The image of a frightened Deaf child holding hand grenades in both hands with their safety pins pulled recognizes the repressive history of the oral method. A non-identifiable hand holds a feather before the child’s mouth, indicating one method of practice in oralism in its use of breathing and mouthing words they cannot hear. These methods became a primary activity, more than teaching deaf students about math or literary subjects or focusing on exercises to improve reading and writing skills.

Call makes a connection with these now aging methods of instruction but notes the continuation of this repression with the forced use of cochlear implants, which has become a controversy in the American Deaf Community today. Deaf people see themselves as part of an ethnic community with its own language and culture. From that perspective, they consider their self-identity being undermined by the perspective that deafness is a medical problem that needs to be cured.