Alexander Graham Bell — "We should try ourselves to forget that they are deaf. We should try to teach the…"
We should try ourselves to forget that they are deaf. We should try to teach them to forget that they are deaf.
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More from Alexander Graham Bell
"The most important thing for a man to do is to be true to himself."
"The telephone will be in every city, town, and village in the United States."
"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds."
"The telephone will be so important that every town will have one."
"I am a man of science, and I believe in the power of observation and experimentation."
Details
Reflecting his oralist views on deaf education, quoted in Katie Booth's book 'The Invention of Miracles' and discussed by US Deaf History.
Date: c. early 20th century
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Bell urges both educators and deaf people themselves to stop centering deafness as a defining limitation. Rather than treating deafness as an obstacle that separates people, he calls for normalizing deaf individuals as full participants in hearing society. The message is that identity and capability should override impairment—if society stops treating deafness as a barrier, and deaf people internalize that same confidence, fuller integration becomes possible.
Relevance to Alexander Graham Bell
Bell's mother and wife were both deaf, and he spent his career as a speech teacher for the deaf before inventing the telephone. He was a passionate oralist—believing deaf people should learn to speak rather than use sign language. He founded an organization dedicated to teaching deaf children to speak, and his life's work centered on the conviction that deaf individuals could and should fully participate in hearing culture.
The era
The 1880 Milan Conference had just declared oral education superior to sign language for deaf instruction, emboldening oralists like Bell across the Western world. This era saw a fierce battle between oralists and advocates of sign language such as the Gallaudet family. Meanwhile, rising eugenics ideology shaped anxieties about disability and integration. Bell's advocacy reflected a broader societal push to assimilate marginalized groups into mainstream norms rather than accommodate difference.
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