Former basketball coach, current professor of American politics, future curmudgeon
When my essay in inquisitive came out, I got a lot of wonderful questions and some pushback. Perfect. That is the point of heterodoxy.
In this new Substack interview with Alice Dreger, I dig into how heterodoxy—open inquiry, disagreement, and viewpoint diversity—sets Gallaudet apart, sustains Deaf America, and keeps the country alive.
Check it out. Tell me what you think. Better yet, argue with me.
https://heterodoxacademy.substack.com/p/why-heterodoxy-needs-deaf-america
I so want to sit down and have a chat with you, Brendan, particularly about your first essay because I appreciate your thoughts. Now, this essay is entitled, “Why Heterodoxy Needs Deaf America.” I am afraid I might appear dim-witted, but nevertheless I shall ask… shouldn’t the title be read, “Why Deaf America Needs Heterodoxy.” Or did you think we have something to show American!?
Not dim-witted at all. In fact, you’ve spotted the trick in the titles. The argument really runs both ways. Deaf America needs heterodoxy to stay alive and adaptable, and heterodoxy needs Deaf America as a school of pluralism and dissent.
This Substack piece is more of a follow-up conversation, expanding on some ideas I only sketched out in the essay. So if anything, your question proves you’re reading it exactly the right way (dim-witted people don’t usually catch that).
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Hi Brendan
Nice article. I would add one adjective, hearing, everywhere. For example, you mentioned parents and policymakers somewhere in Deaf Education. I would add hearing parents and hearing policymakers. Why? Because hearing people, in general, do not realize they are hearing people! We need to educate them they need special devices to meet their hearing needs such as microphone as their hearing aid, volume control on TV sets to meet their hearing needs, etc. They as hearing people make policies around their ears. They need to be aware of people who rely on eyes instead of ears. In other words, we need to train hearing people to be aware or familiar with those who rely on eyes to communicate or be aware of their surroundings
See you at the Summit in a few weeks
Al
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Thanks for the kind words, Al. I’m with you. A lot of hearing parents and policymakers need a wake-up call about what it means to build around eyes instead of ears. But I’d also be careful not to give deaf parents and policymakers a free pass; not all of them are fully educated or in agreement either. There’s plenty of challenge to go around.
I look forward to picking this up at the Summit. And don’t worry. I’ll bring some extra volume for the hearing folks.
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Great interview. Quite thought provoking. Agreed that Debate sharpens thinking. I never saw a Deaf debate team and would like to witness the Deaf debate team debating with other Uni debate teams. Thinking if the Gallaudet (deaf) team is debating Georgetown (hearing) team for example, then there will be interpreters, right? Reading your interview, I was reminded of JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg. He has a social media account. His videos often (not always) are captioned. Take a gander at his stories because I think it would be interesting to watch.
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Thank you. Where are you? If you’re in the DMV area, I’d be happy to invite you to an upcoming debate to witness how it works in person. But yes, we use interpreters and CART services. In the meantime, I will check out Jack Schlossberg.
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Brendan Stern 
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