This meant that from the mid-1970s onwards, the teaching of listening, speech and language skills became possible for a greater proportion of deaf children.5

Some issues of dissatisfaction arose at the WASDC during 1973, which led to the resignation of the headmaster, John Wray. In the 1973 annual report Wray expressed concerns about the educational services for D/HH children. He was clearly angry at the attitude of some parents and teachers who failed in some way to provide support and encouragement to the children. He also criticised the direction in which research into D/HH education was heading. In Wray‟s view, the focus of research appeared to be on the pre-school D/HH child, with very little on the 9-16 age group. In conclusion, he wrote:

Stated simply, we must have: parental involvement, teacher dedication, departmental promulgation of policy, Board of Management assertiveness and a Publicity Officer fully aware of the needs of special education. Given these, we can then evaluate and obtain facilities and equipment to lighten the deaf child‟s load and so assist him in gaining a full and happy future… I regret the necessity to record such pessimism but the future is not bright unless we dispose of outdated thoughts and paternalistic platitudes.6

The intensity of his feelings was evident in his signing off, during which he expressed frustration at the lack of support from the Education Department, poor parental involvement and what he considered to be “experts unlimited”.7

Wray‟s frustrations by the changes were amplified by the fact that over the past few years, fewer children were attending the WASDC. Although he acknowledged the philosophy behind the emerging trend towards mainstream education of D/HH children, he questioned

5 Laurie Upfold and Ray Piesse, “The Calaid: Australia‟s own hearing aid”, Acoustics Australia, vol. 28, no. 3 (2000), p. 107. 6 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-sixth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1973). p. 12. 7 WASDC, Seventy-sixth Annual Reports, p. 12. 216

its wisdom without a full and thorough assessment of the child‟s social and academic capabilities.8 The trend towards placing at least some Hard-of-Hearing students in “normal” schools was gathering pace and was affecting not only enrolments at the WASDC, but also boarding numbers in the residential building. At the boarding hostel, numbers declined as the Education Department‟s bus service expanded, allowing more metropolitan children to become day pupils.9 These factors led to down-scaling of some services at both the school and the hostel. The establishment of the Speech and Hearing Centre in 1967 also had an impact as it drew away some of the potential students who would otherwise have attended the WASDC on account of their hearing levels.

The boarding facilities were of particular concern to the Committee of Management. Since

1949, when the Department of Education took over responsibility for the education programme, the committee‟s prime responsibility lay in the provision of hostel accommodation for students. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, this met a definite need, as boarding numbers reached their peak. However, by the beginning of the 1970s, the committee confronted falling numbers. John Wray felt that the existing boarding practices were out-dated. He believed that a good proportion of the remaining boarders could live at home and develop independent travel skills since they lived near public transport routes.

Although the Committee of Management acknowledged Wray‟s view, they nevertheless urged caution with this approach, fearing it would be unpopular with some families.10 This turned out to be correct. The parents of the boarders were contacted about the proposal and from fourteen letters sent out to the parents, only five responded positively to the proposal.

8 WASDC, Seventy-sixth Annual Reports, p. 10. 9 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 24 February, 1971, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection; WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-fifth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1972), p. 2. 10 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 25 November, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 217

One of those five suggested that they could change their mind due to family situations at home.11

As early as 1972 and again in 1973, the idea of making use of foster and cottage homes was considered, allowing all or part of the existing main building to be used for other purposes.12

However, as far as Bruce Baker, the Head of the Guidance Branch at the Department of

Education was concerned, fostering was not considered practical due to the difficulties in providing this service to children with vision and hearing problems. Cottage homes were considered more acceptable.13

Conflict with the Speech and Hearing Centre

The establishment of the Speech and Hearing Centre (S&HC) in 1967 created some issues that the Education Department had to address. In 1970, the S&HC faced financial challenges which resulted in the Education Department agreeing to be responsible for staffing and salaries of teaching personnel, while the S&HC retained responsibility for the physical premises and ancillary staff. The S&HC remained classified as a non-government school despite the Education Department paying the teachers‟ salaries. In late 1971, the Education

Department proposed that the S&HC either become a government school or revert to the status of a private school. The council of the S&HC opposed this, so an advisory committee made up of representatives of the Education Department and the S&HC formed to investigate the situation. In 1972, the committee recommended that the existing

11 Minutes, 24 February, 1971. 12 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-seventh Annual Reports (Perth: Quality Press, 1974), p. 2; WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 22 August, 1973, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection; Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 25 September, 1973, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 13 Minutes, 25 September, 1973. 218

arrangement continue for the time being, a proposal accepted by the Minister for

Education.14

In April 1972, at their final meeting, the advisory committee endorsed a plan by the S&HC

Council to push ahead in building an oral school at Lake Monger in Wembley. It was expected that the Education Department would continue to pay the salaries of teaching staff at the new school. Not only did the Education Department agree to do so, it supported the

S&HC Council‟s application for a land grant and later with an ultimately unsuccessful bid for registration as a beneficiary of the local television station TVW 7‟s Telethon in 1973.15 By

1976, the salary arrangement resulted in a $90,000 annual bill for 11 teachers. The WA

Council for Special Education, set up in 1974 to advise the Minister for Education on all educational needs for children with disabilities including those with deafness, criticised the arrangement both in their report and in articles printed in the media.16 The founder of the

S&HC, Mr Terry Crommelin, and the then chairman, Mr Kevin Brine, felt that the WACSE‟s report did not provide an accurate picture of the status of D/HH education in Western

Australia. They also accused the WACSE of bias towards the Mosman Park school rather than acknowledging the role and educational philosophy of the S&HC.17 In both cases, the criticisms were probably valid as the S&HC, its staff and board members, were not represented on the council.

The WASDC Committee of Management continued to have concerns with regards to the competition for limited resources created by the establishment of the S&HC. The committee

14 Western Australian Council for Special Education, Education of Hearing Impaired Children in Western Australia: Report to the Minister for Education (Perth: The Western Australian Council for Special Education: 1976), p. 13. 15 Western Australian Council for Special Education, Education, p. 14. 16 Western Australian Council for Special Education, Education, pp. 47-52; “Question on payment of teachers”, The West Australian, 20 December, 1976, p. 28; “Hearing centre criticises dept”, The West Australian, 21 December, 1976, p. 23; “Parents worry over future of deaf school”, The West Australian, 22 December, 1976, p. 9. 17 The West Australian, 21 December, 1976, p. 23. 219

believed that the S&HC seemed to have no difficulty in attracting trained teachers of the

D/HH from overseas and had a greater number of these teachers than the WASDC. They asked the Education Department why this was the case when they had always struggled to attract teachers to Mosman Park.18 Baker reported that the S&HC paid the airfares for those teachers willing to come to WA to work at the Centre. Baker encouraged the committee to follow the same practice.19 The committee also felt that a certain degree of bias was shown by the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories (CAL) towards the S&HC, typified by a photograph of a student being taught at the S&HC displayed in CAL‟s Perth office.

Presumably the committee felt that CAL was favouring the S&HC and drawing attention towards the facilities at that school through the prominent placement of the photograph.

Again, Baker addressed the issue. He reported that in order to be fair to both schools, he had asked CAL to refer all children with an identified hearing loss directly to him at the

Department. From there he would encourage parents to speak with the principals of both the S&HC and the Cottesloe facilities in order to make appropriate decisions as to their child‟s education.20

In 1970-71, incorporation of the S&HC with an all-age oral school located in the nearby suburb of Churchlands was considered by the Education Department, who were keen to bring all aspects of D/HH education under one system. They proposed that the S&HC be responsible for the partially hearing students at an oral school and the WASDC would continue to be responsible for what was termed “educationally-deaf” students. The

Department proposed that there be only one “entry-level” pre-school guidance clinic which would cover all D/HH children identified as such by CAL. Bruce Baker, then also a member

18 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 27 October, 1971, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 19 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 23 February, 1972, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 20 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 28 June, 1972, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 220

of the WASDC Committee of Management, stated that the proposal concerning the early childhood plan was for a Parent Guidance Centre and a pre-school centre to cover the early academic and social needs of newly diagnosed D/HH children. The children would then go to a junior primary school for the deaf until the age of about seven.21 After this, they were to be further assessed on the basis of their degree of hearing loss as well as their academic and social potential. This would be carried out by an assessment committee, together with parental input. Only after this assessment would they be placed at either a mainstream school, the S&HC or Mosman Park.22 The students were to be allocated to the S&HC, if considered orally capable, or to Mosman Park, if manual communication was required.23

One issue seen to be a potential problem was voiced by Dr Harry Blackmore, then the president of the WASDC Committee of Management. He felt that if, after being enrolled at the S&HC, the assessment committee believed that the child would be better off transferring to the Mosman Park school, this transfer could be perceived by the parents as an admission of failure.24 One of the other committee members, Jack Levitzki, pointed out that if a child attended the pre-school clinic and junior primary school with the expectation that oral methods would be used and the child was subsequently placed at Mosman Park, they would lose several years of potential language development due to non-exposure to manual communication.25 Baker suggested that the oral school facilities be established at Wembley rather than Churchlands, with the S&HC establishing a hostel for these students.26 The lack of suitable space in the Cottesloe / Mosman Park area, as well as the desire to unify all

21 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 24 March, 1971, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection, Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.). 22Minutes, 24 March, 1971. 23 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 26 August, 1970, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection, WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.). Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 3 May, 1972, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 24 Minutes, 24 March, 1971. 25 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 28 April, 1971, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 26 Minutes, 24 March, 1971. 221

aspects of D/HH education, was behind the proposal.27 By May 1971, this was confirmed as the accepted plan but financial details still had to be worked out.28

The Department continued to support consolidating the educational programme since the numbers of D/HH children in WA did not justify two separate establishments.29 It was further suggested that D/HH students who “could not hear instructions” would go to the

S&HC and those who “were language handicapped who, having got a message, were unable to reason and bring out a response”, would go to the junior primary school at Cottesloe.30 By that stage, the S&HC used a communication method known as cued speech, described in more detail in the following chapter, as its basis for teaching communication skills. The

Education Department acknowledged this approach and permitted the S&HC to continue using it “without interference” even though they were paying the teachers‟ salaries.31 The proposal that the S&HC take on responsibility for a particular category of D/HH students was put forward despite the feeling expressed clearly by a WASDC committee member, Dr

L.P. Gray, that cued speech was not always successful and that certain staff at the S&HC were considered inflexible in their approach to alternative communication methods that might be needed for the proposed students.32 Parents at the Cottesloe school were informed of the

Department plans and this did not go down well. All parents involved expressed the wish for their children to remain at Cottesloe, an outcome that “upset the proposed plans” and caused the Department to “re-arrange” them.33 In the end, the unified deaf education proposals did not go forward and the Wembley plan was abandoned. All of this came as a surprise to the WASDC Committee of Management who were then in the process of drafting a letter to

27 Minutes, 28 April, 1971. 28 WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 25 July, 1971, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 29 Minutes, 3 May, 1972. 30 Minutes, 3 May, 1972. 31 Minutes, 3 May, 1972. 32 Minutes, 3 May, 1972. 33 Minutes, 28 June, 1972. 222

the Minister for Education requesting clarification of the plans and answers to their questions concerning the future direction of the Mosman Park and Cottesloe schools.34

The future of manual communication teaching caused some apprehension at the WADSC at that time. Two classes of manual communication students were in place at Mosman Park in

1972, but support for the method was falling. The teachers skilled in this method, Miss

Wallace, Mrs Kolinska, and Miss Buckwell, were nearing retirement and only one of the more recently appointed teachers (Mr Schmidt) had any experience with manual communication. Neville Green acknowledged that his own manual communication skills were “painfully slow” and that nowhere in Australia were teachers being trained in the manual method. In fact, one of the committee members, Mr E.W. Gillett, felt that the system was “heavily loaded” against the manual method. This was confirmed by Mr Baker, who stated that the oral method was not only government policy but also one insisted upon by parents. A similar situation was noted at the Victorian School, where only two out of the fourteen teachers at that school were skilled in manual communication.35

Changes at the Hostel

The changing landscape of D/HH education in WA in 1972 created uncertainty within both the Education Department and the WASDC, neither having a clear idea as to the direction in which these services would go. As mentioned above, the Committee of Management was sufficiently concerned to write to the Minister for Education, seeking clarification regarding future plans for D/HH education in Western Australia as well as the future (if any) for the

Mosman Park campus. The Minister‟s reply was not encouraging. The Department attempted to formulate a policy that would cover the academic and social needs of all D/HH

34 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of Special Meeting of the Committee of Management, 11 July, 1972, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 35 Minutes, 23 February, 1972. 223

children, but nothing could be finalised until a new Supervisor of Deaf Education was appointed. All that the Department could do was assure the committee that the Mosman

Park site would continue to have responsibility for oral instruction for older pre-secondary education children as well as provide manual communication for those who could not manage the purely oral approach.36

The following year, the committee contacted Dr A. N. Stewart, the Director of Special

Services at the Department. Stewart‟s reply suggested to the committee that “definitive outlines” were being developed, which would give them some idea of the future of D/HH education.37 The committee therefore needed to reconsider its overall role in the education of D/HH children. Prior to the 1970s, and especially since the rubella epidemics, the committee played a significant role in the provision of residential accommodation and support but the falling numbers changed this. The committee acknowledged the change in student demographics. Social changes were occurring, not only as a result of fewer students remaining in the hostel at weekends, but because there were now fewer older students “who might, as in the past, exhibit a degree of maturity and responsibility to exert a controlling peer influence”.38 A need for supervisory and recreational changes created new demands for

Neville Green and his staff.

The committee retained the legal right to attract funds and bequests from the public, something that the WASDC‟s own parental representation group, the Parents & Citizens

(P&C) Association of Western Australian Deaf Children, could not do since it fell under the requirements of the State Education Act. This led to the suggestion by the Western

Australian Council for Special Education that the Committee of Management should

36 WASDC, Seventy-fifth Annual Reports, pp. 2-3. 37 WASDC, Seventy-sixth Annual Reports, pp. 3-4. 38 WASDC, Seventy-sixth Annual Reports, p. 4. 224

continue to have an important role in the education and welfare of D/HH children, complementing the work of the P&C Association.39 As early as 1973 the committee, on the suggestion of Harry Blackmore, discussed the possibility of inviting the WA Deaf Society to move to the school from East Perth, sharing the Mosman Park buildings and services with the school.40 Thus, well before the matter was brought up in 2014, following the move of the

WA Institute for Deaf Education (WAIDE) to the northern suburb of Padbury, the idea of the

WADS and the WASDC sharing the Mosman Park site was tabled for consideration. Then, as now, approval and advice from the Department of Education needed to be sought before any further plans could be made.

In 1973, the Committee of Management learned of a new federal government subsidy to replace the state government‟s Boarding Away from Home Allowance. The new

Commonwealth Isolated Children‟s Allowance (ICA) provided annual grants of $350 upfront, with a further $350 provided subject to a means test. In addition, a further $304 was provided in cases of “hardship”.41 In view of this, the committee proposed to start charging an annual fee of $350 for the boarders and $700 when clothing and other necessities were provided.42 The families of thirty-five children subsequently signed over to the new payment system, with only six declining. The WASDC committee noted some inconsistencies. If a child whose family resided in the metropolitan area boarded at the school, the school automatically received the first $350 with the parents eligible for the second $350 under the means test. However, if the child was a day student, neither the school nor the parents were entitled to any support from the ICA.43

39 Western Australian Council for Special Education, Education, p. 15. 40 Minutes, 22 August, 1973. 41 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 28 March, 1973, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 42 Minutes, 28 March, 1973. 43 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 30 May, 1973, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 225

In October 1973, Dr Stewart addressed the committee concerning the future of the WASDC.

He stated that plans revolved around the following three proposals:

1. Whether to re-develop the Primary School at Cottesloe.

2. Whether pursuant to this to continue along similar lines to the present at Mosman Park or whether to re-organise into cottage homes where small units would attend at ordinary schools being there given special teachers and all usual deaf teaching aids.

3. In what way to integrate with the Speech and Hearing Centre which was an independent school (but whose teachers were paid by the Department) but was a part of the total system.44

The Department proposed that the Parent Guidance Clinic and Primary School be relocated from Cottesloe to Chidley Point, but this was abandoned primarily due to transportation issues. They also considered the value of greater integration of the D/HH students into mainstream schools, and particularly the idea of D/HH Units across schools in the metropolitan area. However, at that stage, the Department appeared uncertain as to which approach would be most suitable – the primary school or decentralised units.45 In the end, both approaches were later adopted, with new units established at schools around the metropolitan area and the Cottesloe Primary School for the Partially Hearing continuing to be used well into the decade.

Appointment of Brian Fisher

The position of Supervisor of Deaf Education was not filled until 1974 by the Department of

Education following Heatly‟s retirement in 1970. In the interim, responsibility for educational services to D/HH children fell to the Superintendent of Guidance and Special

Education Branch of the Department of Education.46 The title of Supervisor was changed to

44 Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.), Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 31 October, 1973, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 45 Minutes, 31 October, 1973. 46 Val Stephens, Deafness: The Invisible handicap. A history of the provision of education for the hearing impaired with special reference to Western Australia 1896-1963, (MEd dissertation, Murdoch University, 1984), p. 117. 226

Co-ordinator of Children with Impaired Hearing and advertised in 1972, but without success due to the lack of suitable applicants.47 Because of this, the Department felt it worthwhile to look interstate or to England so, in 1973, it advertised more broadly including in the United

Kingdom and the United States. Dr Stewart subsequently travelled overseas to interview suitable applicants.48 Among them was Mr Brian Fisher, who was appointed to the position and arrived in Western Australia on 25 August 1974.49 His wife, Mavis (nee Hewitt), a trained teacher of the deaf and educational audiologist, commenced service as a teacher of the deaf at a unit for D/HH children attached to Bicton Primary School.

Brian Fisher was born in Hindley, Lancashire in the United Kingdom on 4 June 1933. He attended the local St. Benedict‟s Catholic Primary School, before completing his secondary education at Thornleigh College in Bolton. He then trained as a teacher at St. Mary‟s College,

Twickenham, qualifying in 1954. The following year, he gained a further qualification as a teacher of the deaf from Manchester University. This was to lead to a ten-year period of research study at Manchester, during which he was awarded the Diploma of Advanced Study of Education (1962) and Master of Education (1965). Fisher‟s research on the social and emotional adjustment of children with a hearing loss led to further study in the field of educational psychology. Initially, he studied at the University College of Swansea, graduating in 1968 with the award of Diploma in Educational Psychology before completing an MA in psychology at the University of Liverpool in 1972. In 1989, he was awarded the

Teacher's Higher Certificate by the Western Australian Ministry of Education.50 His services to education were nationally recognised on 26 January, 1999 when, alongside his wife,

Mavis, he was appointed a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia.51

47 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of the 75th General Meeting of the WA School for Deaf Children, 19 February, 1973. 48 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of the 76th General Meeting of the WA School for Deaf Children, 15 February, 1974. 49 Mavis Fisher, email communication to Geoffrey Smith, 12 April, 2018. 50 Mavis Fisher, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 23 April, 2018. 51 Mavis Fisher, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 23 April, 2018. 227

Fisher was to show a solid belief in the value of lifetime education after retirement. He developed a strong interest in the Italian language and culture, becoming a member of the

Dante Alighieri Society of Western Australia from 2006. In 2012, he was awarded Bachelor of Theology from the University of Notre Dame in Western Australia.52 In doing so, he was also awarded the Vice-Chancellor‟s Medal for having attained outstanding academic results in the School of Philosophy and Theology for that year.53 He passed away on 2 September

2017, following a stroke.

Fisher‟s research background and attention to detail made him a strong believer in the need to retain written documentation at all times. This made him somewhat unpopular within the

Education Department in W.A. as he would insist on written communication in the form of memos rather than to make use of the telephone.54 Mavis Fisher commented that although

Brian did not have a middle name, he sometimes added his confirmation name, John, to documents in order to avoid association between his initials, B.F., and the popular abbreviation “bloody fool”.55 In October 1974, soon after taking up his new placement,

Fisher reported to the WASDC Committee of Management that since he had been “surveying the position” and was required to submit a report to the Education Department, he believed that changes to the system were necessary and that an overlap of services was to be avoided.

He was “not interested in the philosophy of methods as individuals had to be considered” and “parents should not receive conflicting advice”.56 He also compared the WA system unfavourably to England, flagging the desire to improve it over the next couple of years.57

52 Mavis Fisher, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 18 April, 2018. 53 Mavis Fisher, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 23 April, 2018. 54 Mavis Fisher, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 18 April, 2018. 55 Mavis Fisher, communication with Geoffrey Smith, 23 April, 2018. 56 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 30 October, 1974, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 57 Minutes, 30 October, 1974. 228

By November 1974, Fisher was able to outline his plans to the WASDC Committee of

Management. He had visited all the D/HH educational facilities in Western Australia and confirmed that in comparison to the United Kingdom, there were “considerable deficiencies”.58 Fisher proposed that a newly created State Assessment Centre at Cottesloe, to open at the beginning of 1975, would serve as the “starting point” for D/HH education in

WA, with all students thoroughly assessed between the ages of four and seven. Based on these assessments, students would be placed into one of two groups: deaf or partially hearing. Fisher proposed that the deaf students continue to attend the Mosman Park school and the partially hearing group remain at Cottesloe until they reached secondary school age, after which it was proposed that they would attend Swanbourne Senior High School. At that early stage, Swanbourne SHS was not yet confirmed as a host school for a D/HH unit, so

Fisher felt that if the arrangement did not eventuate, a specialist high school in the Mosman

Park / Cottesloe area might have to be created for these students, despite the relatively small number that would be expected to attend.

