The History of Deaf Education and ASL Part 3
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The History of Deaf Education and ASL Part 3 1. Deaf Education in America Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, the young preacher inspired to help the deaf after meeting the little neighbor girl, returns to Connecticut from his research trip to Europe. With him is Laurent Clerc, who was a student and then a teacher at de l’Epee’s school in Paris. They start the American Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, the first school for the Deaf in Figure 1: Deaf School in Hartford America. Alice Cogswell, the little girl who started Gallaudet on this journey, is one of their first 7 students. Their school, now called the American School for the Deaf, is still in operation. Though their legacy continues in Hartford, it reaches beyond to become an important element in American Deaf history and the history of ASL. 2. 1818: Eliza Boardman Clerc Clerc falls in love with a marries one of his first students, Eliza Boardman. Together, they have 6 children, all of whom were hearing. Eliza and their daughter Elizabeth are shown in the picture on the right. The “E” handshape is one of the first examples of an arbitrary name sign in American Deaf culture. 3. Martha’s Vineyard Figure 2: Eliza Boardman Clerc Martha’s Vineyard is an island off the coast of Massachusetts. It was first settled in 1664 by 25 familes from Kent, England. Though close to the mainland, the journey is very long, dangerous and irregular. But, the Island was self-sufficient for food and clothing, etc. and everything else these simple families needed. In the 19th century Figure 3: Martha's Vineyard it was said that more Island men had been to China than to Boston, only 80 miles away. Even today the natives of The Vineyared have a different accent than the rest of Massachusetts and use words like “housen” instead of “houses.” The History of Deaf Education and ASL Part 3 One of the early settlers from Kent carried the gene for deafness. The deaf gene was recessive, so to be deaf, both parents have to carry the gene. But with just a small group of people living in a small area, anyone you knew was some distant cousin, sometimes double cousins (meaning related on both sides of the family). By the late 1700s, 96% of the pop. married someone to whom they were already related. The more the families interbred, the more common deafness became. Location Deaf / Hearing Ratio Mainland U.S. 1 / 6000 Martha’s Vineyard 1 / 155 Chilmark region 1 / 25 Town of Squibnocket 1/ 4 A woman named Nora Ellen Groce wrote a book about Martha’s Vineyard. It’s called “Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language.” People moving to Chilmark had to learn sign language in order to live in the community. Groce would ask people who was deaf and who hearing, and many times people couldn’t remember – they didn’t have to think about it. A deaf person’s greatest problem is not simply that he or she cannot hear but that the lack of hearing is socially isolating. The deaf person’s knowledge and awareness of the larger society are limited because hearing people find it difficult or impossible to communicate with him or her. Even if the deaf person knows sign language, only a very small percentage of the hearing population can speak it and can communicate easily with deaf people. The difficulty in communicating, along with the ignorance and misinformation about deafness that is pervasive in most of the hearing world, combine to cause difficulties in all aspects of life for deaf individuals – in education, employment, community involvement, and civil rights. On the Vineyard, however, the hearing people were bilingual in English and the Island sign language. This adaptation had more than linguistic significance, for it eliminated the wall that separates most deaf people from the rest of society. How well can deaf people integrate themselves into the community if no communication The History of Deaf Education and ASL Part 3 barriers exist and if everyone is familiar and comfortable with deafness? The evidence from the Island indicates that they are extremely successful at this. (Groce, 3-4) The deaf Vinelanders were not considered handicapped, just different. One man they didn’t think anything different about someone speaking or using sign language, it was just a “different voice.” Over time, transportation became easier, and eventually there was a boat to the mainland every day. The people Figure 4: “Deaf Vinelanders” by Nancy Rourke in The Vineyard were excited to learn about the new school in Connecticut, so many of them left to learn new trades. As they came to school, they brought their sign language with them. Many stayed on the mainland and married other people, so deafness (literally) dies out on the Island. Since the boat sailed both ways, other people move to the island and the gene pool spreads out. The last deaf native of Martha’s Vineyard died in the 1950s. 7. ASL is born At the Deaf School in Hartford, Clerc taught the French Sign Language he grew up using. They were also using some of Epee’s “methodical signs” to bridge from signs in the air to English on the page. Students from The Vineyard brought their Island Sign Language to the school, and new signs are being invented as need arises. These elements all combine together to become American Sign Language. 8. ASL Grows The American Asylum grows quickly and becomes extremely popular. They secure government funding to increase their staff and building size so they can serve more students. They continued de l’Epee’s tradition of sharing with other teachers. 9. ASL Grows, continued Each new school used the same language and the same methods they learned from Clerc and Gallaudet. By the mid-1800s, 12 of the 36 states had schools for the deaf. The History of Deaf Education and ASL Part 3 10. 1864: Edward Miner Gallaudet In an effort to increase educational opportunities for the deaf beyond high school, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s son Edward starts the Columbia Institute for the Deaf in Washington, DC. Abraham Lincoln signs the charter to establish the school and gives him government money. This is the first college for the deaf anywhere in the world. It was later renamed Gallaudet University. To this day, Gallaudet is the only federally funded liberal arts college for the deaf. Figure 5: Edward Miner Gallaudet 11. 1869: Clerc dies Clerc taught for over 50 years before he retired at the age of 73. He died 10 years later in 1869 and is buried in Hartford, Connecticut. As an infant, Clerc fell into the fireplace and was burned. This incident probably caused his deafness and left a scar under his right eye, which is visible in this painting. Clerc’s name sign is 2 fingers sweeping across the right cheekbone as if outlining that scar. Figure 6: Laurent Clerc .