Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet ’s storybeginswith a little girl .
In the other 1800s , Gallaudet arrived back home in Hartford , Connecticut , to visit his phratry after completing his education in two seeming disparate fields — law and divinity . While mulling over his determination to become a minister , Gallaudet took notice of Alice Cogswell , a 9 - yr - old neighborhood girl who he presently realized was indifferent .
For Gallaudet , a man unsure of which way to take in life , fill Alice would prove portentous . He became determined to open up her earthly concern , and in doing so transformed the Deaf community of interests — but the reputation of the origination he helped construct would show both complicated and tragic .
Struggling to Be Understood
In the 1800s , the exercise of medical specialty was largely that — practice . To have a physical affliction meant a stiff possibility one would not only be dismiss but ostracized .
At the time Gallaudet met Alice Cogswell , some harbour thebeliefthat indifferent people were mentally afflicted or otherwise beyond reach . To structure conventional education for those who had misplace hearing through nascency or illness was rare , especially in the United States .
Gallaudet , who was born in Philadelphia in 1787 , did n’t see thing that way . The Yale graduate hadconsideredlaw before realizing his Protestant stem were calling him to the ministry . He became a go minister and teach children history in orbit lacking in schools or curriculums , making him unambiguously positioned to understand that educators needed a fashion to reach all educatee , not just ones who could listen .
Gallaudet also had the good fortune to become acquainted with Alice ’s father , Mason Cogswell . An train surgeon in upright social standing , Cogswell was n’t disposed to believe in superstitions about his girl ’s stipulation . He simply want to see her dwell a action life .
With Mason ’s assistance , Gallaudet journey to Europe to investigate something he had only learn about : a burgeon educational system for the Deaf .
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet ’s journey bring him to England and Scotland , where the lauded Braidwood school day were turn up . Under the direction of the Braidwoods , the “ deaf and dumb ” were taught a variety of unwritten communicating and hand gesture . But all students wereexpectedto see lip read as part of the lesson plan , a one - size of it - fits - all coming that Gallaudet detect frustrating .
The coming upon was further discourage when Gallaudet realized Braidwood ’s philosophy did n’t take share knowledge . Braidwood ascertain Gallaudet as a potential rival for educatee and demand he pay him a percentage of the fees he collected from any next student .
Disappointed , Gallaudet next operate to France at the invitation of Roch - Ambroise Cucurron Sicard of what ’s now the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris . Sicard had been lecturing in England and told Gallaudet about the school day , which instruct a anatomy of signaling language . Here Gallaudet constitute a more receptive welcome ; Sicard was happy to share his techniques .
Sicard was liquid in sign language but was in no way its innovator or inventor . Pocket community that hadadoptedhand signs to communicate had existed for hundreds of year , including theBenedictine monks(who needed to communicate even during flow of voluntary silence ) and , most notably , Martha ’s Vineyardin Massachusetts . There , due to genetical reasons , 1 in 25 house physician had some descriptor of get wind loss , far higher than the then - interior average of 1 in 5700 . This go residents to evolve and pass along what became known as Martha ’s Vineyard Sign Language .
But Sicard ’s school was one of the few place where script gestures indicating words and construct were officially learn . And even though Sicard was accommodating , Gallaudet faced a unexampled problem : study signal language was an intensive process . Even with Cogswell ’s backing , he was financially unable to remain in France long enough to learn everything he needed .
If Gallaudet could n’t remain in France , then perhaps he could take part of France back home with him .
The French Connection
In 1816,Laurent Clercwas Sicard ’s chief assistant and a valuable asset to Sicard ’s sign language program . Clerc was himself indifferent , possibly from parturition , though a puerility accident — an septic burn — may have also been to blame . He was taught at the Institut but rejected attempts to squeeze him to speak . Clerc was most well-fixed using gestures .
Both Clerc and fellow instructor Jean Massieu were go through in manual sign linguistic process , which dispensed with comprise oral terminology and relied exclusively on hand cues that were assign words . It was Gallaudet ’s idea that Clerc could render with him to America as a sort of emissary , helping this form of physical communicating increase basis outside of France .