Fisher also visited Geraldton and Albany with Bruce Baker. Parents that they met in these towns told Fisher and Baker that they preferred their children to attend local schools rather than board at Mosman Park, fearing their children “would associate with those more deaf than themselves”.59 Fisher hoped that the creation of the Cottesloe Partially Deaf School would encourage more of these parents to send their children to the school in Perth.

Separate hostels were proposed, with the deaf group remaining at Mosman Park and the partially-deaf students housed elsewhere. Fisher felt that the existing Mosman Park hostel accommodation did not allow for both groups to be housed appropriately.60 He acknowledged that this plan would result in few boarders at Mosman Park, but felt that with

58 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 27 November, 1974, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 59 Minutes, 27 November, 1974. 60 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 26 February, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 229

a good system of education in place, more country D/HH children might be educated in

Perth.61 Even at this early stage, there was some concern as to how the division would affect the students socially. It was pointed out that once they finished school, both groups tended to gravitate towards the WA Deaf Society, so those without some manual communication skills might find themselves at a disadvantage in this social setting. Fisher expected many of the partially hearing students to move towards clubs with hearing members along with a

“third classification” of D/HH students who attended mainstream schools rather than the two proposed for Perth.62

Fisher was true to his word. Commencing in the 1975 school year, he began introducing changes to the system of education for D/HH children. Many of these changes occurred as a result of the work of the WA Council for Special Education, which produced a comprehensive report on the education of D/HH children in 1976. This followed a long consultative process when submissions were received from almost all organisations and groups involved with

D/HH children and adults in Western Australia.63

Differentiation between Deaf and Partially Hearing Students

One of the key changes implemented by Fisher was to separate the D/HH children into two distinct groups for educational purposes. He aimed to provide a comprehensive educational programme to all D/HH children regardless of their degree of hearing loss. One group comprised those classified as partially hearing with the opportunity of benefitting from an oral programme. The other group consisted of those who were found to be severely or profoundly deaf and who needed educational services based on the manual or combined

61 Minutes, 27 November, 1974. 62 Minutes, 27 November, 1974. 63 Western Australian Council for Special Education, Education, preface. 230

methods.64 A Department of Education document (DES Circular 10/62) demonstrated how placement within the two groups was achieved. The definition of “deaf” and “partially- hearing” were:

a. deaf pupils, that is to say, pupils with impaired hearing who require education by methods suitable for pupils with little or no naturally acquired speech or language.

b. partially-hearing pupils, that is to say, pupils with impaired hearing whose development of speech and language, even if retarded, is following a normal pattern, and who require for their education special arrangements of facilities, though not necessarily all the educational methods used for deaf pupils.65

The WA Council for Special Education report of 1976 pointed out that the two classifications did not necessarily align with audiological classifications of deafness, but did allow for differences in educational needs.66 Access to language rather than degree of deafness was the over-riding criteria. By way of example, in 1974, I was audiologically classified as severely deaf, but with fully-developed and age-appropriate spoken language skills. At the time I was in a mainstream country high school, with no access to support from those involved in the education of D/HH children. If I was attending a school for the D/HH in

Perth, I would have fallen into the “deaf” category if degree of deafness alone was the basis for placement. Language capabilities, however, would probably have resulted in categorisation as partially-hearing even though the actual degree of hearing loss was more than just “partially”. In addition, “special arrangements of facilities” were rarely required, so it could be argued that even placement in the partially-hearing category would have created restrictions in terms of educational progress.

Differentiation in terms of ability in order to access language skills development and curriculum-based content was nevertheless an approach that enabled educational services to be managed more efficiently. Units at Claremont, Cottesloe and Bicton primary schools were

64 Stephens, Deafness: The Invisible handicap, p. 118. 65 WA Council for Special Education, Education, p. 31. 66 WA Council for Special Education, Education, p. 31. 231

closed. Partially-hearing children at these schools were transferred to Cottesloe Junior

Primary School, which was renamed the Cottesloe School for Partially Hearing Children

(CSPHC) in 1975.67 Those children considered to be “educationally deaf”, continued to be taught at Mosman Park at the WASDC.68 Since their educational needs were considered to require “methods suitable for pupils with little or no naturally acquired speech or language”, the oral method could not be considered educationally appropriate. On this basis, the

Principal, Mrs Marie Donovan, introduced the total communication method of instruction, a version of the combined method, in 1976.69 Initially this method, which made use of signing, finger-spelling and talking, received little support from the Department of Education, teachers at the school or the parents, but later became generally accepted by all parties.70

As proposed, the differentiation between partially hearing and “educationally deaf” students extended to accommodation arrangements. Fisher recommended that the students attending the Cottesloe school be accommodated in separate premises to the students attending Mosman Park.71 The Education Department‟s land at Chidley Point was still being considered as a site for accommodating one of the two groups. However, a parcel of the land at the site could not be conveniently transferred to the WASDC. A decision was made to focus instead on cottage home accommodation.72 Under the initial plan, three suitable properties needed to be found: two for the partially hearing students and one for the profoundly deaf students.73 The Committee of Management hoped to take advantage of the recently introduced “four-for-one” subsidy for the capital costs of buildings or equipment for children with disabilities. This subsidy, provided under the Handicapped Persons Assistance

(HPA) Act (1974), also allowed for payment of four-fifths of maintenance costs and rent

67 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-eighth Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1975), p. 5. 68 WASDC, Seventy-seventh Annual Reports, p. 12. 69 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. 165. 70 Stephens, Deafness, p. 119. 71 WASDC, Seventy-eighth Annual Reports, p. 5. 72 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 26 February, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 73 Minutes, 26 February, 1975. 232

paid.74 The problems associated with the release of land at Chidley Point meant that the committee was unable to use this subsidy for accommodation at this location.75 It was suggested that the Department lease some of the land at the Mosman Park site back to the committee so that the subsidy could be accessed. In the end, the committee unanimously agreed that the existing buildings continue to be used for the education of D/HH children regardless of any move of accommodation services away from the site.76

Early in 1975, a sub-committee of the Committee of Management investigated cottage homes for their suitability in accommodating D/HH children. The sub-committee comprised Mrs

E. Chittleborough, Mrs Marie Donovan, Mr Brian Fisher and Mr Neville Green.77 A vacant cottage on the premises of the Salvation Army home at Hollywood was investigated. The sub-committee proposed that the WASDC rent the cottage for the use of the Mosman Park children, using existing staff from the school and hostel. However, some committee members felt that use of the Mosman Park facilities and land was preferable, especially given the availability of the HPA Act (1974) subsidy.78 In the end, the proposal did not go ahead; the Salvation Army was not prepared to make the cottage available.79 The committee then decided to pursue purchasing a large old house to trial cottage home-type accommodation for the partially hearing students.80

The Cottage Home Arrangement

74 Minutes, 26 February, 1975; “Handicapped Persons Assistance Act 1974”, archived at Federal Register of Legislation, [https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2004A00190], accessed 30 December, 2016. 75 Minutes, 26 February, 1975. 76 Minutes, 26 February, 1975. 77 Minutes, 26 February, 1975. 78 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 9 April, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 79 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 26 May, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 80 Minutes, 26 May, 1975. 233

In mid-1975, a large two-storey home, described as a “mansion” in the WASDC 78th Annual report, was found at 1093 Albany Highway in Bentley, near where the Leach Highway overpass is located. Diesel Motors Ltd. owned the property. 81 Once leasing was finalised, eight partially hearing children were transferred in August 1975. The move went well, but because the outdoor facilities were less than adequate, the Committee of Management investigated alternative premises closer to Mosman Park.82 The Bentley property was gazetted as industrial and this also counted against it being used on a long-term basis. A number of other town councils were contacted in regards to securing approval to establish a home within their areas, but all, including Cottesloe, responded negatively.83 At one stage, the supervisor‟s cottage on the site of the Mosman Park school was considered for the accommodation of the partially hearing students with the profoundly deaf students remaining in the existing hostel and the supervisor taking up accommodation within the main building.84 The suggestion had merit as it enabled full use of the current facilities including the swimming pool and library. However, it did not meet with Brian Fisher‟s approval. It was also clear to the committee that the Education Department would not become involved in the running of the hostel as well as the schools. The only solution left was for the committee to buy or rent a property close to the schools.85

Increasing need for cottage home arrangements became evident in 1976. Numbers at the

Mosman park hostel dropped to the point where the large building was beyond the accommodation needs of the students. The committee of management considered replacing the hostel altogether with cottage accommodation rather like that at Bentley. Staffing

81 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 16 July, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 82 WASDC, Seventy-eighth Annual Reports, pp. 2, 5-6. 83 Minutes, 16 July, 1975. 84 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 24 September, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 29 October, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 85 WA School for Deaf Children, Minutes of meeting of the Committee of Management, 26 November, 1975, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42, JS Battye Library of Western Australian History Collection. 234

numbers were also affected, reflecting a drop in the number of full-time staff and a reliance on part-time help for specific roles such as medical care and out-of-school activities for the residents.86 Two significant staffing redundancies occurred. One was the matron, Mrs.

Mildred Edmiston, who came to the hostel from a similar position at the NSW School for the

Deaf at North Rocks in 1973. She served the hostel for three years, gaining a strong reputation for her kindness. The other was Neville Green, who resigned from full-time employment at the hostel in order to take up a teaching position at the Mount Lawley College of Advanced Education. Green continued on a part-time basis and took on responsibility as superintendent for both the Mosman Park and Bentley hostels.87

The Committee of Management considered the Bentley residence to be successful, but some concerns persisted. Apart from the lack of outdoor facilities, the distance from Cottesloe and the fact that only eight children could be accommodated led to a rethink about its suitability.

During 1976, the Director of Special Education, Dr A.N. Stewart, advised the committee that land could still be made available at Chidley Point for a residential unit for the partially-deaf children. The committee was again prepared to consider the idea, since apart from being situated closer to Cottesloe, the potential existed for sharing the facilities at the Centre.88

During 1976, two proposals were put forward in regards to cottage-type accommodation for the two groups of students. On the one hand, the Department still needed to consider the committee‟s proposal to accommodate the educationally-deaf students in the old

Superintendent‟s quarters. On the other, the partially-deaf children needed accommodation closer to Cottesloe. Both required an injection of Public Works Department funding. The

Chidley Point Centre proposal was also subject to federal government funding being

86 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-ninth Annual Reports (Perth: Quality Press, 1976), pp. 7-8. 87 WASDC, Seventy-ninth Annual Reports, pp. 7-8. 88 WASDC, Seventy-ninth Annual Reports, p. 3. 235

forthcoming.89 Neither proposal ended up going ahead. Conversion of the Superintendent‟s quarters was considered too expensive to pursue, so the children continued to be accommodated in the main building.90 The committee abandoned the Chidley Point Centre proposal when a seven-bedroom / three-bathroom house in Selby Street, Daglish was obtained in 1978. The Selby Street property had two things in its favour. It was closer to the schools and it had more outdoor recreational space. The committee stated in the 1980

Annual Report that the move from Bentley to Daglish “was achieved without problems”, but this is questionable.91

The owner of the Daglish house, Mrs Vaun Wilson, a recently-widowed mother of four children, was keen to sell the property to the WASDC. She experienced significant financial difficulties resulting from the death of her husband and the businesses he left behind. The

Committee of Management offered Mrs Wilson $85,000, well below the $110,000 she initially wanted for the property. She agreed to this offer, but the proposal had to go before the Subiaco City Council for re-zoning. Acting on its policy of inviting rate-payer input into decisions, the council canvassed property owners in the vicinity of the Wilson property. The council received fifteen replies and a petition with 42 signatures against the proposal. Traffic safety issues on Selby Street were the basis of some objections, while others were concerned about property devaluations. The council‟s town planning committee rejected the WASDC plan.92

The WASDC, the WA Deaf Society, the Australian Deafness Council and Mrs Wilson greeted the rejection with dismay. They were not alone. Using the very same rate-payer input

89 WASDC, Seventy-ninth Annual Reports, p. 3. 90 WA School for Deaf Children, Eighty-first Annual Report of WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.) (Perth: n.p., 1978), p. 11; WA School for Deaf Children, Eighty-second Annual Report of WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.) (Perth: n.p., 1979), p. 2. 91 WA School for Deaf Children, Eighty-third Annual Report (Perth: n.p., 1980) p. 1. 92 “Group will press for home for deaf”, The West Australian, 8 November, 1978, p. 9; “The outcasts of Selby Street”, Weekend News, 18 November, 1978, p. 2. 236

policy, a local resident, Mrs Patricia Fowkes, drew up a counter-petition signed by 350 supporting approving the cottage home. This was even signed by some of those who initially opposed the cottage home. Because of its own policy, the Subiaco Council was forced to reverse its initial decision and the purchase went ahead.93

The initial objection to the cottage home reflected some prejudices by property owners about what they believed to be “institutional” arrangements. One objector, who lived some distance away in Karrinyup, reportedly said that “there were enough institutions in the street already”, no doubt referring to the nearby rehabilitation hospital and the Paraplegic /

Quadriplegic Centre.94 What was known as the “Tresillian affair”, which occurred in 1976, probably influenced the issue.95 This affair resulted from a decision by the WA State Mental

Health Service to transfer some twenty children with intellectual disabilities from Claremont

Hospital to a smaller facility, Tresillian, located in Nedlands. The government, then led by

Sir Charles Court, bowed to pressure from nearby residents to close Tresillian. The controversy was only resolved when the government funded more appropriate accommodation not just for the Tresillian children, but also for a large number of others with intellectual and physical disabilities.96 Like the WASDC policy, the Mental Health Service was also pursuing a move away from institutional care towards providing a home-like cottage environment. In both cases, a “not in my backyard” backlash from local residents resulted. But at least in the case of the WASDC, the Selby Street proposal gained support through the actions of community-minded locals such as Mrs Fowkes.

93 “New look at home for deaf”, The West Australian, 20 November, 1978, p. 8 94 Weekend News, 18 November, 1978, p. 2. 95 The West Australian, 20 November, 1978, p. 8. 96 Luke Garswood and Kaye Regan, “Disability Movement”, in Jenny Gregory and Jan Gothard (eds), Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia (Crawley: University of Western Australia Press, 2009), pp. 280-281. 237

The Selby Street home opened at the beginning of the 1979 school year, with eight partially- hearing children in residence. They were under the supervision of Miss Kaye Bagley, with the assistance of Miss Carol Hamilton and, later in the year, Miss Jean Simon.97 The Daglish property, with more outdoor space than Bentley, was more suitable for the children. It had the advantage of being closer to the Yokine Oral Deaf Unit which opened in February 1979.

Like those at the Mosman Park premises, the children at Daglish were well looked after.

Both benefitted from an arrangement with Graylands Teachers College (for Mosman Park) and Mount Lawley Teacher‟s College (for Daglish), whereby a student assisted with homework supervision each evening from Monday to Thursday.98

The change did come with some financial concerns. The Committee of Management received financial assistance from the Commonwealth government for the capital cost and some renovations required at the Daglish property. New equipment and incidentals were also required. The main problem was increasing costs in staff salaries as well as food and fuel expenditure at both hostels. Staff salaries were subsidised by Social Security, but the subsidies were reported to be $3,400 lower than the previous year due to fewer children in need of accommodation.99

This situation reflected the steadily declining need for residential accommodation for D/HH children. By 1979, the Mosman Park school continued in operation, but was no longer the only Education Department facility for these children. The Cottesloe School for the Partially

Deaf and Oral Deaf Units at various schools around the metropolitan area represented the process of decentralisation of these services. At the same time many D/HH now lived at home with relatively easy access to a well-placed unit. This meant that hostel costs were

97 WASDC, Eighty-second Annual Report, p. 8. 98 WASDC, Eighty-second Annual Report, pp. 7-8. 99 WASDC, Eighty-second Annual Report, p. 6. 238

increasing but servicing a relatively small number of children. The presence of the Speech and Hearing Centre as an alternative facility for the education of D/HH children also contributed to fewer children being in need of services. The increased involvement of the

Education Department in the management of D/HH education in W.A. led to the WADSC

Committee of Management considering the need to review its Constitution to broaden its aims and objectives.100 They also investigated alternative uses for the Mosman Park building, which included the leasing out of parts of the building to the Specific Learning

Disabilities Association (SPELD) from 1977 to assist them with their work with children with dyslexia.101

The uncertain future of the hostel

Despite all the changes and challenges, the Mosman Park Hostel experienced a period of relative stability in terms of staffing during the second half of the decade. Neville Green continued in the role of superintendent for much of this time. Mrs Green handled the catering and housekeeping aspects of the hostel, assisted by Miss Isobel Stanners

(receptionist /typist), Mr Don Earl (boy‟s supervisor), Mrs Gladys Easdown (cook) and Miss

H. Fiora (laundress). Mr and Mrs Green left the hostel in 1979, after ten years of service.

Consequently, Miss Stanners was appointed Manager for the committee, combining the duties of superintendent, matron, staff supervisor and office manager.102 Stanners, who joined the WASDC in 1963, served in a variety of office and supervisory capacities for both the Mosman Park hostel and the WASDC Committee of Management until her retirement in

2002.

100 WASDC, Eighty-first Annual Report, pp. 1-2. 101 WA School for Deaf Children, Eightieth Annual Report of WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.) (Perth: n.p., 1977), p. 2. 102 WA School for Deaf Children Inc., The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children (Osborne Park WA): Jiffy Printing, 1996), p. 191. 239

The importance of parental input in the education of their D/HH children continued to build on the issues experienced during the 1960s. The Cottesloe school and the Parent Guidance

Clinic for the Deaf encouraged parental involvement both at the premises and at home. To assist parents, Mrs Alice Cordwell, then the school‟s principal, published a book titled Out of the Silence in 1971.103 Cordwell was awarded a $1000 Guild Chemists Award to enable a copy of the book to be given to each family with a D/HH child. The book was the first

Australian publication focussing on D/HH children and aimed at parental involvement and support.104 Cordwell retired in 1979, a popular educator with parents, students and school staff alike.105

In May 1979, Dr June Miller, head of the speech and hearing department at the University of

Kansas, visited Western Australia for a two-month period. During the visit, she gave a series of talks and seminars to parents and teachers, emphasising the need for early intervention, as well as the provision of teachers of the deaf within all schools. Miller‟s visit was sponsored by the Mount Hawthorn Rotary Club and hosted by the Speech and Hearing Centre. She was passionate about deaf children making use of their residual hearing and used auditory-oral techniques for teaching her students, an approach in line with the philosophy of oralism used at the Speech and Hearing Centre. The visit was very much a means of endorsing oralism and was promoted as such in the media at the time.106

Miller was quite positive about teaching methods in use in WA at the time, but critical of the current number of untrained teachers of the deaf and the lack of local facilities for

103 Alice M. Cordwell, Out of the Silence: A Book for the Families of Hearing-Handicapped Children (Sydney: Alella Books:, 1971). 104 WA School for Deaf Children, Seventy-third Annual Reports (Perth: n.p., 1970), p. 10; The House on the Hill, p. 122. 105 “A popular Principal”, Fremantle-Cockburn News, 13 December, 1979, p. 8. 106 “Deaf need early help”, Daily News, 29 May, 1979, p. 3; “Expert will help WA deaf children”, The West Australian, 30 May, 1979, p. 42; “Expert on teaching the deaf visits Perth”, North Suburban News, 6 June, 1979, p.2*; “Change in course for deaf training”, Daily News, 18 July, 1979, p. 25. 240

professional training in this field. She believed that setting up a post-graduate course for this purpose was not necessarily the best option for Western Australia, since it would mean taking teachers out of the educational system for the duration of their training. Given the size and widely dispersed population of the state, there were not enough teachers as it was.

Instead, she felt that more practitioners of D/HH education should be brought to Western

Australia for longer periods to work with teachers in classroom settings. Those teachers who wished to gain professional qualifications in D/HH education could do so in the eastern states, with one outstanding teacher selected each year for a special study programme overseas. The suggestions met with approval by the Education Department. The superintendent of special education, Mr Robert Weiland, stated that the Department would cooperate with all the suggestions put forward by Dr Miller.107

In conclusion, the 1970s were notable for the significant shift away from residential schools for the D/HH towards full integration as day students in mainstream schools or units in

Western Australia. From an educational and parental point of view, policies enabling D/HH children to gain full access to educational opportunities were based on a belief that the institutional model of education for D/HH students, as practiced by the WASDC since its establishment, was out-moded and not in keeping with current trends. This process did not happen overnight. Since the introduction of reliable and free hearing aids, more children were able to manage quite well in mainstream schools. However, those children with a severe to profound hearing loss experienced greater challenges as they often required some form of manual communication. Until the 1970s, despite the suppression of most forms of manual communication in favour of oralism, many children were exposed to Sign language within their residential schools. The “playgrounds and dormitories” of the residential schools “played a seminal role in forging and sustaining the deaf community and

107 Daily News, 18 July, 1979, p. 25. 241

standardising sign usage in Australia as they did in Britain”.108 The closure of residential schools was considered to be a serious blow to the passage of Sign from one generation to the next.109

The focus on oralism and the closure of residential schools affected the Deaf community significantly. The policies involved were clearly audist in nature but were carried out in the genuine desire to provide better educational, social and career prospects for D/HH children.

