Thomas Gallaudet Research Paper

Nora Groce, in “Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness on Martha’s Vineyard,” explains that she discovered that the deaf population on Martha’s Vineyard was about .006% higher than the total American deaf population. She comments “In the nineteenth century, and presumably earlier, one American in every 5,728 was born deaf, but on the Vineyard the figure was one in every 155,” (Groce, 1985, p. 111). She describes how this usually creates many problems, the main one being that it can inhibit their “ability to communicate” which can cause them to become socially isolated (Groce,1985, p. 112). Groce was aware that unlike on Martha’s Vineyard, most hearing people do not know sign language making every part of life involving communication extremely difficult for the deaf and hearing impaired. Fortunately

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a hearing minister that designed American Sign Language, which is the first language used by deaf and hearing people in the United States and Canada. Two thousand hundred million people are using ASL, and at least five thousand hundred people are using it as their most important way of communication. Throughout a period, Deaf people in America were already using sign language, in the early 1800’s; Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet had become friends with a young Deaf girl named Alice. Gallaudet started to teach the girl a few words, and succeeded at doing so. In 1815, Gallaudet went to Europe in search of methods of teaching the Deaf. He approached a number of program directors, the signs used at the school for the deaf, and the signs began to develop into American Sign Language. American Sign Language in America also has

Most people begin their morning with the sound of an alarm clock blaring next to their ear, they turn on the radio to hear the day’s news report, or hear the roar of the engine as they start their car, and go off to the rest of their day. However, there is another group of people that exist in complete silence. Through modern education and training, the deaf community has learned to communicate effectively, but in the early part of the 18th century, there was no way for deaf people to speak to anyone. This changed due in large part to one man. The pioneering work of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet the door to the silent world of deaf people in America was opened, thereby removing unfair barriers and therefore greatly improving their quality of

Together, Clerc and Gallaudet founded the first deaf school in the United States, what is now known as the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. The school opened on April 15, 1817 with Gallaudet serving as the principal and Clerc as the head teacher. Aside from teaching the students, Clerc was responsible to training the future teachers and administrators of the School. He was sent to other schools throughout the United States to continue to teach his methods to both students and prospective teachers, and his influence on teaching the deaf spread widely throughout the United States.

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish inventor that had made things that have to do with hearing because his mother and wife were both deaf and his father taught elocution to the deaf, he was very interested in the science of sound, so Bell had gone to various schools

Sophia Fowler was born deaf near Guilford, Connecticut, on March 20, 1798. At that time, there were no schools for the deaf in America. It was not until the age of 19 did she went to a deaf school called American School for the Deaf, in 1817 and stayed there until the spring of 1821. Where she married to Thomas Gallaudet, on August 29, 1821 and had eight children. As the founding matron of the school that became Gallaudet University, she played an important role in deaf history. Sophia often met with members of Congress and other prominent men in order to gain support for her goals, and through them, she helped to obtain funds to found and maintain Gallaudet College.

Benjamin James Bahan who was born by Deaf parents in New Jersey was very passionate about American Sign Language and Deaf Literature. As a child he attended Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf in West Trenton, New Jersey as well as Gallaudet University where he is now a professor and chair of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies. Upon returning to Gallaudet University as a professor and chairs person in 1996 he went to The Salk Institute in La Jolla where he researched American Sign Language linguistics and acquisitions as well as receiving his masters degree in Deaf Education and helped operate the Deaf Studies Program in the School of Education at Boston University. Lucky for Ben, while attending Boston University he met his wonderful wife who was not only Deaf but had Deaf parents just like him.

The technique that Clerc taught was by the use of his hands, which he communicated with French sign language, blended with a bit of signs used by students in the United States. To Gallaudet the language was a inspiration which he called it, “Highly poetical,” but to Clerc and many of the deaf people, the using of sign was natural and useful. This was a result of a created acculturated nonverbal language known as American Sign Language (ASL). As new schools for the deaf spread west and south, American sign language also evolved as well in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois. By the year of 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed a law constituting the first college in the world for deaf students called Gallaudet University and all these schools used sign as a curriculum.

There are few people who don’t know what Deaf President Now (DPN) is. DPN was the result of Gallaudet’s newest president being a hearing woman, in 1988. After a week, I. King Jordan was named Gallaudet’s first deaf president. He remained president until 2006. Robert R. Davila succeeded him.

The British school for Deaf would not teach him. So Thomas traveled to France to learn at the Royal Institution for Deaf. Here he met a wonderful teacher named Laurent Clerc who taught him French sign language. Galludet was so impressed with his teacher, he asked if Clerc would come back to America with him to open a Deaf school. Galludet and Clerc opened America’s first school for the Deaf.

On the other hand, the deaf were kept away, serving no purpose in any way. Women were seen to be “Endowed with finely tuned moral sensibilities...they were the keepers of society's conscience, with special responsibility to teach the young how to be good and productive citizens of the Republic.” Women needed to exist to balance out the crude and blunt nature of men. Tasks and responsibilities that men could not fulfill, including housekeeping, cooking, and constantly raising children, were left to women. Society would not be able to function without the crafty, sensible mother in the home to ensure there is counterweight to the partial foolishness, clumsiness, and ineptitude of men when it comes to being a homemaker. Becoming well educated on a higher scale allowed women to transcend the role they already possessed. Conversely, the deaf were completely closed off from the world as a whole. They were utterly incapable of making any contribution to society. Education was instead a very first step in integrating the deaf into the regular population of productive citizens. The deaf needed education in order to break out of their previous isolation and open the doors of opportunity. Leaders in deaf education, including Laurent Clerc and Alexander Graham Bell, helped the deaf make initial

Thomas Becket was born to a wealthy London family around 1118. His talents as a clerk were noticed by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobold (At that time, the Archbishop of Canterbury was one of the most powerful men in England, after the King.) After successfully taking part in missions to Rome, he was noticed by King Henry II who appointed Thomas Becket to be his Chancellor. Becket quickly became a favorite of Henry II. Thomas was loyal, dedicated and very talented in managing the nation’s finances. As chancellor he always put the King’s interests first.

Paul Gauguin was a French artist who helped perfect a type of painting. First of all, Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was born 1845 in Paris, France. When Paul was a young child his family moved to Peru. Paul later got jobs on a cargo ship, in the French navy, and as a merchant. He later married a Danish woman named Motte-Sophie Gad and had children. Next, Paul began painting as a hobby. Paul started painting as a hobby then became serious about it. He quit his job as a stockbroker and moved away from his family to pursue his dream. Paul was invited to showcase a painting in the Impressionist’s fourth exhibition. Last, Paul had a different type of style than other paintings. Paul used flat colors and exotic landscapes for his paintings like Tahiti.

Milan Conference 1880: 1. In September 6-11, 1880, a large international conference was held in Milan by deaf educators called the “Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf” (Berke, 2017; “The Milan Congress in 1880,” n.d.). 2. During this conference, it was declared that oral education should be preferred over manual (sign) education, and that had a strong impact on deaf education (Traynor, 2016).

History tells us that the oral-manual controversy in deaf education emerged during the Age of Reason. The Age of Reason chronicles the so-called War of Methods when the manualists, followers of Abbé Charles Michel de l’Épée’s manualism, and the oralists, followers of Samuel Heinicke’s oralism, competed each other in the deaf education arena (Lang, 2011). Needless to say, no winner was declared; hence, the controversy has continued for centuries.