The Clarke School For The Deaf (The following information was written and originally hosted by the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech Impaired)

The Clarke School for the Deaf was founded in 1867, as the first permanent oral school for the deaf in this country. But the story of Clarke School really begins in 1861, when Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner Greene Hubbard were shocked to learn that their daughter, Mabel, had become deafened through scarlet fever at the age of four. They were told by the leading educators of the day that she would soon lose the ability to speak.

Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard tried, with some success, to teach Mabel to lipread and to continue to speak. But this was not enough and soon Mabel Hubbard was sent to a Class of 1867 school in Germany. The Hubbards realized the advantage of an oral education. So, in 1864, Mr. Hubbard went before the Massachusetts Legislature in an attempt to start an oral school in this country.

His efforts at that time failed mainly because of the objections of one man, Mr. Lewis J. Dudley, who had a child who was deaf and unable to speak. In light of his own personal experience, he branded Mr. Hubbard's ideas as visionary and unpractical.

At about the same time, Harriet B. Rogers of North Billerica, MA, began instructing a little deaf girl, Fanny Cushing. Miss Rogers, who had had no experience in teaching the deaf, was somewhat familiar with the manual method of teaching, then generally employed in this country. She began teaching her pupil both to spell on her fingers and also to speak, but she soon became convinced that it was unwise to combine the two methods and stopped using finger spelling and depended wholly upon speech. Miss Rogers became interested in finding more pupils. Through a friend she met Gardiner Greene Hubbard, and with his financial support, a small school of five pupils was opened in June 1866, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

It was at this time that Mr. Hubbard had several meetings with members of the Massachusetts Legislature and to these meetings he invited Roscoe Greene, an 18-year-old student at Chelmsford School; Jeanie Lippitt, a deaf child who had been trained orally by her mother; and his own daughter, Mabel. The legislators were quite impressed with the conversations with these three deaf children. Seeing the results of this oral teaching, Mr. Dudley asked if his daughter could be taught to say one word - "Daddy." Two days later, Theresa Dudley, who for thirteen years had never uttered a meaningful sound, not only said the word "Daddy," but some 16 other words. This was most convincing and through the combined efforts of Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Dudley, a charter was granted by the Legislature to establish an oral school for the deaf in Massachusetts.

During the same time, the Governor learned that John Clarke, a Northampton merchant, had offered $50,000 to anyone who would establish a school for the deaf in Northampton. Mr. Clarke had become interested in the deaf because of his own gradual loss of hearing. The Governor relayed this information to Miss Rogers and Mr. Hubbard and, in October 1867, they moved the Chelmsford School to Northampton, establishing the first permanent oral school for the deaf in the United States. One of the first pupils to enroll was Theresa Dudley. Mr. Clarke, who, at first, wanted to remain anonymous, later agreed to have the school named after him.

The Clarke School was successful and, in order to accept more children, new teachers were needed. Clarke School for the Deaf?s second principle, Caroline A. Yale worked for 63 years to further the field of oral deaf education. After spending time at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, Ms. Yale joined Ms. Harriet Rodgers at the Clarke School. Ms. Yale continually sought out better ways to teach children with hearing loss and started the first teacher program. There being no resource for oral teachers of the deaf, Clarke School began to train its own teachers. Thus, the first program in the United States for preparing classroom teachers of the deaf in Harriet B. Rogers the oral method began in 1889. In 1892, at the urging of what is known today as the Alexander Graham Bell Association, Clarke School enlarged its teacher-training classes to supply teachers for other schools.

Clarke School has gained an international reputation as a pioneer and a leader in this special field of auditory/oral education. The School has been most fortunate in having outstanding leadership to determine its programs and policies. Gardiner Greene Hubbard, the school's first Board chairman, was the President of Bell Telephone Company, which later became the American Telephone and Telegraph. In 1871, Alexander Graham Bell first came to Clarke School to teach the faculty his father's method of "visible speech." He was associated with the school for 51 years serving on the Board (1898-1922) and as its chairman for the last five years of his life (1917-1922). Dr. Bell referred to himself first and foremost as a teacher of the deaf and not an inventor. While trying to develop a practical hearing aid, he came upon the idea for the telephone. Later in life, He married Mabel Hubbard, the daughter of the founder of Clarke School.

Grace Goodhue was trained as a teacher of the deaf at Clarke School and taught there from 1902 to 1905. It was there that she met a young Vermont man who was practicing law in Northampton. They were married in October of 1905 and he went on to become Mayor of Northampton, Governor of the Commonwealth and the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge.

The President and Mrs. Coolidge retained an active interest in the Clarke School - both serving on the Board. She was President of the Board from 1935-1952 and headed up the Centennial Development Program from 1955 until her death in 1957.

Another factor that has helped Clarke School earn its position of prominence has been the Clarence W. Barron Research Department, named in honor of the first publisher of the Wall Street Journal . Barron had initiated the Coolidge Fund, a campaign to raise $2,000,000 to honor President and Mrs. Coolidge as they left the White House in 1929. The research department, today, carries on studies in the hereditary aspects of deafness, in the development of new hearing aids, in the psychology of the deaf, and in the Alexander Graham Bell field of audiology and audiometrics. This research has resulted in findings that have proved invaluable in the education of the deaf.

President John F. Kennedy served on the school's National Committee of Sponsors from 1955 until his death in 1963. As a state senator, he had visited the School on several occasions and had always expressed his interest in the role that Clarke School played nationally and internationally.

During 1962, two significant developments occurred that assisted Clarke School in retaining its leadership role. It was then that Clarke School learned that there were over 800 teachers serving in classrooms for the deaf in this country who had little, if any, of the qualifications necessary to meet the educational needs of deaf children. To help answer this national problem, the Clarke School began a program of Summer Institutes providing special training to teachers and student teachers . By its centennial, Clarke School had provided this special training to approximately 450 teachers and student teachers representing 34 states and six foreign countries. The program had a direct effect in upgrading the quality of education of deaf children. Also, in 1962, Smith College, acting upon a proposal from Clarke's Board, established an advanced academic degree, the Masters of Education of the Deaf. Nearly 1,300 teachers have graduated from the program since it first began and have served deaf children in 48 states and 34 foreign countries.

Today, Clarke School has grown to offer more comprehensive and individualized services as reflected in its name: CLARKE - School for the Deaf/Center for Oral Education. In addition to the day and boarding school, CLARKE offers services to hearing-impaired people of all ages. Please visit our sites under Programs and Services. CLARKE is also reaching out to help families in their own hometowns with the establishment of satellite Grace Anna Goodhue, Gardiner programs in Boston, New Greene Hubbard and Calvin York City, Phildelphia and Jacksonville, Florida. Coolidge

From its early beginnings, CLARKE is proud to have played a major role in providing deaf children with an auditory/oral education in the United States and beyond.