The process was driven by hearing educationalists, parents, audiologists and academic research. However, it was acknowledged that even with audiological advances, some D/HH children required access to manual communication and specialised services. During the

1980s, this acknowledgement led to a revival in the use of manual communication and especially in the growing awareness of Auslan as a linguistic code. As this eventuated, the

Deaf community began to have a “voice”, taking an active role in educational programmes for the first time since the establishment of the original schools for the deaf in Sydney and

Melbourne.

108 Trevor Johnston, (ed.), Signs of Australia: A New Dictionary of Auslan (The Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community), Rev. Ed. (North Rocks (Sydney): Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, 1998), p. 562. 109 Johnston, Signs of Australia, p. 562. 242

Chapter 10: Bilingual-Bicultural Instruction

Throughout much of the history of Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) education in Western

Australia, responsibility for curriculum development and delivery, as well as educational pedagogy, fell to hearing educators and administrative staff. As elsewhere worldwide, the focus tended to be mostly on oral educational methods, but post-World War II research in

D/HH education and audiology started to challenge the reign of the oral method. There was also an increasing willingness for the Deaf community to express their rights to their own language and their own culture. This led to changes in the way in which the various Sign

Languages (Sign) were viewed, reviewed and incorporated into educational programmes.

This shift was a significant acknowledgement of the valid linguistic identity of Sign, but educators and the Deaf community were still faced with challenges arising from technological developments that reinforced and supported the oral method.

Sign Languages – The Background

During the 1980s and 1990s, the renewed attention given to Sign-based modes of instruction to D/HH students took place at roughly the same time as the development of the cochlear implant. Termed Bilingual-Bicultural (BiBi) Instruction, the goal is to enable a D/HH child to develop communicative fluency in both their Native Sign Language (NSL) and the spoken language of their country (bilingual). This allows them to gain the skills necessary to move easily between the Deaf and hearing communities (bicultural) within that country. Stein

Ohna, a Norwegian teacher of the deaf and a hearing child of Deaf parents, drew from the work of a Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor who coined the term “politics of recognition”.

This describes the manner in which cultural groups “claim recognition of their culture, 243

language, and their unique identities in the modern multicultural society”.1 Ohna used this term to reflect on the need for Deaf children to develop a “sense” of their deafness and identity as a D/HH person interacting between the hearing and the deaf world.2 The acceptance of NSL as a valid linguistic code was integral to the concept of BiBi education.

Prior to the 1950s, Sign was generally seen as an inferior and inadequate means of communication. Although used widely by the Deaf community, the grammatical and lexical structures of Sign are different to spoken languages, including English. During the 1970s, attempts were made in some schools in Australia and elsewhere to incorporate some signing alongside spoken English (a process known as Signed English), where it was acknowledged that a child‟s hearing loss was significant enough to make the process of acquiring speech a difficult task.3 However, Signed English (SE) requires that signs (and finger-spelling) are provided in English word order, so in this respect, a significant difference existed between SE and Sign.

During the 1970s and into the 1980s, it was becoming increasingly apparent to those working within the field of D/HH education of D/HH, that many, if not most, children were leaving school at an early age and with very low literacy levels. Contrary to teacher expectations that outcomes would improve with developments in amplification technology and a focus on speech and spoken language, educational levels attained by D/HH children continued to be very poor. By the 1990s, research also showed that in terms of language development, the first five years of a child‟s life were the most crucial for the formation of any language. If language had not formed within this five-year time span, future linguistic

1 Stein Erik Ohna, “Education of deaf children and the politics of recognition”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 8, no. 1 (Winter, 2003), p. 5. 2 Ohna, “Education of deaf children”, p. 8. 3 Ellaine Downie, “The Emergence of Auslan”, in Ellaine Downie, (ed.), Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974-2006 (Nunuwading (Vic): Deafness Foundation (Victoria), 2006), p. 189. 244

development was impaired, since the neural connections of the brain locked in place after that time. This research helped explain why language development remained at a very poor level for previous generations of D/HH children. As shown in early chapters of this thesis,

D/HH children sometimes commenced school quite late in life, until pre-school programmes were developed and made available. Consequently, the D/HH child often spent these early years without exposure to any linguistic code, after which the opportunity for language development became considerably reduced and future educational progress was compromised despite the best efforts of teachers of the deaf. 4

The Impact of Linguistic Researchers

These trends were foreseen by the Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, as early as the 1930s and put forward during the repressive Stalinist era. At that time, Sign was gradually removed from Soviet educational programmes, following a declaration by Stalin that the

Deaf were without language, even manual language. Like many educationalists at the time,

Vygotsky initially believed that speech and the mastery of spoken language should be the main focus of D/HH education. His later work indicates that he developed reservations about the effectiveness of oral programmes and an appreciation of the benefits of Sign language. He developed a new means of instruction for D/HH children which acknowledged the use of Sign and the social aspects of deafness as important to language development which, in turn, enhanced the educational and psychological development of these children.

Given that he was supporting an unapproved language in Stalinist USSR, this was a significant change of attitude.5 Vygotsky‟s work remained largely unknown in the West until the 1980s, when it became evident that his views on D/HH education were largely ahead of

4 Ellaine Downie, “The emergence of Auslan”, in Ellaine Downie, (ed.), Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974-2006 (Nunawading (Vic): Deafness Foundation (Victoria), 2006), p. 189, 191. 5 Galina Zaitseve, Michael G. Pursglove and Susan Gregory, “Vygotsky, sign language and the education of deaf pupils”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 4, no. 1 (Winter, 1999), pp. 9-11. 245

their time. His view of seeing the Deaf as a cultural and linguistic minority mirrored and predated that of researchers in the western world.

The suppression of Sign as an educational tool created long-lasting negative attitudes, even within the Deaf community. The focus on oralism stigmatised those D/HH individuals who were unable to master speech and oral language, instead “resorting” to manual communication. Claudia Slegers of Monash University found that Deaf adults who were taught in oral settings in the past, sometimes retained significant negative attitudes towards

Sign. This included a desire to improve their speech and language skills to enhance their social and career prospects.6 A reluctance to use Australian Sign Language (Auslan) when communicating with hearing (non-signing) people was also observed.7 It was not until a series of linguistic studies in the second half of the twentieth century confirmed Vygotsky‟s belief in Sign as a valid linguistic code that attitudes changed. At the same time, the Deaf community began to reclaim of Sign with pride and a belief in its value in social and educational communication.

Sign came to be recognized in the western world as a language in its own right primarily as a result of research conducted by William Stokoe. A lecturer in medievalism and linguistics,

Stokoe took up an appointment at Gallaudet College in the 1950s and was immediately exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) since it was the predominant form of communication within this liberal-arts college for the Deaf. Stokoe soon realized that far from being a sub-standard form of communication (as was generally believed), ASL

“satisfied every linguistic criterion of a genuine language, in its lexicon and syntax, its capacity to generate an infinite number of propositions”.8 Stokoe went on to study ASL in

6 Claudia Slegers, “Signs of change: Contemporary attitudes to Australian Sign Language”. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. vol. 33, no. 1 (2010), p. 5.11. 7 Slegers, “Signs of change”, pp. 5.11-5.12. 8 Oliver Sacks, Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf (London: Picador, 1991), p. 78. 246

depth and proved beyond doubt that it was a genuine linguistic code. He found that signs had at least three independent parts - location, hand-shape and movement - which filled the same role as the sounds (phonemes) in spoken language. Furthermore, there were only a limited number of combinations of these parts.9

This research was groundbreaking and controversial since it challenged the prevailing view of not just ASL, but ultimately all national versions of Sign. As Oliver Sacks commented,

Stokoe demonstrated a certain amount of courage and dedication to his research which began to capture the attention of linguists. The socio-cultural aspects of the Deaf community also began to interest researchers and this in turn provided the Deaf community with a sense of validity and ownership of their language and culture.10 Stokoe‟s major monographs on the subject were Sign Language Structure (1960) and A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles (1965), written in collaboration with two colleagues. The former book catalogued the location, hand-shape and movements that made up ASL and gave them a written description (or notation), something never considered before.11 The Dictionary was equally ground-breaking. According to Sacks:

…the signs were arranged not thematically (e.g. signs for food, signs for animals, etc.) but systematically, according to their parts, and organization, and principles of the language. It showed the lexical structure of the language – the linguistic interrelatedness of a basic three thousand sign “words”.12

Less well known, but equally important in the development of a bilingual approach to D/HH education, is the work of Dr. Bernard Tervoort. Dutch by birth, Tervoort was a Catholic priest who studied both linguistics and theology. His PhD studies were prompted by visits to the Instituut voor Doven (Institute for the Deaf) located in Sint-Michielsgestel, a town in the southern Netherlands. At the Insituut, he noticed that children used Sign among

9 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 78. 10 Sacks, Seeing Voices, pp. 79-80. 11 Sacks, Seeing Voices, pp. 78-79. 12 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 79. 247

themselves, despite the official use of oral instruction methods. Entitled Structurele analyse van visueel taalgebruik binnen een groep dove kinderen [Structural analysis of visual language use in a group of deaf children], Tervoort‟s thesis, completed in 1953, investigated the structure and usage of this “visual language” (or “esoteric” language, used within Deaf peer groups, as he described it in the thesis).13 In many ways, Tervoort‟s work foreshadowed the work of Stokoe. In comparing the visual communication system with spoken Dutch,

Tervoort understood that the visual language of the Deaf children was a linguistic code in its own right. Most importantly of all, he saw the value of this language in educational instruction. He ended his thesis with an appeal to teachers of the deaf: “If you want deaf children to learn your language, you first have to learn theirs”.14 Tervoort thus became the first advocate for bilingual education and was considered well ahead of his time in the field of

D/HH education.15 Much of his subsequent academic career at the University of Amsterdam involved the study of linguistics including that of Sign language and the Deaf community.

His work stimulated further research into the use of Sign in the Netherlands and was instrumental in the introduction of bilingual D/HH education in that country more than four decades after the publication of his ground-breaking PhD thesis.16

As a result of the work by Stokoe and Tervoort, Sign languaage became studied in greater detail by linguists and educators of D/HH children. There was also an increasing interest in and understanding of Deaf culture, which began to provide members of the Deaf community with a sense of pride and ownership. Like other minority groups, the Deaf community began to express the need for change in the way in which they were perceived by the wider community. They also found a voice through political activism and public demonstrations.17

13 Spoken language (or speech) was described as “exoteric” and used to label communication carried out by the Deaf child with those in the hearing community. 14 Harry Knoors, “Obituary: Bernard Theodoor Marie Tervoort”, .Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 12, no. 2 (Spring, 2007), p. 242. 15 Knoors, “Obituary”, p. 242. 16 Knoors, “Obituary”, p. 242. 17 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 151. 248

Activism at Gallaudet University

Public demonstrations by minority and/or oppressed groups have long been used, but it was not until the 1960s that demonstrations began to achieve wider attention and publicity. This was the decade in which television and mass-media began to dominate society and early leaders in the American Civil Rights movement were quick to realize the power of television.

The images of Black Power demonstrations and the media-savvy impact of leaders such as

Martin Luther King were vital tools in the long and difficult task of affecting change in the attitudes held towards Black people.18 Equally, the Women‟s Liberation movement in the

1970s made use of the same techniques to affect social change in the attitudes towards women‟s rights. By the 1980s, the Deaf community was beginning to find a voice as well.

The moment came at Gallaudet University in 1988.

Gallaudet University was established in Washington DC, an institution set up to provide liberal arts postsecondary education to D/HH students and the only one of its kind in the world. It provides a community for Deaf students, one in which American Sign Language

(ASL) and visual information are the primary modes of communication. Deaf culture thrives in this academic community and it is no surprise to read that many students find it difficult to leave Gallaudet once they graduate.19 Even in this environment, however, an audist influence can be and has been evident. The administrative structure was long made up of hearing personnel, but by 1988 pressure was being exerted by the Gallaudet student community and its followers for the election of a Deaf president to head the University.

Three candidates were considered and of these, two were Deaf and all were highly qualified for the role. To the astonishment of the Gallaudet students, the governing board elected the hearing candidate, Elisabeth Zinser. The students subsequently and not unexpectedly

18 Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (London: Vintage Books, 2004), pp. 38-41. 19 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 130. 249

protested the outcome on the grounds that a Deaf institution should be entitled to a Deaf president. The situation might have ended there, but as the Gallaudet student community and their supporters protested the outcome, the chair of the University board, Jane Bassett

Spilman, made the comment that “the deaf are not yet ready to function in the hearing world”.20

As an example of an audist viewpoint, Spilman‟s comment was breathtakingly ill-considered, delivered as it was to a community of well-educated, articulate and politically-aware Deaf students. The response was predictable. The student protests escalated to new levels with broad media exposure in the United States and internationally. Spilman came under attack for her comments and Zinser attempted to assert control with a “no nonsense” stance towards the students with whom she was deeply unpopular.21 According to Sacks, the student protest movement rapidly moved from an uncoordinated state of affairs into one that was political, coordinated and organised.22 As a result, the students showed themselves to be competent in managing the situation and handling the resulting media and political dialogue. On this basis, Zinser, to her credit, resigned on 10 March.23

The manner in which Zinser handled her resignation and acknowledged the Deaf as a social movement transformed the prevailing mood on the campus. The Gallaudet community still insisted on a Deaf president and on 13 March 1988 the wish was granted. Spilman resigned as chair of the board and was replaced by Philip Bravin, a Deaf board member. His first announcement to the Gallaudet community (and one carried out in ASL) was to announce that King Jordan, the Deaf Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, had been elected

20 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 128. 21 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 133. 22 Sacks, Seeing Voices, p. 135. 23 Sacks, Seeing Voices, pp. 155-156. 250

president.24 The impact was felt world-wide by the Deaf community, since the events and the outcomes of the “up-rising” demonstrated that they were able to achieve as much as hearing people and do so using their own language. Transformative change was beginning.

Brian Greenwald and Joseph Murray of Gallaudet University made this clear:

The university‟s Board of Trustees could no longer ignore the existence of a number of qualified deaf people capable of serving as president of a university whose mission was to educate deaf people.25

As Sacks pointed out, such change does not happen overnight, but the beginnings were there at Gallaudet and some of the major Deaf players in the drama went on to promote the validity of ASL as a linguistic code within oral educational institutions for the Deaf.26

Bilingual / Bicultural programmes

Bilingual/bicultural (BiBi) educational programmes were established in the United States several years prior to the Gallaudet incident. Donald Moores states that it began in 1984 at an institution in Massachusetts called the Learning Centre. Through initiatives at this centre and at the California School for the Deaf, BiBi programmes were implemented in several schools for the D/HH, but a “constant and significant increase in bi-bi instructional programmes” in schools did not eventuate or meet expected levels of usage.27 Bilingual education has been used with some success in other countries. In Sweden for example,

Swedish Sign Language (SSL) is accepted as a mode of instruction, having been recognised by the government as a linguistic code in 1981.28 Schools for the D/HH are required by law to offer a sign language-based learning environment. In order to safeguard this requirement,

24 Sacks, Seeing Voices, pp. 159-160 25 Brian H. Greenwald and Joseph J. Murray, “Editor‟s introduction”, Sign Language Studies, vol. 17, no. 1 (October, 2016), p. 6. 26 Sacks, Seeing Voices, pp. 161 162. 27 Donald F. Moores, “Comments on “W(h)ither the Deaf community?””, Sign Language Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, (Winter, 2006), p. 206. 28 Emelie Rydberg, Lotta C Gellerstedt and Berth Danermark, “Toward an equal level of educational attainment between deaf and hearing people in Sweden?” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol.14, no.3 (Summer 2009), p. 313. 251

the government retains control over these schools. The Swedish authorities believe that an

SSL-based instruction programme could not be effectively provided if the D/HH child was placed in a mainstream school, so the provision and management of special schools for these children is in place.29 Despite these moves towards a more equitable programme for D/HH children, the educational attainment of this population was found to be lower than that of the general population.30 Norway has also established BiBi programmes for its D/HH students. Implemented in 1997, the Norwegian model was set up to acknowledge the cultural model of Deafness in contrast to one which emphasized deafness as a medical condition.31 Likewise, Portugal moved towards a more inclusive bilingual programme from

1994, culminating in 2008 with the Education Act 2/2008 and introduction of what was called “Reference Schools”. These provide a bilingual educational programme emphasizing

Portuguese Sign Language as a first language with oral following as a second.32

The increasing awareness of Sign as a language led to a trend towards the use of Signed

English in many schools including the WA School for Deaf Children (WASDC). Signed

English developed as a means of providing visual cues to spoken English and through this, assisting English literacy skills.33 Meetings by educators and members of the Deaf community to establish a common format were held in Melbourne when Signed English was being considered by schools for the D/HH around Australia in 1982.34 This appears to be the first time that the Deaf community in Australia had an active say in the education of D/HH children. The method of Signed English decided on required the use of speech and at the

29 Linda R. Komesaroff, Disabling Pedagogy: Power, Politics and Deaf Education (Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002), p. 34. 30 Rydberg, et. al., “Toward an equal level of educational attainment between deaf and hearing people in Sweden?”, p. 315, 320-322. 31 Ohna, “Education of deaf children”, p. 5. 32 Lejo Swachten, Miguel Augusto Santos and Vítor Téte Gonçalves. "A deafening inequality: Portuguese deaf education and the call for debating audism in schools”, Sensos, vol.1, no. 2 (2011), pp. 57-58. 33 Wendy Lynas, Alan Huntington and Ivan Tucker, A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children (Manchester: University of Manchester, 1988), p. 4. 34 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 252

same time making a sign and adding fingerspelling as needed, for example, in the addition of tenses. For instance, the teacher might say PLAYING, sign PLAY and fingerspell I-N-G. All words that did not have signs were finger spelt. The system acknowledged the need for some form of manual communication, but was also used to teach complete English. A Signed

English dictionary was produced to enable all teachers of the Deaf in Australian schools to adopt the format.35 The method was introduced in WA in May 1982 as part of the Total

Communication method, implemented at Mosman Park under the guidance of Margaret

Warden, then the Acting Principal of the school.36

As useful as the method sounded, there are problems associated with its use. It requires a certain degree of proficiency in sign-language as well as finger-spelling in order to provide the visual cues at a rate appropriate to the presentation of the auditory cues.37 Signed

English was very difficult to use unless the teacher of the D/HH was fluent in the use of

Auslan and could use it at the same delivery rate as speech. Warden recalls that a study was carried out by Murdoch University at the time, which concluded that very few teachers were able to speak and sign correctly at the same time.38

Sign Supported English (SSE) was another method considered. SSE differs from signed

English in that not every spoken word is supplemented by a sign or finger-spelling. The objective of SSE is not to provide a complete visual version of the spoken message, but to supplement it with certain signs to reduce the possibility of misunderstandings.39 An example would be to present a verbal question, “Would you like a cup of tea?” with the sign

35 Raymond C. Jeans and Brian E. Reynolds, Dictionary of Australasian Signs for Communication with the Deaf (Melbourne: Victorian School for Deaf Children, 1982). 36 WA School for Deaf Children, Eighty-fifth Annual Report (Perth: n.p., 1982), p. 2. 37 Lynas et al., A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children, p. 12-19. 38 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013. 39 Lynas et al., A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children, p. 8-9. 253

for TEA providing the visual cue. In this way, SSE was expected to be an improvement on

Signed English since it has the potential to close the gap between the rates at which spoken messages and signed messages are presented. However, many of the problems encountered with Signed English are also evident with SSE, namely the need for at least some sign- language proficiency and the “slow-down” effect of having to finger-spell words.40 Wendy

Lynas, a researcher at the University of Manchester, and her co-authors comment on the potential for SSE users to “mirror the relative simplicity of what is being signed with what is actually spoken”.41 By this it is meant that SSE users would sign content words such as nouns and verbs, but omit or under-emphasize function words such as articles and prepositions which are important in the structure of language. 42 Accordingly, SSE did not provide the D/HH child with opportunities to learn the grammatical structure of English and was considered, alongside signed English, of limited in value as an instructional tool for developing proficiency in the English language.43

In an effort to improve communication and literacy levels, Marie Donovan and Margaret

Warden introduced the Tate – Learning English as a Second Language programme into the

WASDC curriculum. The programme, which was also used by the Speech and Hearing

Centre, allowed teachers to follow a step-by-step process of teaching the English language and to demonstrate the difference between the meanings of words. For example, “a” and

“the” could be demonstrated by the use of prepared teaching aids. Each part of the English language was covered and this enabled the student to build up the skills needed to read, write and comprehend correct English. The main problem with the programme, however,

40 Lynas et al., A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children, p. 20. 41 Lynas et al., A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children, p. 20. 42 Lynas et al., A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children, p. 20. 43Lynas et al., A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children, p. 20-21. 254

was that it required a lot of teacher preparation time which was not very popular within the

WASDC.44

Cued Speech was also a favoured method of supplementary communication in the 1970s and was used in WA only by the Speech and Hearing Centre.45 Developed at Gallaudet College in

1966 by Dr. R. Orin Cornett, Cued Speech involves the use of specific hand signs in conjunction with lip-reading as well as any auditory input provided by amplification equipment. Some speech phonemes look similar on the lips as well as sounding similar, /p/ and /b/ being obvious examples. Hence, different hand signs and their proximity to the mouth of the speaker provided a “cue” as to which phoneme was being uttered. Although the concept had some merit in addressing the problems associated with lip-reading, it was never a particularly popular method. Although the hand signs could be mastered relatively quickly, Cued Speech tended to slow down the “flow” of communication and was considerably slower than Sign as a manual system. It also created limited post-school communication options for those students who were taught via the method.

