deafness and society quiz #2

Village Sign

 In 1649, deaf carpenter Jonathan Lambert
and his wife, Elizabeth, arrived on Martha’s
Vineyard
 For more than 70 years, a large number of
genetically deaf children were born and
remained on the island in a community
where everyone learned signed sign
language (Groce, 1985).
 Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL)
 Deaf and hearing islanders all signed.
 Deaf and hearing people worked and
socialized together without barriers.
 Hearing people sometimes even signed
without deaf people around!

Village Sign History

 Founded in the 1640 through 1800s
 Isolated island off the Massachusetts coast
 Martha’s Vineyard’s deaf population peaked in
the 1850s. At that time, 1 in approx. 5,700
Americans was deaf but on the vineyard, it was 1
in 155. In town of Chilmark, it was 1 in 25.
 Chilmark was a rural fishing village, isolated
from the other neighboring towns on the island
 Other towns had their own ports and consistent
flow of outsiders/travelers would come in by
ship/boat; Chilmark no port access

Chilmark

 Its residents on the Island married
each other hence the community
grew and the language became more
developed. Lambert had a heredity
deafness which carried through to his
children and their children.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet 

In 1814, Thomas visited his family in Hartford, Connecticut.
Looking out the window, he noticed that his younger brothers
and sisters were not playing with another child.
When he went out to investigate, he learned that this young
woman, Alice Cogswell, was deaf. Not knowing sign
language, Thomas attempted to communicate with Alice by
pointing to his hat and writing H-A-T in the dirt. She
understood him and he was inspired to teach her more. He
was inspired to teach more and learn about educating the
deaf.
Her father, Mason Cogswell, a wealthy doctor, subsequently
financed Thomas' trip to Europe since there were no schools
for deaf children in the United States at that time.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (cont.)

Thomas first traveled to Great Britain, where he ran into roadblocks with
the Braidwood family. This family operated many schools for deaf
students in Great Britain that focused on the oral method of education,
meaning students were expected to master lip reading and speech.
They weren't too willing to share their methods with a young upstart from
America, especially since Thomas couldn't pay the requested fees. At the
same time, he was not satisfied that the oral method produced desirable
results. However, while in Great Britain, he met Abbe Sicard, the director
of the Institut Royal des Sourds-Muets in Paris, France, and two of his
faculty members, Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu, both highly educated
graduates of the school. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet accompanied them
back to France to learn more from them there.

However, before long he ran out of funds to
support himself. Recognizing that he still wasn't
ready to set up a school on his own, he called
upon Clerc to accompany him back to America.
On the way back, Clerc taught Thomas sign
language and Thomas taught Clerc English, and
together they established the American School
for the Deaf in 1817. Laurent Clerc became the
first deaf teacher of deaf students in the United
States.

Gallaudet later married one of the
graduates of the school, Sophia Fowler,
and they had eight children. The
youngest child was named Edward
Miner Gallaudet. At the age of 20,
Edward Miner Gallaudet journeyed to
Washington, D.C., to run a school for
deaf children there. Seven years later, in
1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed
the charter to establish a national
college for deaf students. Gallaudet
University is named in honor of
Edward's father, Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet.

The development of D/deaf education in Europe and the USA international influences

(review Deaf History Part 1 slides 41-42)

Europe
 1785–1869: Louis Laurent Marie Clerc
 Born deaf and educated in a school
for the deaf in Paris. Traveled with his
teachers (Abbe Sicard & Jean
Massieu) to Great Britain to give a
lecture and met Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet

United States
 1787-1851: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
 Born hearing in the USA and began
working with a deaf child in his sibling's
school. The child’s father funded his trip
to Europe. The Braidwood family were
oralists. Then met Sicard, Massieu and
Clerc.

American School for the Deaf (Hartford, CT)

 Together Gallaudet and Clerc raised private
and public funds to form a school for deaf
students in Hartford.
 This became known as The American School
for the Deaf formed in 1817, formally named
the Connecticut Asylum.
 The first class in the school had 8 children and
they quickly learned signs and how to
communicate from Gallaudet and Clerc. By the
end of that winter the enrollment grew to 30
students.