A Child Sacrificed to the Deaf Culture

When Bertling was 10 years old, he was placed in a residential school for the Deaf, despite his normal speech and satisfactory academic progress in the public school system. He does not consider himself deaf, but instead, hard or hearing and disabled. In addition, this particular school seems to have been staffed by less than competent teachers, administrators, and other personnel. Due to the poor decision of his parents and the incompetent faculty and staff, the resentful Bertling makes the widespread assumption that all students at all Deaf schools are mistreated victims of the supposed "leaders" of the Deaf community.

Bertling goes on to retaliate by ridiculing Deaf culture, Deaf "leaders," and even American Sign Language. He states, "ASL...is English broken down into its simplistic form. It is mostly graphic in form and easily learned, especially for the uneducated or without language formation" (p33). In this, Bertling is clearly erroneous, as proven by such experts as William Stokoe, who researched Sign and delineated the 4 (sometimes 5) parameters of a sign. Throughout the book, Bertling provided anecdotes, attempting to isolate universal problems as shortcomings exclusive of Deaf community. For example, he tells of discrimination and harassment of gay students, hazing among older students, the "prevalence of gossip" (p93), and the fear of humiliation amongst rape victims. He fails to note that these problems are widespread in all of society, not restricted to Deaf community. Bertling also accuses individuals in the Deaf community of not taking responsibility for their actions, all the while absolving them of said responsibility by placing blame on the "leaders" of the community.

A Child Sacrificed is a work of resentment, written as retribution for wrongs that the author erroneously blames on Deaf culture and community in general. Bertling hints his motive for this book in an anecdote about his refusal to apply to Gallaudet University. He states that many teachers and members of the dorm staff ridiculed him for his decision. He writes, "Little did these people know that they had sowed the seeds of anger that would eventually grow into this book, returning to haunt them for their past misdeeds" (p44). Perhaps it would be best if the author sought psychological counseling to overcome the experiences of his youth, enabling him to take a more objective view of the community he intends to malign.


Bertling's is a fiery book, giving off light and smoke.   February 27, 1998
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I came to this book as an outsider who needed to learn as much as possible about deaf issues in general and about deaf education in particular. This book was on nearly everybody's list, though for widely varying reasons. Written by a deaf man and product of deaf residential schools, "Child Sacrificed" is Bertling's scathing indictment of Deaf culture in general (or at least most aspects of it) and deaf residential education in particular. Since Bertling provides almost no specific identifying details to his story, however, it's hard for me at least to know how accurate are his recollections. Assuming they are accurate enough, such unsubstantiated information is hardly helpful in assessing what things are like in my day, or in my area, or for my child, etc. Several problems will dog the neophyte reader, such as the brevity of the work given its target and the persistent annoyance of grammatical errors. But it was Bertling's seeming unawareness that many of the kinds of problems he described in deaf education are not necessarily unique to deaf education which raised the most questions in my mind. To me it seems obvious that Bertling was misplaced in a residential school in the first place and mistreated once he got there. But is every mistake made in Bertling's life the result of the "Deaf Culture"? As an outsider, I cannot say. But as an intelligent reader, I have the right to expect more in the way of demonstration of Bertling's assertions before assenting to them. I am glad I read both of Bertling's books. I feel I learned something from them. But I must say to uninitiated readers, read it with your eyes wide open, and your thinking cap firmly in place.