The above programmes were designed to make the English language accessible to D/HH students and with visual cues supplementing the spoken word. However, as in the United

States, the Australian Deaf community began to find its “voice” and express its rights as a cultural group. The Australian Deaf community, protective of their language and increasingly willing to have a say, expressed some dissent at programmes such as Signed

English. They believed that some signs used had been “constructed” to add tense to the meaning of verbs and that these were not correct according to the grammatical rules of

Auslan.46

44 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February 2013. 45 Karen Venard, “Listening over the years”, Taralye Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 3 (1994), p. 12. 46 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February 2013. 255

Development of an Auslan Dictionary and BiBi Programmes

During 1989, Margaret Warden, who was by then the Sign Communication Officer for Deaf

Education, attended a conference in the United States. The Deaf Way conference, held at

Gallaudet College not long after the Deaf president demonstrations, was attended by 6000 delegates from around the world. Most of them were Deaf or were Deaf educators. Warden recalls that seventy-four different Sign Languages were evident at the conference and used to present papers. Interpreting services were used to translate these presentations into many different oral languages. Attendance at the conference had a profound impact on Warden and the other delegates from Australia. She recalls that they all returned to Australia convinced that teachers of the D/HH had to change from teaching Signed English in the classroom to using Auslan. Brian Fisher and the WA Deaf Community agreed with this viewpoint, so plans were put in place to promote the use of Auslan teaching resources. These plans included a dictionary of Auslan signs along the lines of Stokoe‟s A Dictionary of

American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles.47

The dictionary was a significant undertaking, with input from the Deaf communities and educators from all states and territories in Australia. Warden, along with Carol

Chittleborough, a Deaf teacher‟s aide, and Brent Levitzke, a teacher of the Deaf/HH and member of a family involved in the WA Deaf community, all contributed ideas.

Representatives met three times a year in Melbourne to discuss which Auslan signs should be included in the dictionary. The main challenge, according to Warden, was that in some cases a sign might be different depending on the state or territory. These signs were taken back to community level in each state/territory and where there was dissent, the signs were discussed until agreement was reached. This process was repeated until all the words listed

47 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February 2013. 256

by schools and community groups were considered, thus ensuring that the dictionary would be as comprehensive and accurate as possible.48 It was the first project of its kind to present a comprehensive nation-wide coverage of Auslan in a published format.

First published in 1989 under the title: Auslan Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Sign

Language of the Australian Deaf Community, the project was edited by Dr. Trevor

Johnston. Johnston, whose research interest lay in the linguistics of Sign, coined the term

“Auslan” as a blend of the words “Australian Sign Language”. This term is now in common use in Australia. The dictionary, updated with a new title in 1998, is now known as Signs of

Australia: A New Dictionary of Auslan. It remains in print and although it is no longer the only Auslan dictionary currently available, it remains a valuable resource for educators working in the field of D/HH education. The dictionary is laid out partly like a standard alphabetical dictionary, allowing the user to access signs via the index of English key-words.

The signs themselves are arranged and ordered visually, that is to say according to what they look like since the criteria for grouping is by hand-shape, all signs sharing the same basic hand-shape are placed together in the same section of the dictionary.49

Once the dictionary was published, the task began of implementing Auslan in schools and units for Deaf/HH children. At the Mosman Park School, this meant a shift in communication practices from Signed English to Auslan. Teachers, parents and ancillary staff at the school all had to be instructed in the use of Auslan as a teaching language as well as a communication tool. At the same time, it was also policy to use a bilingual / bicultural approach, involving English as well as Auslan.50 Under this policy, Auslan was taught as the child‟s first language, with English taught as a second language. The policy was developed by

48 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February 2013. 49 Trevor Johnston, (ed.), Signs of Australia: A New Dictionary of Auslan (The Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community), Rev. Ed. (North Rocks, Sydney: Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, 1998), p. 10. 50 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February 2013. 257

John Richards and staff at the WA Institute for Deaf Education (WAIDE) in 1994. When

Richards took over the role of Coordinator of Deaf Education in 1993, the educational policy for D/HH students was to use the total communication approach. Richards subsequently presented at conferences in the United States and in the United Kingdom, with the result that WAIDE became one of the leaders in establishing a BiBi policy with a special focus on students in inclusive settings rather than in specialist schools for the D/HH.51

During the 1990s, progress in the implementation of BiBi programmes in Australian schools was underpinned by continued research into Sign language and a greater understanding of the D/HH community and its culture. The work of Stokoe, Tervoort and Johnson influenced other researchers in Australia such as Linda Komesaroff at Deakin University, whose PhD thesis advocated for BiBi programmes.52 In fact, Komesaroff appears to closely identify with an anti-audist viewpoint. At various times in her thesis she makes the point that promoting the oral/aural approach as the primary language of instruction for Deaf children at the expense of Auslan is to continue to utilise the language of a dominant speaking and hearing culture to exercise educational control over a D/HH minority group.53 In reality, BiBi programmes cater for only a small proportion of D/HH children and therefore it is difficult to enrol enough students, even Deaf children of Deaf parents, to make these programmes viable.54 By 2010, only 11% of deaf children in the United States, for example, were being instructed via the BiBi method.55 The programme appeared to decline due to initiatives such as cochlear implants, early identification and intervention which were leading to an

51 John Richards, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 3 March, 2015. 52 Linda R. Komesaroff, “The politics of language practices in deaf education”, (PhD dissertation, Deakin University, 1998). 53 Komesaroff, „The politics of language practices”, pp. 75-82, 153, 209, 240, 286, 289, 294-295, 304- 305. 54 Trevor Johnston, “W(h)ither the Deaf community? Population, genetics, and the future of Australian sign language”, Sign Language Studies, vol.6, no. 2 (Winter 2006), p. 161. 55 Donald F. Moores, “The history of language and communication issues in deaf education” in Marc Marschark and Patricia E. Spencer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language and Education, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), vol. II, p. 21. 258

increased rate of placement in mainstream schools with less exposure to Sign language.56 In addition, further research in the linguistic relationship between Sign Language and English suggests that the use of Sign as a first language to establish competency in a second language

(English) may be more complex than first thought, especially in English reading comprehension and writing.57

By the end of the 1970s, Deaf parents were beginning to request the same early intervention educational opportunities for their Deaf babies as hearing parents then had. Margaret

Warden started an Early Intervention Programme to cater for this need. The children were not required to wear hearing aids if the parents objected. The parents used Auslan to communicate with their babies from birth and it was Warden‟s job to assist them with any language information and resources that they might need. The babies and parents involved were videoed every three months from birth, to keep a record of their progress. These videotapes are still held in the WAIDE archives.58

BiBi educational pedagogy required teacher training programmes. Initially, the provision of

Auslan instruction through the Churchlands campus of the Western Australian College of

Advanced Education (WACAE) created problems. From 1995, a course run through the

University of Melbourne was funded through the Western Australian Foundation for Deaf

Children (as the old committee of management of the WASDC had been known since 1998).

This Teacher of the Deaf training programme provided 72 hours of Auslan instruction to student teachers by 1998, compared to 28 hours in Queensland and 18 hours in another

56 Moores, “The history of language and communication issues in deaf education”, p. 21. 57 See, for example, Connie Mayer and Gordon Wells, “Can the linguistic interdependence theory support a bilingual-bicultural model of literacy education for deaf students?”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 1, no. 2 (Spring 1996), pp. 93-107; Connie Mayer and C. Tane Akamatsu, “Bilingual-bicultural models of literacy education for deaf students: Considering the claims”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, vol. 4, no.1 (Winter, 1999), pp. 2-8. 58 Margaret Warden, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February 2013. 259

(unidentified) university in Victoria.59 However, the main avenue of communication support for culturally Deaf students in classrooms in WA continued to be through Auslan interpreters via the interpreting services programme at WAIDE.

Educational Interpreters: The Western Australian context

The use of educational interpreters (EIs) within D/HH programmes in Western Australia commenced in 1993. At that time, there were two teacher aides (now known as education assistants) for D/HH students in the entire state. Because of their remote location and lack of access to a visiting teacher of the D/HH, four students received this service on a half-time basis each. In 1994, a request was received from a parent that their deaf child be allowed to attend a school some distance from Mosman Park. The request was approved and WAIDE were also given permission from the Education Department to enable them to employ a teacher aide to work as an educational interpreter at that school from 1995. However, the

Department was only prepared to fund the position for two days per week. The other three days were covered by staff at Mosman Park. A successful three-year trial of this approach resulted, but the expected cost of employing ten educational interpreters (calculated by

Richards to be $1.5 million over five years) was a major barrier until a working party comprised of people from the WA Deaf Society, parents, teachers of the D/HH, interpreters and Education Department staff was set up. The working party convinced the Education

Department that it was necessary to employ educational interpreters in state schools.60

Significant pressure from a family in the Kimberley region resulted in a successful, but

59 Komesaroff, “The politics of language practices”, p. 300. 60 John Richards, Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, Pacific International Hotel, Perth, Sunday 21 May, 2006, archived at Deafness Forum of Australia, [http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/pdf/Summit%202006/4th%20NDSS%20speech%20- %20John%20Richards%202006.pdf], accessed on 20 January, 2014. 260

challenging, four-week pilot programme and added to the push towards the placement of EIs within the schools.61

The significance of this achievement lay in its uniqueness. Richards points out that schools had teachers and teacher aides, but only WAIDE had educational interpreters. Initially, they were employed as “Education Assistants – Deaf Interpreting”.62 The unique status of the EIs led to some issues with the unions concerning employment and conditions. The process took almost two years to complete and resulted in a six-page job description document which covered “the position, the context and scope and the role, criteria and outcomes”.63 An agreement resulted in EIs coming under the same award as teacher aides / education assistants, but without any recognition of their special training and skills. The EIs provided

Auslan interpreting and “teacher directive tutoring”.64 The agreement to employ EIs and place them within state schools was put in place on 20 November 2003. Richards defined the “prime role” of an EI as “communication with the child and others around them”, with the focus “on improving learning outcomes, obviously giving them a supportive and inclusive learning environment”. He continues:

This person can be expected to perform tasks such as interpret what is being said in Auslan and orally interpret when the child uses sign language and wants to communicate with the class... One of the most important things is gauging what the child‟s level is and interpreting at that level.65

To address the issues of provision of Auslan interpreting services in Western Australian schools, WAIDE, with the support of the Department of Education, created the position of

Access and Equity Coordinator (AEC) and employed two “in house” interpreters. Leanne

61 Frances Wilkinson, Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, Pacific International Hotel, Perth, Sunday 21 May, 2006, archived at Deafness Forum of Australia, [http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/pdf/Summit%202006/4th%20NDSS%20speech%20- %20Frances%20Wilkinson%202006.pdf ], accessed on 20 January, 2014. 62 John Richards, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 3 March, 2015. 63 Wilkinson, Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, 2006. 64 Richards, Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, 2006. 65 Richards, Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, 2006. 261

Potter, a teacher of the Deaf since 1982, was appointed to the AEC position in 2009. Her role was to support and visiting teachers of the D/HH and assist schools with interpreting and note-taking services. Provision of support and professional development programmes for educational interpreters was another role. The WAIDE interpreting positions were filled by Clair Shreeve and Lorraine Farrelly. Their responsibilities in the role covered interpreting services in-house at WAIDE, for Deaf parents of hearing children in state schools when visits to WAIDE were required, relief interpreting for school-based EIs on leave and the support of

D/HH staff within the Department of Education.

By 2010, 75 Auslan interpreters worked in educational settings. They provided interpreting services for the Deaf students at mainstream schools as well as Mosman Park School Primary

School, Belmont City College and Shenton College Deaf Education Centre. They also assisted at meetings between teachers and Deaf parents.66 In this manner, WAIDE provided a model of bilingual education for D/HH children, using of Sign Language interpreters instead of

Auslan-proficient teachers of the D/HH to support those children requiring access to BiBi instruction.67

Digital technology and the future of BiBi programmes

Trevor Johnston, the author of the Auslan dictionary described earlier, believed that the need for BiBi services might decline as the then current group of signing children progressed through the school system and eventually disappeared altogether.68 This would result not only from the closure of residential schools for the D/HH, but also advances in amplification technology. Digital hearing aids became commercially available from the mid-1990s.69 This

66 “A sign of the times”, School Matters, Edition 7, October, 2010, p. 34. 67 Johnston, “W(h)ither the Deaf community?”, p. 167. 68 Johnston, “W(h)ither the Deaf community?”, p. 167. 69 Harvey Dillon, Hearing Aids (Sydney: Boomerang Press, 2001), p. 34. 262

was a significant milestone in hearing aid technology as digital control circuits and memory chips gave audiologists flexibility in programming the hearing aids closely to the individual needs of the wearer. Acoustic feedback (whistling) could also be more readily controlled.

Furthermore, multiple memory applications enabled the wearer to exert a certain degree of control over the programme settings, especially if the hearing aids had a remote control, which was becoming possible even with In-The-Ear (ITE) and Completely-In-Canal (CIC) hearing aids.

However, despite these technical advances, Sign continued to have a presence in D/HH education. The most recent development is the incorporation of Sign into mainstream school curricula for the benefit of hearing and non-hearing students alike. In this regard, the introduction of Auslan into some schools in Western Australia is particularly significant.

Shenton College in Perth‟s western suburbs incorporates a Deaf Education Centre, which replaced the long-standing unit at Swanbourne Senior High School from 2001. The Shenton

College Deaf Education Centre has been very successful in supporting D/HH secondary students, including Auslan users, in an integrated setting. This led to an initiative to provide

Auslan classes at the school, enabling greater ease of peer engagement, inclusivity and communication between the Deaf students and the wider hearing population. Lunchtime classes were held with some success, after which the Principal of the DEC, Bethel

Hutchinson, and her successor Leanne Potter, set about initiating an Auslan programme that would satisfy requirements of the WA Curriculum Council as a Language Other Than English

(LOTE) subject. Support for such a programme was also forthcoming from Alison Robb and

Annabella McKern at Mosman Park Primary School, which also housed a D/HH unit. The

D/HH students, their parents and Deaf groups such as members of the WA Deaf Society were also supportive of the proposal. Richard Gray, by then programme coordinator of the 263

D/HH unit located at Belmont City College, was also keen to be involved in the Auslan proposal.70

A significant problem confronting those who were keen to set up the Auslan LOTE programme was that no comparable curriculum existed in Australia. Auslan had been taught at TAFE colleges around the country, including Western Australia, but not in primary and secondary schools. A group of stakeholders thus met to discuss how a LOTE curriculum might be developed. Karen Bontempo, a NAATI-accredited Auslan interpreter from the

Shenton College Deaf Education Unit, took a leadership role in the development of a suitable

Auslan curriculum. She developed a comprehensive programme with detailed lesson plans, drawing from sources in Victoria, the United Kingdom and the United States. The curriculum gained strong support and was piloted with Year 8 students at Shenton College and Belmont City College in 2014. The schools committed themselves to the programme for a two-year period. Mosman Park Primary School soon followed with a Year 5 and 6 programme. It was emphasised to the students and to their parents that once in the programme they had to remain committed to it. Once the programme reached its quota of 32 students, no more were to be admitted for the two-year period.71

A further requirement for the Auslan programme was that the course content should be taught by Deaf presenters with Auslan as their primary language. To ensure this was achievable, the WA Deaf Society provided assistance. For the first two terms of 2014, Ms

Patricia Levitzke-Gray was appointed to provide the programme at all three schools. For

Term 3, Ms Maree Ware was appointed the Deaf LOTE Auslan teacher at Belmont City

70 Karen Bontempo, Signing on at last: The development of a formal Auslan as curriculum in WA Schools, presented at Deaf Education Annual Forum 2014, Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre, Perth, Western Australia, 21-23 July, 2014. 71 Bontempo, Signing on at last, 2014, n.p. 264

College.72 Levitzki-Gray continued to cover Mosman Park Primary School. They also had joint responsibility for the Shenton College programme. Despite the fact that there were clearly limited numbers of people with the very specific skill set required to teach the Auslan programme, these instructors allowed for an “immersive” style of pedagogy. The history, culture and language of the Deaf community was fully embraced within a classroom where

English as a language was relegated to a minor role in the communication process.73

The Auslan curriculum proved to be a popular and sought-after subject at the schools so its long-term placement as a LOTE subject appears to be assured. Progress was made towards an Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)-credited curriculum for years 5-9, with the aim of a fully-detailed programme prepared by the end of

2015. The WA programme contributed significantly to the national programme.74 It was expected that the ACARA curriculum would be available to all Australian states and that

Auslan would build on its relatively recent recognition as a valid linguistic code. In this way, the curriculum will ensure that despite the significant progress made in oral education methods through rapidly developing digital amplification technology, Auslan will continue to hold an important place within the field of D/HH education in Australia. ACARA published the national curriculum for Auslan from Foundation to Year 10 in October 2016.75

Shenton College Deaf Education Centre continued to build on this programme as the original

2014 cohort progressed through the secondary school years. It worked with the North

Metropolitan TAFE to deliver Certificate III in Auslan in 2016, with Recognition of Prior

Learning (RPL) status based on previous work achieved by the cohort. Negotiations with the

School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) during 2016 led to approval given to

72 Richard Grey, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 22 August, 2014. 73 Bontempo, Signing on at last, 2014. 74 Bontempo, Signing on at last, 2014. 75 Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, Annual Report 2016-17 (Sydney: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2017), p. 8. 265

Shenton College Deaf Education Centre to deliver Auslan as a Year 11 and 12 WA Certificate of Education (WACE) subject. In 2017, the SCSA approved the current Year 11 students RPL application for Certificate IV in Auslan through the North Metropolitan TAFE. This meant that the Auslan course put in place in 2014 saw the inaugural group of students proceed through the programme as it was developed and enhanced each year. On 24 October 2018, these students sat the first Year 12 ATAR examination in the subject.76

This era marked the point at which the Deaf community began to have a say in D/HH educational practices. Research such as that by Stokoe and Johnston validated Sign as a linguistic code and the Deaf community subsequently experienced a surge in Deaf cultural pride and self-respect. Educational programmes, such as those offered in the United States at Gallaudet and at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, led to increasing numbers of D/HH people holding professional qualifications. This was less the case in Australia where D/HH could only attend mainstream universities and colleges, but even so the number of D/HH people with tertiary qualifications steadily increased. This led to increasing confidence in making their wishes known and a willingness to engage in processes which challenged and ultimately led to some changes in D/HH education.

Audist practices were apparent in earlier attempts to adapt manual communication to

English language processes via Cued Speech, Signed English and Signed Support English. It became less evident with the acceptance of Auslan as a first language, increasing classroom support by educational interpreters and the implementation of Auslan as a LOTE subject.

The Australian Deaf community made significant progress in terms of influencing this educational process. However, professionals in the fields of education, audiology and medicine, as well as many hearing parents, continued to see deafness as a medical condition

76 Leanne Potter, conversation with Geoffrey Smith, 24 October, 2018. 266

that required “treatment”. In this regard, some attitudes towards deafness did not really change much since the beginning of the 20th century and certainly since the post-WWII years. Despite the advances outlined in this chapter, the pressure continued from oralist attitudes underpinned by rapidly developing digital technology. At the forefront of this was the cochlear implant. Cochlear implant technology began to appear roughly at the same time as BiBi programmes emerged. The speed at which this developed from the 1990s, along with other digital technology, suggested that manual communication programmes would eventually become obsolete. The Deaf community has always been able to adapt to each successive audist approach, but the cochlear implant was to become the biggest challenge to

Deaf cultural identity and the survival of sign languages.

267

Chapter 11: The Cochlear Implant and the Return to Oralism

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) education in the 1980s and early 1990s saw the development of bilingual/bicultural (BiBi) communication programmes in response to increasing cultural awareness and self-advocacy by the Deaf community together with an increasing understanding through research and teaching that sign languages, including

Auslan, were linguistic codes in their own right. The social and academic needs of D/HH students for whom Sign was the primary language began to be understood and acknowledged. This would suggest that D/HH education was moving away from the oral method. However, developments in amplification technology ensured that oralism was never going to be anything less than the predominant means by which D/HH children were taught.

The development and refinement of cochlear implant technology had the single biggest impact on D/HH education since the development of transistorised hearing aids. This was followed closely by the refinement of personal FM listening systems, often used in association with cochlear implants.

The term “cochlear implant” comes from the manner in which the surgical procedure involved is carried out. This involves inserting a slim and flexible electrode relay directly into the cochlea, the coiled and tapered cavity located in the inner ear. The procedure is carried out under a general anaesthetic and usually takes about two hours. The electrode relay replaces damaged or non-functioning hair cells found within the cochlea and carries out much the same function as healthy hair cells do by delivering auditory signals to the brain where they are interpreted as sound and speech. The term “cochlear” is an adjective pertaining to the anatomy of the cochlea. 268

The development of the cochlear implant goes back to 1790 when Alessandro Volta experimented with a battery “pile” connected via wire to a conductive rod. For reasons best known only to him, he placed two of the rods in his ears. The sounds he heard were said to be so unpleasant that he did not experiment any further, but this “experiment” was the first recorded example of auditory perception achieved by electrical stimulation.1 The first implantable device was carried out by André Djourno and Charles Eyri s in Paris in 1957.

