Children of a Lesser God

Children of a Lesser God is a love story about a hearing speech teacher who falls for a deaf girl working in a school for the deaf. James Leeds (William Hurt) is an unconventional teacher who believes in teaching the students using vibration from rock music, leading them to speak phonetically. He is keen on 'oralist' methods and Sarah (Marleen Matlin) will only communicate in Sign language. Oralism is the belief that deaf children should learn to speak, lipread and use radio aids or cochleal implants. Many deaf people, however, want to use Sign language as their primary means of communication and have their deaf culture accepted and respected.

Sarah resists Leeds' advances, not only because of her strong views on deaf culture, but also because she was sexually molested as a teenager. Eventually, James gets through to Sarah and the two fall in love, although both have to learn new ways of communicating their feelings. The arguments between them about how deaf people should be educated continue.

A powerful scene occurs when Sarah leaves Leeds to be with her deaf, Signing friends, where she is completely relaxed and included in the deaf community. Leeds is now the outsider. Leeds has some success with his pupils, despite conflicts with the Principal. The conflict between oralism and deaf culture is not resolved, but the lovers do find a way of living together.

The actress, Marleen Matlin, who won an Oscar for her performance, is a deaf person, as were most of the students in the film. This powerful film was adapted from a stage play of the same name by Mark Medoff.

The argument between oralists and the deaf community is still very much a live issue. Children of a Lesser God is very useful for raising a discussion about the debate around deaf education. One criticism, however, is that although it was a film about deaf people, it was not subtitled on general release, making it inaccessible to most people in the deaf community.

Several other films have tackled the issue of communication for deaf people:

• Johnny Belinda (1948, Jean Negulesco, USA) features a profoundly deaf girl who lives in a remote fishing community and is raped. A sympathetic local doctor, who teaches her Sign language, is suspected of being the father of her baby. Jane Wyman won an Oscar for her portrayal in this film, which was sympathetic to Sign language.
• Mandy (1952, Alexander Mackendrick/Fred F. Sears, UK) gives an oralist's exploration of the emotional and psychological difficulties that beset a profoundly deaf girl and her parents as they try to get her to talk.
• The Miracle Worker (1962, Arthur Penn, USA) tells of the young, deaf-blind Helen Keller, and Annie Sullivan's struggle to develop Helen's ability to communicate, but it doesn't cover Helen's later political activism or lesbian sexuality.
• Deaf Century (1999, UK). Three 50-minute documentaries made by Channel 4 explore the history of deaf people in the 20th century, including a discussion on oralism and the film Mandy.

Make sure you prepare the ground by covering the material in the Introducing disability in class guidelines before looking at issues in any specific film.

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