It was a clever estimation , and one Sicard endorsed — to Gallaudet ’s grimace , anyway . Privately , he did n’t want to recede his good instructor , and sample to sabotage the arrangement by convincing Clerc ’s mother that the schoolhouse would suffer in his absence . This lead to some pressure being give on Clerc to remain home .
It was a difficult decisiveness . For Clerc , go to America meant being away from his family . But he felt Gallaudet ’s design were noble . Sicard agreed to “ loan ” Clerc to Gallaudet for a period of three age , and Gallaudet and Clerc set sail to Connecticut . While locomote , Gallaudet teach the Frenchman English ; Clerc taught him Sicard ’s adaptation of sign language . The deterrent example lasted the length of the trip—52 days .
When the two come in Connecticut , Clerc was introduced to Alice Cogswell . As with Gallaudet , Alice exhibit as the embodiment of the struggle to instruct a disadvantaged universe . He get tutoring her in sign language , which use gestures for abstract ideas . Clerc ’s name , for illustration , was indicated by a brushing along the nerve — the spot where he had suffered the tan ( and now scar ) as a child .
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Clerc had the support of the Cogswells , but that would n’t be quite enough . They trip the East Coast , imploring legislators and parent of the need for a better educational scheme .
With both private and public funds , they opened the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons , afterwards known as the American School for the Deaf , in Hartford in 1817.(It should be read that Gallaudet disliked the name from the start . ) Gallaudet was principal , Clerc was the straits teacher , and Alice was one of the first students in the school , the first lasting learnedness facility for the Deaf in the country .
Good Signs
The American School for the Deaf ’s first year welcomed students from the ages of 10 to 51 . anterior education or income layer was of no concern ; if a buttocks was available , the school would fill it .
Naturally , the sign speech Clerc teach was heavily influence by the Gallic language , though pupil would help it evolve into what would become American Sign Language ( ASL ) . Many had developed their own style of signing ; some even amount from Martha ’s Vineyard . Clerc observed bookman were just as promptly serve one another as he was train them .
Alice fine-tune from the American School for the Deaf in 1824 and subsequently became a fierce exponent for Deaf rights , move the country to fence for proper education and to dispel any residual mythology . Tragically , she and her father buy the farm in 1830 .
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet found a life - alter element to his work , and not just in classroom . A graduate of the school , Sophia Fowler , became his wife in 1821 . He and Clerc start the schoolhouse through 1831 , when Gallaudet grew thwarted with his crushed earnings doled out by the school card . He decided to resume his work in the ministry , a life he continued until his end in 1851 .
The Gallaudet name continued on . His son Edward helped found what ’s now Washington , D.C. ’s Gallaudet University in 1864 . A statue of Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell stands on the ground . Throughout Gallaudet ’s and Clerc ’s tenures , Deaf schools were seeded , either by graduating student who open them or educators who learned from their exemplar .
Gallaudet’s Legacy
ASL still had obstacle to overcome . As fourth dimension passed , competing theories about the adept way to teach communications acquisition to deaf mass wereroutinelybatted around . Inventor and influential intellectual Alexander Graham Bellfavoredthe “ oralist , ” or talk / rim - interpretation , approach . ( Bell ’s mother and married woman were both indifferent . ) Bell may have matte he was doing the veracious matter , but his oralism stifled ASL for a clip .
In the 1960s , a National Science Foundation Duncan James Corrow Grant allowed English prof William Stokoe to source ADictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles(1965 ) , which helped it become live with . ASL , Stokoe argued , had its own grammar and syntax . ( He would know : Stokoe was a instructor at Gallaudet University . ) ASL became the dominant teaching language in the Deaf residential area in the United States .
Sadly , Gallaudet ’s forgivingness was not perpetuated by later faculty member . In 2020 , the American School for the Deaf , now place in West Hartford , announced that an internalinvestigationrevealed slews of intimate and physical abuse pillowcase involving scholar and perpetuate by former stave that took spot between the fifties and the eighties . The study , which was prepared by the school , was referred to office . The schoolofferedtransparency in their findings and referenced surety measures to keep current enrollees safe .
It ’s certainly not the form of addendum either Gallaudet or victim merit . His is but one story of someone whose selflessness and earnestness helped the hearing - impaired move past a misanthropical club and create opportunity . His form gesture — to help a little daughter — led to billions of gestures that have help millions of people .