Some success in hearing environmental sounds was shown by the recipient, in the short period before the device failed.2

It was not until the 1960s that cochlear implant research intensified. Research was carried out in the United States via separate studies by Dr. William F. House and Dr. F. Blair

Simmons.3 By the mid-1970s, a report by Dr. Robert C. Bilger and his colleagues enabled the

United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) to endorse cochlear implant research and development.4 The late 1970s saw further research in Austria led by Erwin and Ingeborg

Hochmair and Kurt Burian and in Australia by Professor Graeme Clark. Clark described his work in the book Cochlear Implantation for Infants and Children, giving the reader an insight into the process by which he developed the multi-channel implant for which he is now famous.5 Clark‟s research had a particular impact on Australian D/HH children and adults as the technology that resulted, together with partnership with what is now Cochlear

Limited, enabled the majority to be fitted with Australian-developed Cochlear Ltd products.

1 Blake S. Wilson and Michael F. Dorman, “Cochlear implants: a remarkable past and a brilliant future”, Hearing Research, No. 242 (August 2008), p. 4. 2 Wilson and Dorman, “Cochlear implants”, p. 4. 3 Wilson and Dorman, “Cochlear implants”, pp. 4-5. 4 R.C. Bilger, F.O. Black, N.T. Hopkinson, E.N. Myers, J.L. Payne, N.R. Stenson, A. Vega and R.V. Wolfe, “Evaluation of subjects presently fitted with implanted auditory prostheses”, Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, vol. 86, Suppl. 38, No. 3, Part 2 (1977), pp. 1-176. 5 Graeme M. Clark, “Historical perspectives”, in Graeme M. Clark, Robert S.C. Cowan and Richard C. Dowell (eds.), Cochlear Implantation for Infants and Children: Advances (San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, 1997), pp. 9-27. 269

The Western Australian Situation

As early as 1985, the educational potential of cochlear implants was beginning to be appreciated by Brian Fisher and his staff at the Hearing Assessment Centre in Cottesloe. In

August of that year, the Hearing Assessment Centre sent representatives to the Melbourne

Conference on Cochlear Implants as well as for training in cochlear implant methodology, technology and management.6 Fisher had visited Melbourne in the early 1980s and met

Professor Clark, so was quite well informed of progress in this field. He was present at the

“switch-on” of the first implanted child in 1984-85.7

That same year, a cochlear implant programme was established at Curtin University in

Perth. Dr Ron Wilde was given responsibility for this programme. It was set up with the encouragement of two ENT specialists, Dr Cameron Bracks and Dr Peter Packer, who introduced the surgical aspects of implantation into Western Australia. Wilde assessed candidates for possible implantation, with Fisher taking responsibility for post-switch-on auditory training. Funding was received from the Lions International Foundation, which established a research fellowship to encourage cochlear implant research. As the popularity of cochlear implants grew and children were also beginning to be implanted, the Curtin programme became too large for Lions to continue funding, so it was split between Royal

Perth Hospital (for adult implants) and Princess Margaret Hospital (children).8

6 WA School for Deaf Children, Eighty-eighth Annual Report (Perth: n.p., 1985), pp. 1-2. 7 Zoe E. Sampson, “Audiology in Western Australia 1950-2000: Development of a profession”, Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research (2001), p. 33. 8 Sampson, “Audiology in Western Australia 1950-2000”, pp. 10-11. 270

Until 1988, the youngest recipient of cochlear implant technology from Western Australia was fifteen-year-old Michael Trainer, an apprentice cabinet-maker.9 He was followed in

1988 by Vanessa Gray, aged eight.10 Both were the subject of newspaper articles, but there appears to be no follow-up coverage as to how successful the implants were. Vanessa Gray was later featured in newspaper articles in the mid-1990s which described her as being profoundly deaf and with a reliance on signing and the availability of education interpreters at Swanbourne Senior High School.11 No mention was made of her previous status as a cochlear implant recipient, so it is probable that this early technology did not provide as much access to sound (and therefore to language) as expected. Mavis Fisher recalled

Vanessa‟s case years later. She mentioned that the implant was a single-electrode version, which had significant limitations in comparison to the multi-electrode version developed by

Graeme Clark.

In 1992, Brian Fisher relinquished his position as Co-ordinator of Education for Hearing

Impaired Children, having been in the position since 1974. Rather than to retire completely, he concentrated on cochlear implant rehabilitation. He continued to be actively involved in

D/HH education, joining the cochlear implant programme as Special Learning Advisor until his full retirement in 2004. Fisher was a passionate advocate of cochlear implant technology.12 However, as apparent via the pages of the West Australian newspaper, the cochlear implant technology attracted both supporters and detractors, a situation not unusual at that time when the procedure was becoming a more common procedure.

Whereas some parents praised the technology for the opportunities it provided for their

9 “Bionic first in quest for independence”, The West Australian, 19 April, 1986, p. 5; “Ear implant opens door”, Daily News, 12 August, 1986, p. 3. 10 “Bionic ear helps Vanessa tune in”, The West Australian, 16 March, 1988, p. 11; “Vanessa “tunes in” to a new life”, Stirling Times, 22 March, 1988, p. 1. 11 “Deaf students need school interpreters”, Sunday Times, 5 March, 1995, p. 23. 12 “Implant brings sound to the young”, The West Australian, 27 August 1996, p. 5. 271

children, there was at least one dissenting opinion published which drew attention to the pride the writer had in being part of the Deaf community. 13

Fisher‟s successor, Mr John Richards, took up the position in 1993. Richards had worked with the Department of Education as a teacher of the D/HH since 1978. He held various positions within D/HH education including visiting teacher of the deaf, teaching within deaf units attached to mainstream schools, as educational audiologist and as Principal of the

Cottesloe School for Hearing Impaired Children. He was actively involved in all aspects of

D/HH education including research and development. From 1999-2010, he served as president of the National Association of Australian Teachers of the Deaf.

Richards oversaw significant changes in D/HH education. As shown in previous chapters, inclusive educational practices meant that fewer D/HH were educated in deaf schools or units and even fewer required boarding facilities. The WA Institute for Deaf Education

(WAIDE) was established when the Hearing Assessment Centre transferred to the WASDC site in February 1987. Consequently, a visiting teacher of the deaf service was expanded to ensure that any D/HH student known to WAIDE, as well as their parents/caregivers and educational institution, had access to a visiting teacher providing an appropriate level of support. This resulted in the closure of the hostel accommodation provided by the WA

School for Deaf Children Board of Management.14 The Board then underwent a change of name to the WA Foundation for Deaf Children in 1998. Richards also recognised that the views and needs of the Deaf community should be acknowledged. Auslan users continued to be supported by WAIDE with the appointment of educational interpreters, teachers of the deaf with signing skills and Deaf community role models.

13 “James freed from his world of silence”, The West Australian, 27 August, 1996, p. 5; “We are proud to be deaf”, The West Australian, 29 August, 1996, p. 13; “I disagree”, The West Australian, 30 August, 1996, p. 13. 14 John Richards, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 3 March, 2015.

272

Reassessing the Needs of D/HH Students

Digital hearing aids and cochlear implant technology assisted the integration process for the vast majority of D/HH students born to hearing parents. Equally important was the refinement of Frequency Modulation (FM) technology to assist these students in the often challenging listening environment of the average school classroom. When students with a hearing loss were educated in schools for the D/HH, classroom listening problems were less of an issue. Amplification equipment such as group hearing aids enabled the teacher‟s voice to be heard at source (through a microphone held by the teacher) and amplified without also amplifying background noise. In addition, as the effect of background noise, acoustic reverberation and distance on classroom listening became understood, classrooms for D/HH children were sometimes designed to overcome these problems. In Western Australia, the design and construction of the Speech and Hearing Centre at Glendalough involved attention to these problems by the architect who was the father of a child with a hearing loss.15

For many children who rely on hearing aids and cochlear implants and are educated in mainstream settings, the challenges of listening in a classroom environment are met by the use of personal FM systems. In 1972, the Speech and Hearing Centre became the first school in Western Australia to make use of this technology when three FM Auditory Training Units were imported from the United States at a cost of $6,600. The equipment consisted of a microphone transmitter and seven receivers, enabling one teacher to provide amplification to seven students. The receiver units, quite bulky by today‟s standards, replaced the child‟s hearing aids when undergoing speech and auditory skills lessons at the school.16

15 “Helping the parents too”, The West Australian, 29 March, 1974, p. 17. 16 “New aid for deaf children”, The West Australian, 22 July, 1972, p. 16; “New sound in their silent world”, Weekend News, 22 July, 1972, p. 3. 273

Today, D/HH school-age children are fitted with what are now known as Wireless

Communication Devices (WCD) by Australian Hearing. The change of name has come about since FM technology has been superseded by digital and Bluetooth methods of signal transmission. These systems involve the use of a microphone and transmitter worn by the teacher and an amplifier/receiver worn by the student. The receiver can be connected to the hearing aid or cochlear implant but if the child does not need these, a receiver can still be used via headphones or iPod-style ear buds or as small hearing aid-style devices. Because the transmitter microphone can be worn close to the teacher‟s mouth, speech can be picked up and transmitted to the receiver worn by the student. The result is a louder, clearer voice signal that overcomes the problem of distance and significantly reduces the effect of sound reverberation and background noise experienced by the student. By bridging this listening

“gap” between source and listener, an FM system “not only improves speech perception and reduces listening effort, but increases the likelihood that language and academic learning can be maximised”.17 Research also suggests that the use of an FM system in conjunction with a single-sided (unilateral) cochlear implant provides better understanding of speech in noisy environments, than with the addition of a second implant or a hearing aid to the other ear.18

As Ross points out, FM systems provided a “clear and enhanced auditory avenue to the brain, whence all learning takes place”.19 Although Ross was speaking about FM systems, the same still applies to modern-day WCD systems as they enable the child‟s speech, language and auditory development to be significantly improved, leading to better educational outcomes, with access to better quality sound.

Despite their clear benefits, many D/HH students continue to demonstrate resistance to the use of WCD systems in mainstream classrooms. John Richards comments that this is

17 Mark Ross, “Room acoustics and speech perception”, in Mark Ross (ed.), FM Auditory Training Systems: Characteristics, Selection and Use (Maryland: York Press, 1992), p. 41. 18 Erin C. Schafer and Linda M. Thibodeau (December 2006). "Speech Recognition in Noise in Children with Cochlear Implants While Listening in Bilateral, Bimodal, and FM-System Arrangements". American Journal of Audiology, vol. 15, pp. 124-125. 19 Ross, “Room acoustics and speech perception” (1992), p. 41. 274

particularly the case from eleven or twelve years of age and especially when the student commences attendance at a secondary school.20 From feedback given to me from my D/HH students over the years, the main barrier appears to be the desire to not be singled out for attention from peers and teachers. Admittedly, early personal FM units were quite bulky and conspicuous as in the case of the Sennheiser FM systems provided by Australian Hearing in the 1980s. However, since these early systems, WCDs have become much smaller, sophisticated and reliable, making their accessibility to D/HH children and class-room usage more wide-spread. WCD receivers are now small enough to clip onto the child‟s hearing aid while others are tiny hearing aid-like devices. WCD systems can and do enable D/HH children to access mainstream classroom instruction far more efficiently than had previously been the case.

Assistive listening technologies, embracing hearing aids, cochlear implants and FM/WCD systems had a significant impact on the education of D/HH children from the late 1980s onwards. Research over the years has led to the generally accepted medical/audiological view that even D/HH children with a severe to profound loss have some residual hearing which can be accessed through early, appropriate and consistent amplification and auditory training. Hearing aid technology continued to improve to the point where significant levels of amplification could be achieved across a broader range of sound frequencies. Improved ear mould technology also enabled more high-powered hearing aids to be fitted, thereby increasing the range of sounds accessible to the severely or profoundly deaf wearer.21 By around 1988 it was claimed that:

deaf children are today quite literally hearing sounds that ten years or so ago they would not have been able to hear and this has an important bearing on the prospects for the development of speech.22

20 John Richards, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 3 March, 2015. 21 Karen Venard, “Listening over the years”, Taralye Bulletin, vol. 12, no. 3 (1994), pp. 12-13. 22 Wendy Lynas, Alan Huntington and Ivan Tucker, A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children (Manchester: University of Manchester, 1988.), p. 22. 275

Since then further developments continued to be made. Many of the problems and challenges of providing high gain (volume) levels to those with a severe or profound hearing loss were addressed by refinements to digital hearing aid technology. The introduction and further refinement of cochlear implant technology has also helped many of those for whom conventional high-powered digital hearing aids were insufficient.

Auditory Focus and the Speech and Hearing Centre

The development of high powered digital hearing aids and the cochlear implant suited the educational ethos of the Speech and Hearing Centre (S&HC). With a strong focus on a parent-centred oral-aural model, the S&HC staff were initially limited in how they could help severely and profoundly deaf children, hence the need for a continuing combined method programme at Mosman Park. Cued speech, as already mentioned, was an early attempt and throughout the mid to late 1970s, various alternative approaches were evaluated. The Tate

Programme and Daniel Ling‟s speech programme were employed within the S&HC as they were at the WA School for Deaf Children. Morag Clark‟s work, with its focus on story-telling and the use of natural dialogue, also influenced the centre‟s kindergarten training programme.23 At all stages, the S&HC emphasised the use of amplification equipment. As mentioned, the centre was an early user of FM technology, but the original Phonak systems in use had their limitations. Breakdowns were common and the systems had to be returned to the United States for repairs. Also, in the early 1970s, students were still using body-worn hearing aids, which had to be removed before the Phonaks could be used. The change to behind-the-ear (BTE) aids increased the usefulness of these FM systems when they worked.24

23 Venard, “Listening over the years”, p. 12. 24 Venard, “Listening over the years”, pp. 12-13. 276

Karen Venard, principal of the S&HC at the time, wrote that these initiatives highlighted the centre‟s commitment to auditory-oral principles. This commitment was also demonstrated in 1984 through what was a very low-key start in the establishment of an on-site audiology service. Lacking suitable space and being confronted with limited funding, the S&HC set up an audiology testing booth in a shed on the grounds of the school, using egg cartons to sound proof the walls. A staff member who had trained in audiology was given some time for these duties, but it was not until the Western Australian Lotteries Commission provided a grant for the establishment of two properly fitted out testing booths and the employment of an audiologist, that the S&HC was able to provide services that prepared them for the roll out of cochlear implant technology.25

With the advent of the cochlear implant and its availability to very young children, the S&HC changed focus to the Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT) method. This approach was developed from work carried out by Doreen Pollack, Helen Beebe and Daniel Ling in the United States of America. Pollack developed a system known as the Acoupedic Program in Denver in 1969.

From this, AVT evolved.26 The S&HC described Auditory-Verbal Therapy was described as:

based on the notion that most children with mild to profound hearing loss can learn to communicate through spoken language if provided with appropriate amplification, and abundant listening and language stimulation to develop their hearing potential.27

The S&HC elaborated on the principles of AVT in their annual reports. These guiding principles indicate that the use of amplification equipment and audiological management was of paramount importance to enable a D/HH child to develop communicative competence in the spoken language. Parental support and encouragement was equally important as they were seen to be the “primary models” for speech and language development. Listening skills were also embedded into the programme as an integral part of

25 Venard, “Listening over the years”, p. 13. 26 S.Y.C. Lim and J. Simser, “Auditory-Verbal Therapy for children with hearing impairment”, Annals Academy of Medicine, Singapore, vol. 34, no. 4 (May 2005), p. 309. 27 Lim and Simser, “Auditory-Verbal Therapy”, p. 309. 277

the spoken communication skills development in the children. Each student‟s progress was to be monitored and assessed on a continual basis with the aim of eventual inclusion within a mainstream school setting.28

Auditory-Verbal Therapy is unique in that the deaf child‟s parents (or grandparents, carers) are the primary focus of the training and therefore the conduit through which the child learns speech and language. It therefore reflected the philosophy of the S&HC as an institution where the parents are actively involved in the education, management and fund- raising activities of the school. AVT differs from other oral approaches, such as Auditory-

Oral, in that it relies on development of the D/HH child‟s hearing ability through listening alone; listening resulting from a combination of the child‟s residual hearing and/or amplification devices such as the cochlear implant. No visual supplementary cues such as lip-reading or signs are involved. AVT therefore takes a highly medicalised individual approach since the aim is to enable the child full and successful integration into mainstream schools and society.29 Because AVT also follows the principle of early speech, language and audition intervention, a great deal of emphasis is placed on developing these skills in the early childhood years. The method has been reported to be successful in developing a range of academic, communication and social skills in D/HH children.30 However, research suggests that the method requires further investigation, including across a wider socio- economic range to evaluate its effectiveness as an educational tool for D/HH students.31

28 See, for example, Telethon Speech and Hearing, Annual Report 2008 (Perth: n.p., 2008), pp. 2-3. 29 Donald M. Goldberg and Carol Flexer, “Outcome survey of Auditory-Verbal graduates: Study of clinical efficacy”, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, vol. 4, no. 3 (May 1993), p. 190; Lim and Simser, “Auditory-Verbal Therapy”, p. 309. 30 Dimity Dornan, Louise Hickson, Bruce Murdoch, Todd Houston and Gabriella Constantinescu, “Is Auditory-Verbal Therapy effective for children with hearing loss?”, The Volta Review, vol. 11. No. 3 (Fall 2010), pp. 373-378; Goldberg and Flexer, “Outcome survey of Auditory-Verbal graduates”, p. 190; Lim and Simser, Auditory-Verbal Therapy”, p. 309. 31 Susan R. Easterbrooks, Colleen M. O‟Rourke and N. Wendell Todd, “Child and family factors associated with deaf children‟s success in Auditory-Verbal Therapy”, American Journal of Otology, vol. 21, no. 3 (2000), p. 344; Dornan et.al., “Is Auditory-Verbal Therapy effective?”, pp. 373-378; Joanna White and Christopher G. Brennan-Jones, “Auditory-Verbal Therapy: Improving the evidence-base”, Deafness and Education International, vol. 16, no. 3 (September, 2014), p. 125. 278

The first move towards the implementation of AVT at the S&HC was made in 1985. A staff member, Jane Blankensee, was sent to Denver, Colorado in order to train in the use of the programme. Blankensee brought back enough information and material to make a positive impression. Additional momentum in the push towards AVT was given through in-service visits to the centre by AVT specialists in 1989 and 1990.32 The method is now well- established, with other staff successfully completing the intensive training programme leading towards professional status as AVT specialists.33 In 2005, the centre became part of the 6 Centre Alliance, a group of independent oral programme-based schools for the D/HH located in other Australian states as well as New Zealand. This alliance enabled professional and resource sharing, especially in the area of AVT support.34 In 2008, it was renamed The

Alliance for Deaf Children. A further name change to First Voice Alliance occurred in 2010.35

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, the S&HC developed and refined its services.

Early intervention programmes were set up for parents and their deaf infants, followed by a kindergarten-level service, Chatterbox, and a junior school programme. The centre also began to provide services for children with normal hearing but with speech delays using a programme known as Talkabout. Some children were educated on-site in the junior school programme, but most that were of school age were mainstreamed into several “outpost” schools. These were primarily within the Catholic education system, with a teacher of the deaf appointed by the S&HC providing assistance. The first was established at Servite

32 Vince McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre: The First Twenty Five Years (1967-1992), (Perth: n.p., 1994), p. 81. 33 Telethon Speech and Hearing, Annual Report 2009 (Perth: n.p., 2012), p. 16. 34 Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre for Children WA (Inc), Annual Report 1 January to June 2005 (Perth: n.p., 2005), p. 4. 35 Telethon Speech and Hearing, 2012 Annual Report (Perth: n.p., 2012), p. 10. 279

College in 1978 under the guidance of the principal, Jack Shanahan.36 A unit was also in place from 1991 at Wesley College, a Uniting Church school in South Perth.

The S&HC also diversified into the important area of new-born hearing screening. This became known as the WA Infant Screening for Hearing (WISH) programme. Assessment and intervention into otitis media and other forms of conductive hearing loss were targeted with the COMe HEAR programme as well as a Mobile Ear Clinic, known as the Variety WA

Earbus. These programmes served to demonstrate the commitment of the S&HC in addressing the challenges of paediatric hearing loss. The centre also entered into a partnership with Better Hearing Australia (BHA), which provided the WA branch of BHA with on-site premises from 2010, while enabling the centre to target the post-school needs of

D/HH people.37

The S&HC experienced a significant financial crisis during the early 1990s. This was primarily due to a withdrawal of Commonwealth government funding and resulted in an increased reliance on other sources of income. The centre had always had a very strong fund-raising committee as well as a committed Ladies Auxiliary. The Auxiliary wound up in

1988, but the fund-raising committee continued to be an important arm of the centre‟s administrative structure. Further financial challenges in 2003 meant that for the first time, all services became fees-based. The financial situation at this time was severe enough to result in two notable changes put in place by the centre‟s Board of Trustees. One was the request for staff to donate some of their salary back to the centre. The other was the leasing of some of the land on which the S&HC was occupied to the Bold Park Community School.38

Both initiatives helped to relieve the centre of some financial pressure. In addition, the

36 McCudden, The Speech and Hearing Centre, p. 71. 37 Telethon Speech and Hearing, Annual Report 2010 (Perth: n.p., 2010), p. 11. 38 The Speech and Hearing Centre for Children WA (Inc), Annual Report 2003 (Perth: n.p., 2003), pp. 2-3. 280

S&HC received significant assistance from the Lotteries Commission and the AMP

Foundation. Other philanthropic sources included Western Australian business identities

Jack Bendat, Bill and Rhonda Wyllie. Television broadcaster Channel 7‟s Telethon became a major partner, resulting in the centre being renamed the Telethon Speech & Hearing Centre for Children WA (Inc.) in February 2005, under a ten-year agreement. For daily purposes this was shortened to Telethon Speech & Hearing (TSH). These sources of assistance, as well as consistent efforts in publicity and promotions, enabled a significant rebuilding project during the 2000s which completely changed the TSH campus. Most of the original buildings were demolished and three significant structures replaced them: the Crommelin Family

Centre (opened in 2002 and housing the Early Intervention Programme), the Bill and

Rhonda Wyllie Early Childhood Learning Centre (2009) and the Bendat Parent and

Community Centre (2012).

The reliance on non-government and philanthropic sources of income required the

S&HC/TSH to place significant importance on publicity and promotion. The approach is not very different from that used in the early years of the WA School for Deaf Children. An important aspect of the WASDC‟s promotion then was to “show-case” the speech and language skills of successful students during open days and for influential visitors and benefactors. To an extent, TSH followed a similar approach, via activities such as the annual

Clear Speech awards for those students in the outpost schools. Successful students also figure prominently in media releases from time to time.39

Staffing at the SHC / TSH was and continued to be relatively stable. The first major change to the staffing structure was the retirement of Karen Venard in April 1997. Her successor was Mr Paul Higginbotham. He was initially appointed to the position of principal, but from

39 “Sisters put their case for being heard”, The West Australian, 1 September, 2014, p. 14. 281

2005 this title was replaced by that of chief executive officer, better reflecting

Higginbotham‟s multiple roles within the centre. That same year, four directorships were created: Early Intervention Programme, School Services, Fundraising and Public Relations,

Administration and Financial Services.40 The Early Intervention directorship covered the

Hearing Impaired Programme (Chatterbox) and the Talkabout Programme. By 2007, Ear

Health (including the WISH and COMe HEAR programmes) had grown to become a separate directorship.41

Higginbotham remained at the SHC/TSH until January 2013. Like Karen Venard, he had presided over the centre for quite some years. He steered it through the financial challenges of the 1990s and into the rebuilding and rebranding programmes of the 2000s, so he left a significant legacy. His replacement was Ms Peta Monley, an audiologist by training, who previously worked with Australian Hearing. She had responsibility for audiological services in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.42 This followed appointments at the Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons (AIHP, now the

Disabilities Service Commission), WorkCover WA, and involvement in audiology programmes at Curtin University and at the University of Western Australia.43 Monley also set up her own private audiology practice, iHear, in 1991. She took up her position at TSH in

May 2013.44 In February 2017, Mr Mark Fitzpatrick took over as CEO after similar roles in the aged and community care sector.

Changes in D/HH Educational Services

40 The Speech and Hearing Centre, Annual Report 2004 (Perth: n.p., 2004), pp. 2-3. 41 Telethon Speech and Hearing, Annual Report 2007 (Perth: n.p., 2007), p. 11. 42 “TSH boss to build on new centre”, The West Australian, 26 April, 2013, p. 88. 43 Zoe E. Sampson, “Audiology in Western Australia 1950-2000: Development of a profession”, Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research (2001), pp. 56-58. 44 The West Australian, 26 April, 2013, p. 88. 282

In 1992, the Commonwealth government of Australia passed the Disability Discrimination

Act which, among other things, enabled parents of disabled children to exercise their right to have them educated in mainstream schools with the expectation that they would have equal access to the curriculum. In Western Australia, the Department of Education and Training

(DET) undertook a review of inclusive education in state schools, with the result that from

2001 a greater emphasis was placed on ensuring that its own School Education Act (1999) and Regulations (2000) complied with the Disability Discrimination Act (1992). By 2003,

DET underlined this priority with their Building Inclusive Schools strategy. The rationale for the strategy was outlined in a 2004 document called Pathways to the Future.45 Professional development programmes were provided to school principals and administrators. Later that same year, the Building Inclusive Classrooms strategy was also launched, providing professional development programmes to classroom teachers with the aim of preparing them for the impact that the inclusion policy would create.46

The policies and procedures put in place also aligned with Article 24 of the United Nations

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Australia was a signatory on

30 March 2007 and ratified on 17 July, 2008. Article 24 covered the rights of people with disabilities to accessible and equitable educational services. In response to these rights, governments of the signatory nations would be expected to develop inclusive education policies that enabled access to educational services. For D/HH students, Article 24 specifically referred to “facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the Deaf community”.47 It also allowed for the inclusion within schools of teachers with disabilities who were qualified in Sign language and mandated for the

45 Department of Education and Training, Pathways to the Future: A Report of the Review of Educational Services for Students with Disabilities in Government Schools (Perth: Department of Education and Training, 2004). 46 Michelle Pearce, “The inclusive secondary school teacher in Australia”, International Journal of Whole Schooling, vol. 5, no.2 (2009), p. 11. 47 “United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, archived at [https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf], accessed on 14 May, 2019. 283

provision of training programmes to enable effective communication in whatever mode the student requires for access to educational services.48

To address the costs involved to schools in the implementation of inclusive education, DET introduced the Schools Plus funding model. This enabled school principals and staff the ability to obtain the necessary resources and classroom/school modifications as well as obtain funding for extra teacher time and the appointment of education assistants. Schools were also required to appoint suitable staff to the newly created positions of learning support coordinator (LSC) who were then funded under the Building Inclusive Classrooms programme for training and support over a two-year period. LSCs and classroom teachers were also provided with access to special educational services, of which WAIDE was one.

With the Building Inclusive Classrooms strategy in place, the role of WAIDE started to become less one of proving specialist education to D/HH students and more in the provision of support and consultation to schools and teachers who had D/HH children enrolled. This did not significantly change the actual role of visiting teachers of the deaf based at WAIDE.

They continued to provide the same level of one-on-one support for individual D/HH students, but were now also required to contribute to the assessment of students for additional “adjustments” and resources such as the provision of note-takers and educational interpreters.49

By the end of the 2000s, WAIDE was one of four WA Education Department state-wide specialist services providing educational support and programmes via specialist staff. The other three areas were Vision Education Services, Hospital School Services and the Centre for Inclusive Education (Disabilities). The Department made plans to co-locate the State-

48 “United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, archived at [https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf], accessed on 14 May, 2019. 49 John Richards, written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 3 March, 2015. 284

wide specialist services, which were then scattered around the Perth metropolitan area. The rationale was to “improve the integration of the services, increase opportunities for collaboration, and create greater links with key stakeholder agencies”.50 The then executive principal of WAIDE, Steve Watson, had previously prepared a report on behalf of the

Working Group for Deaf Education arguing for a restructured and integrated approach to

D/HH education in Western Australia. The report addressed the possible future use of the old Mosman Park premises into the 21st century, involving a closer partnership between the state government and the WA Foundation for Deaf Children. The Working Group argued that a more effective service could be provided through a multi-agency “one-stop-shop” at the Curtin Avenue location.51 They also proposed that the state-wide specialist services could be centralised at Curtin Avenue.52 The Future Directions report was well-argued and the concept of co-location of services was considered by the Minister for Education to be worth reviewing.53 This was particularly the case in terms of the move towards restructuring departmental services, including the implementation of independent public schools, and a move away from central services to schools and regions.54

In mid-2011, Watson received a phone call from Tony Simpson, an MLA in the Western

Australian Parliament and a past chair of the WA Deaf Society. Simpson relayed the news that, as part of the restructuring process, the Education Department would relocate WAIDE, along with the other state-wide support services, to the old Padbury Senior High School situated in Perth‟s northern suburbs. The Early Intervention Centre, located at the old

Mosman Park School site was also to be moved to premises at Padbury and at Southwell

Primary School, located in the southern suburb of Hamilton Hill. As a result of the move, at

50 WA Institute for Deaf Education, Out and About, Weeks 5-9, Term 2, 2013, p. 1. 51 Department of Education, Future Directions for Deaf Education in Western Australia. Prepared by: The Working Group for Deaf Education, comprising representatives from the Western Australian Institute for Deaf Education, the WA Foundation for Deaf Children, Inc. and the Department of Education (Perth: n.p., 2009), pp. 6, 10-11. 52 Department of Education, Future Directions, 2009, pp. 11-12. 53 Department of Education, Future Directions, 2009, p. 10. 54 WA Institute for Deaf Education, Out and About, Weeks 5-9, Term 2, 2013, p. 1. 285

the beginning of 2013, the Early Intervention Centre was renamed the Early Childhood

Centre.55 By July 2013, the movement of WAIDE services to Padbury was completed under the supervision of Adrienne Cohen.56 The old school site in Cottesloe apart from the offices of the WA Foundation for Deaf Children became vacant for the first time. The link between the school and generations of D/HH was now minimal. WAIDE, previously a “school” working in relative isolation, now became part of the School of Special Educational Needs:

Sensory (SSEN:S), which also included the Vision and Deaf-Blind Service. The other four

Statewide Specialist Services were incorporated into the Schools of Special Educational

Needs: Disability and Special Educational Needs: Medical and Mental Health.

Further changes occurred in service delivery during 2013. Responsibility for cochlear implant services were taken over by the Ear Science Institute Australia in partnership with

WAIDE. The ESIA was located on Salvado Road in the inner Perth suburb of Subiaco. Most services were carried out there, but they were soon able to extend these services to Padbury and Southwell.57 The ESIA provides a “lifelong care” service, enabling parents and implant recipients to access a range of services including surgical, audiological, speech pathology, early intervention and education support.58 Importantly, this enabled a consistent service to be maintained throughout childhood and into the teenage years, with parents being able to access a point of contact through a parent liaison officer.59

Also implemented in 2013 was a “hubs” arrangement for the WAIDE Visiting Teacher

Service. At Curtin Avenue, it was relatively easy for all metropolitan visiting teachers to be

“on site” on Fridays and to retain office space there. This was no longer possible at Padbury.

Instead, groups of VTs were allocated to hubs, or office space, attached to schools in four

55 WA Institute for Deaf Education, WAIDE News, Autumn 2013, p. 1. 56 WA Institute for Deaf Education, Out and About, Weeks 3-6, Term 4, 2012, p. 1. 57 WAIDE News, Autumn 2013, p. 1. 58 WA Institute for Deaf Education, WAIDE News, Semester 1, Term 1, 2014, p. 2. 59 WAIDE News, Semester 1, Term 1, 2014, p. 2. 286

metropolitan areas: South Fremantle High School, Southern River College, North Mandurah

Primary School and Padbury.60 The Bunbury visiting teachers, who had earlier established a stand-alone hub at South Bunbury Primary School, were incorporated into the North

Mandurah hub. Each hub was allocated a professional leader, with overall responsibility for the daily running of each hub and reporting to the VToD Service Associate Principal, Paula

Bridges. The four hub leaders appointed were Jacqui Cole (South Fremantle), Michelle

Brown (Southern River), Vicki Levitzke (North Mandurah) and Karen Long (Padbury).

Padbury remained the main administrative centre for the VToD service and all staff met at

Padbury on a monthly basis once the hubs became operational. Like the Bunbury staff, all country-based VToDs were allocated to a specific hub for administrative purposes.

At the time of writing (2018), the future of 53 Curtin Avenue remains in some doubt. Many current and ex-WAIDE staff are concerned about this as is the WA Deaf community. Soon after the move to Padbury was announced, the WA branch of the Australian Association of

Teachers of the Deaf (AATD) wrote to the then premier, the Hon. Colin Barnett, seeking clarification regarding plans for the premises. Barnett was also the MLA for Cottesloe, so the

AATD felt that he would have at least been aware of the school and its heritage value. The

AATD pointed out that Deaf communities worldwide see their schools as being “spiritual homes” and that the building should remain “in perpetuity for deaf people, deaf children and their families in some form as was intended by our forefathers”.61 Barnett‟s reply acknowledged the “long association” of the property with deaf education and the resultant strong connection that existed between it and those who lived, learned and taught there, but

60 WAIDE News, Autumn 2013, p. 1. 61 Leanne Potter, President AATD (WA) to The Premier, Colin Barnett, undated letter, 2012, archived at the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia), Perth. 287

was non-committal on its future, except to say that any decision “will be cognisant of the history and heritage value of the building”.62

The AATD (WA) then wrote to the Minister for Education, Peter Collier, on 7 July 2014. The letter drew attention to the heritage value of the property and requested clarification as to who would assume responsibility once the Education Department left.63 Again, to date, no decision has been made. The WA Deaf Society expressed interest in relocating their administrative offices to the building, but nothing eventuated from this. At the time of writing, the land and buildings have been on the list of WA government properties earmarked for sale to the private sector.

The move to Padbury has been a significant shift in the manner in which D/HH education is provided within Western Australia. It reflects the reality that hearing aid and particularly cochlear implant technology has enabled the majority of D/HH children to be accommodated in mainstream schools. Along with the technology, educational programmes and support services such as the SSEN:S Visiting Teacher programme and Disability

Resource System funding for education assistants, ensure that the academic and socio- emotional needs of the children can be addressed at school level and through SSEN:S.

However, even with an increased understanding of the impact of deafness on academic and social development, an element of audism continues to run through the provision of these services.

62 Premier Colin Barnett to Leanne Potter, Letter dated 27 June, 2012, archived at the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia), Perth. 63 Leanne Potter, President AATD (WA), to The Minister for Education, Peter Collier, Letter dated 7 July, 2012, archived at the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia), Perth.

288

Primary among these is access to social support networks. Deafness, even with the availability of hearing aid and cochlear implants, is primarily a social disability. As can be appreciated through this thesis, access to verbal language and therefore to the hearing community has been a challenge throughout the history of D/HH education in Western

Australia as elsewhere. Social interaction remains a challenge for almost all D/HH children.

Although some of these children spend at least some of their school years within the Deaf

Units in selected government and private schools, the majority experience relative social isolation as the only or one of very few D/HH enrolled in their mainstream school. They are also more likely to be the only D/HH person in their family. As far back as the early years of the WADDI, it was noted that many of the boarders did not necessarily enjoy going home for the holidays, preferring instead the company of their D/HH friends. This trend continued to be evident until the closure of the boarding facilities at the school. It suggests that active social interaction with each other is a significant issue for D/HH children as well as adults.

Recently, this has been acknowledged and addressed to some extent by WAIDE/SSEN:S and the WA Foundation for Deaf Children. SSEN:S now has several teachers of the deaf who are

D/HH themselves, among them Michelle Brown who is currently associate principal at

SSEN:S with responsibility for D/HH educational services. These staff provide important role models for the students. SSEN:S and the WAFDC also provide opportunities for D/HH to get together socially on a regular basis. The provision of a school camp for Year 6, 7 and 8

D/HH students in September 2014 at Woodman‟s Point, south of Perth, enabled 51 D/HH children from as far away as Esperance, Kalgoorlie and Collie to meet together, enjoy each other‟s company and take part in various activities.64 Keep In Touch, Lighthouse and Peer

Engagement Days are also a regular feature of SSEN:S services and the WAFDC provides a

Family Network Group, both of which allow D/HH children and their parents to maintain contact with others. Social media and platforms such as Skype are also enabling D/HH

64 WA Institute for Deaf Education, WAIDE News, Semester 2, Term 4, 2014, p. 6. 289

children to make contact with others like themselves, sometimes through the initiative of

SSEN:S staff.

The current situation of D/HH education suggests that while audism is still very much evident in D/HH education in Western Australia, the focus on optimum audition through cochlear implants and digital hearing aids, together with speech and language programmes, greater support within mainstream schools and a greater acceptance of the impact of deafness, all create positive outcomes for the current generation of D/HH children. In most respects, current educational outcomes and potential career prospects for D/HH children are far more positive than ever before. Because of the acknowledgement by the hearing world of the Deaf community, culture and language, D/HH children have greater opportunities to move easily between the two cultures as they gain an awareness of what the Deaf community can offer them in terms of friendship and social interaction. With Auslan becoming a LOTE subject in many schools, these language skills can be picked up earlier by both D/HH and hearing LOTE students. They can also be practiced more readily through social media, something which is now an important part of most children‟s lives. These outcomes create greater social and economic opportunities for them in adulthood and enable them to be more accepting of their hearing loss with the realisation that they need not be held back. The current educational programmes therefore have not suppressed or restrained D/HH students, but have created more opportunities instead.

In summary, cochlear implant and associated amplification technology is quite representative of the long-standing “deafness as a medical condition” audist viewpoint. The cochlear implant, in particular, was not well received by the Deaf community primarily because of the perceived challenges it created for the survival of their language and culture.

To an extent, this has been a valid concern, especially given the rapid take-up of cochlear 290

implants in children. Oral programmes clearly benefit from this technology, in turn giving

D/HH children a range of educational possibilities that would have been unimaginable prior to the 1990s. Quite simply, the teaching and learning of speech and language is now less challenging, stressful and drawn-out than at any time in the past. The increased likelihood of positive educational outcomes leads in turn to a greater range of accessible post-school opportunities. D/HH education also continues to benefit from research and development in areas such as audiology, Sign language and the sociology of deafness. Input from the Deaf community as well as D/HH professionals in these fields is now much more readily recognised and valued. Although audism continues to dominate the field of D/HH education, the needs and wishes of the D/HH community are being more readily acknowledged. Audism remains a valid concept within D/HH education, but it has evolved into a more positive process, to the great advantage of current and future generations of

D/HH children and adults.

291

Conclusion and Discussion

As stated in the previous chapter, the Executive Principal of the Western Australian Institute for Deaf Education (WAIDE), Steve Watson, received news in 2011 that the Western

Australian Education Department was to relocate WAIDE to the decommissioned Padbury

Senior High School in Perth‟s northern suburbs. The Early Intervention Centre, located in the Mosman Park School for the Deaf buildings was also to be transferred. By July 2013, the move was completed and for the first time, the old school site in Cottesloe was not in use for

Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) educational services. The link between the school and generations of D/HH individuals no longer had a physical form. At this point, investigation into the history of D/HH education in Western Australia reaches a natural concluding stage.

It remains to review the main themes.

Donald Moores writes that throughout the history of D/HH education, three “complex, highly interrelated” questions drive the educational provision: “What should deaf students be taught? Where should deaf students be taught? How should deaf students be taught?”.1

He also states that the manner in which D/HH students are taught is dependent on what the desired educational outcomes are.2 The identification of desired educational outcomes then drives the decisions to be made as to the what, where and how of these goals.3 In Western

Australia, as elsewhere, such outcomes have varied depending on the contemporary desires, attitudes and beliefs of educationalists, parents, audiologists and also the Deaf community.

Generally speaking, D/HH educational pedagogy in Western Australia has focussed on

1 Donald F. Moores, “The history of language and communication issues in deaf education” in Marc Marschark and Patricia E. Spencer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language and Education, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), vol. II, p. 17. 2 Moores, “The history of language”, p. 18. 3 Moores, “The history of language”, p. 18. 292

outcomes that prepare the D/HH child, regardless of the degree and aetiology of the hearing loss, for integration into the hearing world as far as possible or to enable moving comfortably between the hearing and the Deaf communities.

The needs of D/HH students were well-considered in the pre-WWII years, when Henry

Witchell and John Love were aware of the need to balance communicative competence and academic knowledge. Far from insisting on a strictly oral approach to instruction, Witchell and Love created an educational programme in which the oral method was used for those children who could and would benefit from it. However, given the lack of amplification technology at that time, they were realistic about the limits of an oral programme, preferring instead to focus on building life skills for successful living and working in a hearing world and with access to the Deaf Community. It was not until the leadership of John Heatly and

Brian Fisher that factors such as the overall increase in the number of D/HH children, technology, research and parental expectations all coalesced to create the predominantly oral post WWII environment. During this era, D/HH education also moved towards the inclusive education of all children within mainstream settings and this further influenced the communication approach adopted. While the WASDC favoured the oral method as per

Education Department policy, the communicative needs of the more profoundly deaf students were still addressed via the manual method. The Speech and Hearing Centre also made use of some manual codes via cued speech, but the overall goal remained the development of verbal communicative competence. This approach was reinforced by the introduction of the Auditory-Verbal Therapy approach, focussing on listening and speech alone.

The 1880 Milan Conference is seen by the Deaf Community world-wide as being the point of time in which oralism was settled on as the predominant focus of D/HH education. From 293

this perspective, it was the moment in which manualism was subverted in favour of oralism.

As previously argued, Resolutions One and Two indicate only that oralism was the

“suggested” and “preferred” method of instruction. That it was not a compulsory edict was a conclusion evidently reached at the time by at least some schools for the D/HH throughout the British Empire as well as the United States. While the United States continued to accept manualism, Britain, and therefore Australia as part of the British Commonwealth, tended to favour the combined method. In doing so, schools for the D/HH in these countries accepted the basic intent of the Milan resolutions, but were realistic enough to understand that oralism did not benefit all students. In many cases, an oral programme would actually hinder their progress as conceptual development was sacrificed on the altar of speech production. The use of the word “preferred” in the resolutions allowed an “escape clause” by which schools and teachers still had some degree of control over the method of instruction which suited their students.

This is what occurred in Western Australia. Up until just after the WWII years, students at the WA Deaf and Dumb Institute/WA School for Deaf and Dumb Children were educated and trained for living and working within the hearing community, while allowing for the fact that options for full integration were limited by poor speech, language delays and the lack of amplification technology. Staff such as John Love and May Wallace maintained close links with the WA Deaf Society for many years and encouraged social integration into the Deaf community by the students. The combined method therefore provided the means of achieving the “how” in terms of best possible outcomes for students at that particular time.

Likewise, the “what” and “where” was equally straightforward. The Mosman Park school was the only place in Western Australia where the majority of these children were taught. What they were taught focused on the development of written and reading skills coupled with manual expertise to suit a variety of jobs or careers deemed to be suitable for D/HH children with little or no access to speech and sound. This philosophy was followed from the 294

foundation years of the school by Henry Witchell and his staff. As a result, many students did quite well in a variety of skilled manual jobs in post-school life and were able to maintain the social links forged at school, through membership of the WA Deaf Society.

The 1938-41 rubella epidemic changed things significantly as did the WWII years. The epidemic (and others following) increased the number of identified D/HH children, all of whom needed to be educated. The establishment of the Commonwealth Acoustic

Laboratories (CAL) in the aftermath of the war was a watershed event for these children as many were able to benefit from research and development in amplification technology. As a result, and with parental, educational and audiological pressures, the oral educational movement, led by proponents such as Alexander and Irene Ewing and Norman Murray of

CAL, more or less gained a monopoly on the “how” of D/HH education. The “where” was also beginning to change as parental pressure resulted in alternatives to the Mosman Park school becoming increasingly desirable. The “what”, however, continued to focus on vocational skills, with many children moving into jobs and careers which did not place too much emphasis on hearing and spoken language. As late as the mid-1970s, it was still unusual for children at Mosman Park to study to Year 11-12 levels, but apprenticeships,

TAFE study and on-the-job training were available. A concurrent focus on oralism thanks to post-war hearing aid technology enabled some gains to be made in speech, language and listening skills but often at the expense of general academic education. Consequently many children left the WA School for Deaf Children with less than satisfactory levels of academic achievement. Communication skill levels were often poor since speech and spoken language programmes did not always provide the expected outcomes, frequently affecting reading and writing skills which are typically predicated on oral skills. It also led to an imbalance in the school curriculum due to excessive emphasis placed on spoken language development.

295

Although successful social, career and personal assimilation into a predominately hearing society remained the goal of D/HH education from 1896, the use of Sign was never completely abandoned. Post-WWII events created an educational environment in which oralism reached its peak in the second half of the 20th century, only being brought into question when research into the socio-linguistic aspects of Sign language and into educational outcomes of D/HH challenged the strength of the oralism case from the 1980s onwards.

The last three decades of the twentieth century saw changes to D/HH education which were driven by research and community/ social expectations aimed at improving the educational outcomes and the adult lives of D/HH students at a level higher than was the case prior to the immediate post-WWII years. However, the question still remains as to whether or not

D/HH education today is better in terms of what it provides for the students than it has been in the past. Certainly, improved technology, both auditory and educational, and a greater awareness of the needs and rights of D/HH students would suggest that current models of educational provision are indeed an improvement. The desire for educational integration and equitable access to typical educational experiences was also an important factor driving changes in these services and their expected outcomes.

In 2010, Donald Moores reviewed research carried out in the United States which supports the argument that D/HH students generally show better academic outcomes when educated in mainstream classrooms than in self-contained units. However, they still tend to fall behind their hearing peers in terms of overall academic progress.4 In Western Australia most D/HH children are integrated into mainstream schools. They are frequently forced to integrate due to the lack of alternative accommodations. Educational integration has

4 Moores, “The history of language”, pp. 74-76. 296

become the default process although it must be acknowledged that units for D/HH children are still attached to several schools in the Perth metropolitan area. Attendance at these existing units at Mosman Park Primary School, Shenton College and Belmont City College, have until recently operated under capped numbers, and demand has always been greater than places available. Visiting Teachers of the Deaf (VToD) assist mainstream classroom teachers but the system relies heavily on the willingness and skill of the classroom teacher to effectively integrate the D/HH students into the regular classroom. This is particularly the case for country-based students and schools who may only receive a visit from a VToD two to four times each year.

These developments come at a time when an awareness of deafness and an acknowledgement of hearing loss has become more widespread within the hearing world.

Far from being hidden away in institutions, D/HH children are now visible in mainstream schools. Visibility has created an awareness of the complexity of deafness and an appreciation that there are many different types of amplification technology and communication methods available to suit the individual hearing loss of the child. It has also created a growing awareness of Auslan as a socio-cultural language, reflected in its recently approved status as a LOTE subject in many schools. This increasing level of awareness enables others to gain a greater understanding of the challenges of deafness and a corresponding empathy for the D/HH child as they progress through school.

Awareness has made the D/HH child less an object of pity and concern and more of a person who is acknowledged to have educational potential despite the challenges created by the hearing loss. In this respect “deafness” now has less negative connotations in an educational setting than in the past. Mainstreaming has built awareness, awareness has built understanding and understanding has built acceptance and a willingness to support. This is 297

unquestionably a positive thing for the Deaf community. However, issues of audism in education are sometimes as evident today as ever in the past. D/HH children, despite the increasing presence of D/HH people in educational administrative positions and as VToDs and Education Assistants in schools, are still the recipients of educational and support programmes developed by specialists who are in the hearing majority. The numerically small D/HH community does not always get the opportunity to provide meaningful input into the implementation of programmes, notwithstanding previous occasions such as the push for bilingual/bicultural education particularly in country areas where D/HH people are underrepresented in the general population.

Moores suggested in 2010 that the role of teachers of the D/HH would change as more children born deaf or hearing impaired are identified via newborn screening, are fitted with appropriate amplification equipment soon after diagnosis and enter early intervention programmes quickly. There was expected to be a greater likelihood that they would enter mainsteam school settings with speech and language skills close to that of their hearing peers. Moores believed that teachers of the D/HH would shift from direct instruction of the

D/HH child to providing support services to the schools themselves.5 In 2014, this started to become a reality in Western Australia as changes to a child-centred funding model created the need for greater accountability for the outcomes of each child and the need for support services to help schools effectively deliver services to achieve these outcomes. Support service to schools became particularly necessary in country regions where a D/HH child is sometimes located a considerable distance from teachers of the D/HH, creating significant time and financial costs involved in travel to these towns. In these cases (and in an increasing number of schools closer to service access), the schools have had to take responsibility for the educational outcomes of the student while making direct and regular contact with the School of Special Educational Needs-Sensory (SSEN-S) and its VToDs for

5 Moores, “The history of language”, p. 73. 298

advice and assistance. The effect of this shift has been to bring the education of D/HH students even more under the authority and guidance of hearing educators again, with only peripheral involvement of those who value a Deaf-centric philosophy of education.

In this thesis it is acknowledged throughout that audist practices have occurred in D/HH education in Western Australia since 1896. To an extent they continue to occur. But it has also been argued that in many respects, today‟s audist practices can be considered to be both positive and passive. Technology, changing attitudes towards deafness and changing society have enabled this shift. The following comment is representative of audist viewpoints that exist into the 21st century:

We can now say that from the beginning of the last century medicine and technology have taken giant steps ahead to eliminate the causes that give rise to deafness, to solve the problems that are connected with deafness, and consequently to improve the quality of life for people who are afflicted by deafness.6

Note, however, that deafness is still regarded within much of hearing society – and thus in some educational circles – as an affliction to be assessed and “cured”.

In the introduction to this thesis, reference was made to the idea of dysconcious audism as put forward by Genie Gertz. According to Gertz, dysconcious audism is based on the ideology that the hearing community, because it is dominant, is seen as being a more fitting society for D/HH people than the Deaf community. This dominance results in the D/HH community drawing some values from the hearing community that are “antithetical” to Deaf culture, but are incorporated into the D/HH community to enable access to and interaction

6 Savino G. Castiglione, “Deaf people in the world between the past and the present”, Dolentium Hominum, Journal of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (For Health Pastoral Care), Ephphatha! The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church, Proceedings of the XXIV International Conference, November 19-20-21, 2009, New Synod Hall, Vatican City. no. 73, Year XXV, no. 1 (2010), p. 14. 299

with the dominant hearing world as a matter of necessity.7 The D/HH community and its culture cannot function independently and in isolation of the hearing community. Gertz states that the link between audism and dysconcious audism is created by the power of hearing people over D/HH people in various domains including education.8

This link is evident throughout the history of D/HH education in Western Australia. Audism is a regular theme since the establishment of the Western Australian Deaf and Dumb

Institution in 1896, through practices such as the focus on oralism and the virtually total control of D/HH education by hearing educators and professionals. However, the educational processes that were put in place allowed the majority of D/HH students to develop sufficient skills to interact in a way that enabled them to live, work and communicate with the dominant hearing world. Some antithetical values are incorporated as technology develops in such a way that enables ease of access to the hearing world. An example is the need for a certain level of English language (rather than Auslan) competence in order to effectively access closed captions, computer technology and telecommunications services.

There is also an acceptance within the Deaf community of the need for amplification technology including cochlear implants to a greater degree than was previously the case, although the decision on whether or not to have one remains an individual choice among

Deaf community members.

The D/HH community in Western Australia, as elsewhere, has been shaped by the educational services they were exposed to during their school years. Some of the senior members of the Western Australian Deaf community who were students during the John

Love era, for example, continue to use finger spelling as their main means of communication

7 Genie Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism: A Theoretical Proposition” in H-Dirksen L. Bauman (ed.), Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), p. 219. 8 Gertz, “Dysconcious Audism”, p. 230. 300

even within the Deaf community due to the emphasis on the combined method during those years. Students who grew up in the post-WWII oral era frequently continue to show relatively poor English communication skills due to the emphasis on auditory skills development. Many members of the WA Deaf community continue to have an emotional attachment to their D/HH schools and units although it must be acknowledged that the emotions can be positive, negative or a combination of both depending on their circumstances at the school. All require skills to interact with the hearing world on an almost daily basis and in doing so, they internalise aspects of that world, whether it is the embracing of technology that enables them to interact with both hearing and Deaf worlds, communicating within a range of daily situations or following the laws, rules, regulations and expectations of hearing society. The education services they have received have enabled them to do so albeit with varying degrees of skill.

In conclusion, it is suggested that audism has always been a part of D/HH education in

Western Australia, but that overall, these services were carried out with the best intentions for the academic and social development of D/HH children. As with all educational systems,

D/HH education reflected the attitudes, economic needs and aspirations of the contemporary society. Towards the end of the 20th century with more input and acknowledgement of Deaf culture, community and language evident, the impact of audism became more positive, reflecting the undeniable impact of digital technology and, in particular, the cochlear implant. The audist attitudes described should thus not be seen as widening a gulf between the hearing and the D/HH communities. Instead, they should more be seen as nurturing a hybrid situation by which the generations of D/HH children educated in Western Australia have been given opportunities to draw linguistic, cultural, social and economic support from either community reflecting their individual needs and aspirations.

301

Bibliography

WA Foundation for Deaf Children, Perth, Western Australia.

Attwater, Wendy. Describe critically, 19th and 20th century government legislation relating to hearing impaired children: Essay submitted on the history of the education of the deaf and partially hearing by candidate No. 153, Feb. 1981.

Hay, John A. John down under: Report on the lecture tour undertaken in Australia. Unpublished document. March, 2013. Western Australian Foundation for Deaf Children / Deaf Heritage Programme archival collection.

Heatley, Margaret. Memories of a dogsbody. Unpublished manuscript. 24 November, 1995.

Hooker, S. The history of methodology at the Victorian School for Deaf Children between 1860 and 1950. Bachelor of Education essay, Melbourne University (September, 1976).

Piesse, Ray. “Trends in hearing aids” in Australian Deafness Council and Deafness Foundation (Victoria). Deafness-1975: A seminar held at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, May, 1975, pp. 32-37.

Stockins, D.G., Registrar General‟s Office. Written communication to Dr. H.J. Blackmore, 2 November, 1994.

Transcript of taped interview between Dr Neville Green and Mrs Maud Cook (sister of the first pupils at the deaf school). Mrs Cook was aged 93. WA Institute for Deaf Education archives, 1971.

WA School for Deaf Children Inc. A brief history of the Western Australian School for Deaf Children at Cottesloe-Mosman Park 1900-1995. n.p.: 1995(?).

The WA School for Deaf Children Inc. Minutes of meeting of the Centenary Celebrations Sub-Committee held in the Hearing Assessment Centre on Monday 5 December, 1994, at 2.00pm.

West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Subscription List for the Year ended 30 June, 1917. Together with General Information. Perth: Barclay and Sharland, 1917.

Western Australian School for Deaf Children. Annual Reports. 1898- 1985.

Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre, Perth, Western Australia.

Annual Reports 2008-2013.

302

Education Department of Western Australia.

Western Australia Education Department. “Annual Report: Education Department, Western Australia”. Perth: Western Australia Education Department, 1918.

Battye Library of Western Australian History

Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Letter Book. MN 2742 Acc/Box No. 7576A/29.

Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Minute books 1897-1899. MN 2742 Acc/Box No. 7576A/40.

Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.). Minute books 1963-1969, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/29.

Western Australian School for Deaf Children (Inc.). Minutes: 1960-1979, MN 7242, Acc/Box No. 7576A/42 OSM.

Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution. Register of Pupils, 1897-1956. MN 2742 Acc/Box No. 7576A/29 OSM.

Western Australian Deaf Society

“Obituary – Miss May Wallace BEM (1908-2008)”. WA Deaf Society Inc. 2008 Annual Report. East Perth: WA Deaf Society, 2008.

Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia)

Potter, Leanne. President AATD (WA) to The Premier, Colin Barnett, undated letter, 2012, archived at the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia), Perth.

Barnett, Colin. Premier to Leanne Potter, Letter dated 27 June, 2012, archived at the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia), Perth.

Potter, Leanne. President AATD (WA), to The Minister for Education, Peter Collier, Letter dated 7 July, 2012, archived at the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf (Western Australia), Perth.

Metropolitan Cemeteries Board (Western Australia)

Karrakatta General Cemetery. Form of Instructions for Grave and Application for Burial. Application No. 33381. 23 June, 1926. 303

Karrakatta General Cemetery. Grant of Right of Burial. No. 17390 27 July, 1926.

Supreme Court of Western Australia

Supreme Court of Western Australia: Court of Criminal Appeal, Beamish v The Queen [2005] WASCA 62 (1 April 2005).

Parliamentary Reports

Western Australia. Parliamentary Debates. Legislative Council Session of the Year 1871. Comprising the period from the tenth day of July to the seventeenth day of August. Perth: Garry L. Duffield, Government Printer, 1871.

Hansard, Legislative Assembly Friday 7 February 1918 - 3 August 1966.

Parliamentary Acts

Georg II V Regis A.D.1915. No. 1223. An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to public education, (Assented to, December 23rd, 1915).

Public Education 10° Geo.V., No. XLIII. No. 55 of 1919. An Act to further amend the Acts relating to Public Elementary Education (Assented to 17th December, 1919).

Reports

Department of Education. Future Directions for Deaf Education in Western Australia. Prepared by: The Working Group for Deaf Education, comprising representatives from the Western Australian Institute for Deaf Education, the WA Foundation for Deaf Children, Inc. and the Department of Education . Perth: n.p., 2009.

Heritage Council of Western Australia. Register of Heritage Places, Assessment Documentation: WA School for Deaf Children. Perth: Heritage Council, 2000.

Genealogical records

Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Record No. 6472/1868.

Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, Record No. 18209/1947.

Diaries

Personal diary of John Love (1928). Private collection of Douglas Love, Perth, Western Australia. 304

Oral and personal correspondence

Fisher, Mavis. Written Communication to Geoffrey Smith. 18-23 April, 2018.

Gray, Richard. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith. 22 August, 2014.

Greenwald, Brian. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith and Murdoch University. 16 January, 2019.

Love, Douglas. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith. 22 March, 2013 - 14 March, 2014.

Love, John O. Written correspondence to Geoffrey Smith. Undated, [2013].

Members of the WA Deaf community. Anonymous discussions with Geoffrey Smith. January, 2015-October, 2016.

Pollard, Rachel. Email communication with Geoffrey Smith. 9 January, 2017.

Potter, Leanne. Conversation with Geoffrey Smith. 24 October, 2018.

Reed, Kerry. Personal communication with Geoffrey Smith. 8 December 2014.

Richards, John. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith. 3 March, 2015.

Wall, Martin. Conversation with Geoffrey Smith. 11 March, 2010.

Warden, Margaret. Written communication to Geoffrey Smith, 15 February, 2013.

Newsletters

Aumann, Meg. “Audism – What is it?”. Communicate: The Newsletter for Victoria’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, Issue 12 (Autumn, 2008).

WA Institute for Deaf Education. Out and About. 2013.

WA Institute for Deaf Education. WAIDE News. 2013-2014.

Newspapers

Albany Advertiser. 14 July 1898.

Daily News. 22 January 1855 – 23 April 1896

Fremantle-Cockburn News 1972-

Fremantle Focus. March/April, 1988.

Kalgoorlie Miner. 6 September 1898 – 19 March 1948.

North Suburban News. 23 March, 1979 – 1983 305

Ovens and Murray Advertiser. 16 March 1865.

Perth Gazette and West Australian Times. 28 July 1871.

School Matters. 7 October 2010.

Southern Districts Advocate. 12 December 1932.

Stirling Times, 22 March, 1988- 7 November, 1995.

The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia). 29 February 1892 – 31 October 1945.

The Advocate (Victoria). March 1933.

The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria). 30 March 1867 – 31 July 1882.

The Inquirer and Commercial News. 2 August 1871 – 16 July 1897.

The Mercury (Hobart). 20 January 1894- 23 January 1894.

The Prahran Telegraph. 16 November, 1892 – 2 August, 1893.

The Register Adelaide. 27 February, 1926

The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 December 1892- 28 April 1911.

The Sunday Times. 1 March 1914 – 5 March 1995.

The West Australian. 18 June 1892 – 1 September 2014.

The Western Mail. 11 November 1896 – 25 October 1945.

The Westralian Worker. 13 December 1946 – 28 October 1949.

Weekend News. 22 July 1972 – 11 November 1978.

Books

Alexander, Fred. Campus at Crawley: A Narrative and Critical Appreciation of the First Fifty Years of the University of Western Australia. Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire, 1963.

Barker, Anthony J. “Yanks in Western Australia: The impact of United States Servicemen”. In Jenny Gregory, ed. On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War II. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1996.

Baynton, Douglas C. Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Bell, Max D. Perth – A Cinema History. Sussex: Book Guild, 1986.

Blackburn, Estelle. Broken Lives. South Yarra (Vic.): Hardie Grant, 2001.

306

Bontempo, Karen and Josie Hodgetts. History of the W.A. Deaf Society 1921-2001. Leederville (W.A.): Western Australian Deaf Society Inc., 2002.

Branson, Jan and Don Miller. Damned for their Difference: The Cultural Construction of Deaf People as Disabled. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2002.

Burchett, J.H. Utmost for the Highest: The Story of the Victorian School for Deaf Children. Prahran (Vic.): Hall‟s Book Store, 1964.

Clark, Graeme M. “Historical perspectives”. In Robert S.C. Cowan & Richard C. Dowell, eds. Cochlear Implantation for Infants and Children: Advances. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group, 1997.

Cohen, Leah Hager. Train Go Sorry. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Coldrey, Barry M. The Scheme: The Christian Brothers and Children in Western Australia. O‟Connor (Perth): Argyle-Pacific, 1993.

Committee of Inquiry into Education in Western Australia. Education in Western Australia: report of the Committee of Inquiry appointed by the Minister for Education in Western Australia, under the Chairmanship of Mr K. E. Beazley. Perth: Government Printer, 1984.

Cordwell, Alice M. Out of the Silence: A Book for the Families of Hearing-Handicapped Children. Sydney: Alella Books, 1970.

Department of Education and Training. Pathways to the Future: A Report of the Review of Educational Services for Students with Disabilities in Government Schools. Perth: Department of Education and Training, 2004.

Dillon, Harvey. Hearing Aids. Sydney: Boomerang Press, 2001.

Downie, Ellaine. “The deafness revolution of the 1950s”. In Ellaine Downie, ed. Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974-2006. Nunawading (Vic.): Deafness Foundation (Victoria), 2006.

Downie, Ellaine. “The emergence of Auslan”. In Ellaine Downie. ed. Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974-2006. Nunuwading (Vic): Deafness Foundation (Victoria), 2006.

Edwards, R.A.R. Words Made Flesh: Nineteenth Century Deaf Education and the Growth of Deaf Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2012.

Ewing, Irene R. “Screening Tests and Guidance Clinics for Babies and Young Children”. In A.W.G. Ewing, ed. Educational Guidance and the Deaf Child. Manchester: University Press, 1957.

Flynn, John W. “Oral Deaf Clubs”. In The Western Australian Society for the Advancement of the Deaf. Deafness in Australia 1974. WASAD: n.p., 1974.

Garswood, Luke and Kaye Regan. “Disability Movement”. In Jenny Gregory and Jan Gothard, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press, 2009. 307

Green, Neville. “Survey of residential schools for the deaf in Australia” In The Western Australian Society for the Advancement of the Deaf. Deafness in Australia 1974. WASAD: n.p., 1974.

Green, Neville J. Survey of Current and Former Aboriginal Students at W.A. School for Deaf . Perth: Schools Commission, 1975.

Greenwald, Brian H. “Revising the Memoir: Contesting Deaf autonomy and the real tragedy of Alexander Graham Bell”. In Brian H. Greenwald and Joseph J. Murray, eds. In Our Own Hands: Essays in Deaf History 1780-1970. Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2016.

Greenwald, Brian H. “The real “toll” of A. G. Bell: Lessons about eugenics”. In John V. Van Cleve, ed. Genetics, Disability and Deafness. Washington D.C: Gallaudet University Press, 2004.

Gertz, Genie. “Disconcious Audism: A Theoretical Proposition”. In H-Dirksen L. Bauman, ed. Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Healy, Richard B. The Christian Brothers Castledare: 1929-1979. Perth (?), bro. B Healy (?), 1979.

Hetherington, Penelope, “Families and children in wartime Western Australia”. In Jenny Gregory, ed. On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War II. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1996.

Hough, Laurence J. and Barry Knust, eds. A Story of the Queensland School for the Deaf. Marooka (Qld.): Merino Lithographs, n.d.

Humphries, Tom. “On Deaf-mutes, the Strange and the modern Deaf self”. In N. Glickman and M. Harvey, eds. Affirming Psychotherapy with Deaf Persons. Hillsdale N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. Reprinted in Lois Bragg, ed. Deaf world: A historical Reader and Primary Sourcebook. New York: New York University Press, 2001.

Humphrey, Janice H. and Bob J. Alcorn. So You Want To Be An Interpreter? An Introduction to Sign Language Interpreting. 2nd edn. Amarillo (Texas): H&H Publications, 1995.

Jeans, Raymond C. and Reynolds, Brian E. Dictionary of Australasian Signs for Communication with the Deaf. Melbourne: Victorian School for Deaf Children, 1982.

Johnston, Brian James. Memories of St. Gabriel’s: A History of St. Gabriel’s Deaf School Castle Hill NSW. Castle Hill (N.S.W.): B.J. Johnston, 2000.

Johnston, Trevor, ed. Signs of Australia: A New Dictionary of Auslan (The Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community). Revised Edition. North Rocks (Sydney): Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, 1998.

Komesaroff, Linda. Disabling Pedagogy: Power, Politics and Deaf Education. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2008.

Kurlansky, Mark. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. London: Vintage Books, 2004. 308

Ladd, Paddy. “Colonialism and Resistance: A Brief History of Deafhood”. In H-Dirksen L. Bauman, ed. Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Lake, Lindsay C. Centenary of the WA School for Deaf Children (Inc.): Newspaper Clippings and Articles 1896-1996. Perth: L.C. Lake, 1996.

Lane, Harlan. When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Lane, Harlan. The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

Lynas, Wendy, Alan Huntington and Ivan Tucker. A Critical Examination of Different Approaches to Communication in the Education of Deaf Children. Manchester: University of Manchester, 1988.

Marshall, John and Janette Thorburn. “Evolution of the hearing aid”. In Ellaine Downie, ed. Hearing the Need: The Deafness Foundation 1974 to 2006. Nunawading (Vic.): Deafness Foundation (Victoria), 2006.

McCudden, Vince. The Speech and Hearing Centre: The First Twenty Five Years (1967- 1992). Perth (?):n.p., 1994.

McKenzie, John A. Twenty-Five Years: A History of Claremont Teachers College 1952-1977. Claremont, W.A.: Claremont Teachers College, 1981.

Moores, Donald F. Educating the Deaf: Psychology, Principles and Practices. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978.

Moores, Donald F. “The history of language and communication issues in deaf education”. In Marc Marschark and Patricia E. Spencer. eds. The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language and Education. Vol. II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Mossenson, David. State Education in Western Australia 1829 – 1960. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1972.

Murray, Joseph J. “Coequality and Transnational Studies: Understanding Deaf Lives”. In H- Dirksen Bauman. ed. Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Plowman, Jennifer. We Grew Up Together. Sydney: North Rocks Press, 1985.

Reekie, Gail. “Shunted back to the Kitchen? Women‟s responses to war work and demobilization”. In Jenny Gregory, ed. On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War II. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1996.

Ross, Mark. “Room acoustics and speech perception”. In Mark Ross, ed. FM Auditory Training Systems: Characteristics, Selection and Use. Maryland: York Press, 1992.

Rourke, William H. My Way: W.H. (Bill) Rourke’s 50 Years Adventure in Education. Perth: Carroll‟s, 1980.

Sacks, Oliver. Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf. London: Picador, 1991. 309

Schuchman, John S. Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry. Urbana (Ill.): University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Sheward, Julie. Dare to be Normal: Living in Deafness with Confidence. Duncraig East (W.A.): Silent Sea, 2007.

Stannage, C.T. The People of Perth, Perth: Perth City Council, 1979.

Upfold, Laurie. A History of Australian Audiology. Sydney, Phonak: 2008.

WA School for Deaf Children Inc. The House on the Hill: The First Hundred Years of the WA School for Deaf Children, Osborne Park: Jiffy Printing, 1996.

Watson, Dorothy M. and Aileen M. Pickles. “Home training”. In A.W.G. Ewing, ed. Educational Guidance and the Deaf Child. Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1957.

Western Australian Council for Special Education. Education of Hearing Impaired Children in Western Australia: Report to the Minister for Education. Perth(?): The Western Australian Council for Special Education: 1976.

White, M.A. “Extending educational opportunity, 1899-1917”. In W.D. Neal, ed. Education in Western Australia. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1979.

Journal Articles

Allen, Shannon, Doreen DeLuca and Donna Jo Napoloi. “Societal responsibility and linguistic rights: The case of deaf children”. Journal of Research in Education. vol. 17 (Fall 2007), pp. 41-53.

Baron-Cohen, Simon, Alan M. Leslie and Uta Frith. “Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?”. Cognition. vol. 21 (1985), pp. 37-46.

Bauman, H-Dirksen L. “Audism: Exploring the metaphysics of oppression”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol. 9, no. 2 (Spring 2004), pp. 239-246.

Bauman, H-Dirksen, “Postscript: Gallaudet protests of 2006 and the myths of in/exclusion. Sign Language Studies. vol. 10, no. 1 (Fall, 2009), pp. 90-104.

Bilger, R.C., F.O. Black, N.T. Hopkinson, E.N. Myers, J.L. Payne, N.R. Stenson, A. Vega and R.V. Wolfe. “Evaluation of subjects presently fitted with implanted auditory prostheses”, Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology. vol. 86, Suppl. 38, No. 3, Part 2. 1977.

Casey, Cliff and Peta J. Monley. “Audiology in Australia: A brief history”. Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research (2002), pp. 14-15.

Castiglione, Savino G. “Deaf people in the world between the past and the present”. Dolentium Hominum, Journal of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (For Health Pastoral Care), Ephphatha! The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church, Proceedings of the XXIV International Conference, November 19-20-21, 2009, New Synod Hall, Vatican City. no. 73, Year XXV, no. 1 (2010), pp. 13-15.

310

Christiansen, John B. “The 2006 protest at Gallaudet University: Reflections and explanations. Sign Language Studies. vol. 10, no. 1 (Fall, 2009), pp. 69-89.

Dornan, Dimity, Louise Hickson, Bruce Murdoch, Todd Houston and Gabriella Constantinescu. . “Is Auditory-Verbal Therapy effective for children with hearing loss?”, The Volta Review. vol. 11. No. 3 (Fall 2010), pp. 361-387.

Easterbrooks, Susan R., Colleen M. O‟Rourke and N. Wendell Todd. “Child and family factors associated with deaf children‟s success in Auditory-Verbal Therapy”. American Journal of Otology, vol. 21, no. 3 (2000), pp. 341-344.

Ernst, Marion. “Certification of Auditory-Verbal Therapists now a reality”. The Auricle. vol. 7, no. 4 (Winter, 1995), pp. 26-27.

Fernandes, Jane K. and Shirley Shultz Myers. “Inclusive Deaf studies: Barriers and pathways”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol. 15, no. 1(Winter 2010).

Goldberg, Donald M. and Carol Flexer. “Outcome survey of Auditory-Verbal graduates: Study of clinical efficacy”. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. vol. 4, no. 3 (May 1993), pp. 189-200.

Green, Neville. “A History of the Western Australian School for Deaf Children”. Education: A Journal for Teachers. vol. 21, no. 1 (June 1972), pp. 22-27.

Greenwald, Brian H and Joseph J. Murray. “Editor‟s introduction”. Sign Language Studies. vol. 17, no. 1 (October, 2016).

Johnston, Trevor. “W(h)ither the Deaf community? Population, genetics, and the future of Australian sign language”. Sign Language Studies. vol.6, no. 2 (Winter 2006), pp. 137-173.

Knoors, Harry. “Obituary: Bernard Theodoor Marie Tervoort”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol. 12, no. 2 (Spring 2007), p. 242.

Lancaster, H.O. “Deafness as an epidemic disease in Australia: A note on census and institutional date”. British Medical Journal. vol. 2, (15 December, 1951), pp. 1429-1432.

Lim, S.Y.C and J. Simser. “Auditory-Verbal Therapy for children with hearing impairment”. Annals Academy of Medicine, Singapore. vol. 34, no. 4 (May 2005), pp. 307-312.

Mayer, Connie and C. Tane Akamatsu. “Bilingual-bicultural models of literacy education for deaf students: Considering the claims”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol. 4, no.1 (Winter, 1999), pp. 2-8.

Mayer, Connie and Gordon Wells. “Can the linguistic interdependence theory support a bilingual-bicultural model of literacy education for deaf students?”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol. 1, no. 2 (Spring 1996), pp. 93-107.

Moores, Donald F. “Comments on “W(h)ither the Deaf Community””. Sign Language Studies. vol.6, no. 2 (Winter 2006), pp. 202-209.

Ohna, Stein Erik. “Education of deaf children and the politics of recognition”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol.8, no.1 (Winter 2003), pp. 5-10.

311

Payne, Aaron. “The Challenges of Producing an Oral History of the Deaf: Cued Speech in New South Wales, 1965-1990”. The Oral History Association of Australia Journal. no. 35 (2013).

Pearce, Michelle. “The inclusive secondary school teacher in Australia”, International Journal of Whole Schooling. vol. 5, no.2 (2009). pp. 1-15.

Peet, Harvey P. “Memoir on the origin and early history of the art of instructing the deaf and dumb”. American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb. vol. 3, no. 3 (April, 1851), pp. 129- 160.

Peterson, Candida C. and Michael Siegal, “Deafness, conversation and theory of mind”, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. vol. 36, no. 3 (1995), pp. 459-474.

Peterson, Candida. C. “Theory-of-mind development in oral deaf children with cochlear implants or conventional hearing aids”. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. vol.45, no. 6 (2004), pp. 1096-1106.

Ray, Luzerne. “Historical Sketch of the instruction of the deaf and dumb before the time of de l’Epée’”. American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb . vol. 1, no. 4 (July, 1848), pp. 197-208.

Rydberg, Emelie, Lotta C Gellerstedt and Berth Danermark. “Toward an equal level of educational attainment between deaf and hearing people in Sweden?” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol.14, no.3 (Summer 2009), pp. 313-323.

Sampson, Zoe E. “Audiology in Western Australia 1950-2000: Development of a profession”. Audiology at UWA: Student Audiological Research. (2001). pp. 1-69.

Schafer, Erin C. and Linda M. Thibodeau. "Speech Recognition in Noise in Children With Cochlear Implants While Listening in Bilateral, Bimodal, and FM-System Arrangements". American Journal of Audiology, 15 (December, 2006), pp. 114–126.

Sibscota, George. “Extract from the treatise of Sibscota on the deaf and dumb”. American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb. vol. 11, no. 2 (April 1859). pp. 98-111.

Slegers, Claudia. “Signs of change: Contemporary attitudes to Australian Sign Language”. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics. vol. 33, no. 1 (2010), pp. 5.1-5.20.

Stanley, Fiona J., Moira Simm, Glenda Wilson and Sharon Worthington. “The decline in Congenital Rubella Syndrome in Western Australia: An impact of the School Girl Vaccination Programme?”. American Journal of Public Health. vol. 16, no. 1 (January, 1986). pp. 35-37.

Steeds, Lucy, Karen Rowe and Ann Dowker. “Deaf children‟s understanding of beliefs and desires”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol. 2, no. 3 (Summer 1997), pp. 185- 195.

Swachten, Lejo, Miguel Augusto Santos and Vitor Tété Gonçalves. "A deafening inequality Portuguese deaf education and the call for debating audism in schools”. Sensos, vol.1, no. 2 (2011), pp. 47-62.

“The West Australian Deaf and Dumb Institution”. The Silent Worker, vol. 12, no. 1 (September, 1899), pp. 1-4. 312

Upfold, Laurie and Ray Piesse, “The Calaid: Australia‟s own hearing aid”. Acoustics Australia. vol. 28, no. 3 (2000), pp. 105 -108.

Vaisse, Leon. “A document brought to light”. American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb. vol. 24, no. 2 (April 1879), pp. 80-90.

Venard, Karen. “Listening over the years”. Taralye Bulletin. vol. 12, no. 3 (1994), pp. 12-13.

White, Joanna and Christopher G. Brennan-Jones. “Auditory-Verbal Therapy: Improving the evidence-base”. Deafness and Education International. vol. 16, no. 3 (September, 2014), pp. 125-128.

Wilson, Blake, S. and Michael F. Dorman, “Cochlear implants: a remarkable past and a brilliant future”, Hearing Research. no. 242 (August 2008), pp. 3-21.

Wilson, Angela. “An historical survey of deaf education: Deafness through the ages (part 3)”. Lantern Light. vol. 10, no. 1 (April, 1976). pp. 22-27.

Winn, Stephen Lamar. “Pre-service preparation of teachers of the deaf in the twenty-first century: A case study of Griffith University, Australia. American Annals of the Deaf. vol. 152, no. 3 (Summer, 2007). pp. 312-319.

Zaitseva, Galina, Michael Pursglove and Susan Gregory. “Vygotsky, sign language and the education of deaf pupils”. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. vol.4, no. 1 (Winter, 1999). pp. 9-15.

Theses

Africh, V.E. “The education of the deaf child in Western Australia”. BEd thesis, University of Western Australia (1957).

Boyd, Patricia A. “Bridging the communication gap: Educating, informing, and understanding the Deaf community”. MA dissertation. California State University, Sacramento (2011).

Crickmore, Barbara Lee. “An historical perspective on the academic education of deaf children in New South Wales 1860s-1990s”. PhD dissertation. University of Newcastle (2000).

Hart, Pauline. “Hands Off: An Analysis of the Education of Deaf Children and the Role of the Deaf Community”. Master of Social Work dissertation. University of Sydney (1992).

Humphries, Tom. “Communicating across cultures (deaf/hearing) and language learning”. PhD. Dissertation. Union Institute and University (1977).

Johnston, Trevor. “Auslan: the Sign Language of the Australian Deaf Community”. PhD. Dissertation. The University of Sydney (1989).

Komesaroff, Linda R. “The politics of language practices in deaf education”. PhD dissertation. Deakin University (1998).

McArthur, T.J. “The history of the development of deaf education in W.A”. BEd thesis, University of Western Australia (1962). 313

Malone. Naomi. “A Constant Struggle: A History of Deaf Education in New South Wales since World War II”. PhD Thesis, University of Technology Sydney (2017).

Shulenburger, Sarah. “Reading, writing and social justice: A middle school investigation”. MA dissertation, University of California (2012).

Stapleton, Lissa Denielle. “The unexpected talented tenth: Black d/Deaf students thriving within the margins”. PhD dissertation, Iowa State University (2014).

Stephens, Val. Deafness: “The Invisible handicap. A history of the provision of education for the hearing impaired with special reference to Western Australia 1896-1963”. MEd dissertation, Murdoch University (1984).

Swan, Geoffrey J. “From Segregation to Integration: The Development of Special Education in Queensland”. PhD dissertation: University of Queensland, 1996.

Research Papers

Anderson, Geraldine. Deaf education in Western Australia. Student research project, Claremont Teachers‟ College, 197?.

Falek, Helen. The education of pre-school and junior school deaf children in W.A. Student research project, Claremont Teachers‟ College, 1971.

Rodgers, C.L. Parent guidance for hearing handicapped children in Western Australia in pre- school and junior school years. Student research project, Claremont Teachers‟ College, 1971.

Uren, Joy. The history of deaf education in Western Australia, 1898-1940. Research study, Graylands Teachers‟ College, 1963. (HS/PR 1537).

Commemorative Publications

Egan, Madeline M. Pictorial Centenary Souvenir: Companion to The History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia 1875-1975. Newcastle (N.S.W.): Newey & Beath, 1975.

“History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia, 1927-1950”. Newcastle (N.S.W.): s.n. 195-?.

“History of Catholic Deaf Education in Australia Centennial Booklet 1875-1975”. Newcastle (N.S.W): Newey & Beathe, 1975.

“Silver Jubilee Review, 1922-1947: St. Gabriel‟s School for Deaf Boys Castle Hill N.S.W.” . Castle Hill (N.S.W.): The School, 1947.

“St. Gabriel‟s School for the Deaf: Golden Jubilee 1922-1972”. Sydney: s.n., 1973.

Conference Papers 314

Bontempo, Karen. Signing on at last: The development of a formal Auslan as curriculum in WA Schools. Presented at Deaf Education Annual Forum 2014, Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre, Perth, Western Australia, 21-23 July, 2014.

Websites

“Audism”. Archived at audism.org. [http://www.audism.org/]. Accessed on 7 April 2010.

“Auslan as a LOTE at Shenton”. Archived at Shenton College Deaf Education Centre. [http://dec.shenton.wa.edu.au/index.php?page=Auslan-as-a-LOTE]. Accessed on 2 April, 2018.

“Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution (1898-1987). Archived at Find and Connect [https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/tas/biogs/TE00415b.htm]. Accessed on 25 April, 2019.

Brady, Wendy. 'McNess, Sir Charles (1852–1938)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography. Archived at Australian National University, [http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcness-sir-charles-7435/text12943], published first in hardcopy 1986. Accessed 14 November 2017.

“Engineering Heritage Panel, Swan & Canning Rivers Bridges: Australian Engineering Week Tour 2009”. Archived at Engineers Australia. [http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/shado/Divisions/Western%20Aus tralia%20Division/Panels%20and%20Societies/Heritage/Heritage_Bridges_Tour_Lo_Res. pdf ]. Accessed on 10 March 2013.

“Handicapped Persons Assistance Act 1974”. Archived at Federal Register of Legislation. [https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2004A00190]. Accessed on 30 December, 2016.

“Heritage on huge riverside block”. Archived at Community News. [http://www.communitynews.com.au/PublicPDF/Archive/2013/G_July/23.07.13/RE20130 723_STA_003.PDF]. Accessed on 9 March, 2014.

“Hawkers and Pedlers Act 1958”. Archived at Australian Legal Information Institute [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/hist_act/hapa1958187.pdf]. Accessed on 23 March, 2019.

“International affiliate locations”. Archived at Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. [http://nc.agbell.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=608]. Accessed on 25 April, 2010.

MAKO Files online. “Listing Australian paedophiles/sex offenders”. Archived at http://www.mako.org.au/temp_wa.html. Accessed 29 April, 2012.

„Michael Lockrey‟s personal story‟. Archived at The Rebuttal. [http://the- rebuttal.com/?p=915]. Accessed on 15 June, 2010.

“Minutes. Western Australian Deaf Society. Stakeholder‟s Representative Forum, Tuesday 21st February, 2012”. Archived at Western Australian Deaf Society, [http://www.wadeaf.org.au/media/docs/WADS_Stakeholder_representative_FORUM_not es_21_2_12.pdf]. Accessed on 29 April, 2012.

315

“Railway Map of Western Australia 1907”. Archived at National Library of Australia. [http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-233502104/view]. Accessed on 4 August, 2017.

Richards, John (2006). “Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, Pacific International Hotel, Perth, Sunday 21 May, 2006”. Archived at Deafness Forum of Australia. [http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/pdf/Summit%202006/4th%20NDSS%20speech%20- %20John%20Richards%202006.pdf]. Accessed 20 January, 2014.

“Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950” index. Archived at Family Search. [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F741-28W]. Accessed on 20 April, 2012. William Richard Thomson (1865).

“Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950” index. Archived at Family Search. [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FQ8P-CVL ]. Accessed on 20 April 2012. Eleanor Christina Thomson (1867).

Steenwyk, Ingrid van. “Going, Going, But Not Gone: The Impact of Social and Technological Influences on the Australian Deaf Community”. Archived at Anthropology Matters. [https://www.anthropologymatters.com/index.php/anth_matters/article/view/38/68]. Accessed on 5 May, 2019.

“The changing face of the Deaf Community!”. Archived at The Rebuttal, [http://the- rebuttal.com/?p=1981]. Accessed on 16 March, 2014.

“The Volta Bureau for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf. Circular of information. Reports from abroad by the Hon. John Hitz, Superintendent of The Volta Bureau. Read before the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, Tuesday, July (n.d.), 1894”. Archived at Internet Archive. [http://www.archive.org/stream/circularinforma00usgoog/circularinforma00usgoog_djvu. txt]. Accessed on 10 April, 2015.

“United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”. Archived at [https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf]. Accessed on 14 May, 2019.

Wilkinson, Frances (2006). “Address to the Fourth National Deafness Sector Summit, Pacific International Hotel, Perth, Sunday 21 May, 2006”. Archived at Deafness Forum of Australia. [http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/pdf/Summit%202006/4th%20NDSS%20speech%20- %20Frances%20Wilkinson%202006.pdf ]. Accessed 20 January, 2014.