| Thomas H. Gallaudet |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET | |
| 1787 births | |
| gallaudet, thomas hopkins | |
| 1851 deaths | |
| american educators | |
| people from hartford, connecticut | |
| people from philadelphia | |
| yale university alumni | |
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Gallaudet's wish to become a preacher was put aside when he met Alice Cogswell, the six-year-old deaf daughter of a neighbor, Dr. Mason Cogswell. He tought her many words by writing them with a stick in the dirt. Then Cogswell asked Gallaudet to travel to Europe to study methods for teaching deaf students, especially those of the Braidwood family in England. Gallaudet found the Braidwoods unwilling to share knowledge of their Oral Communication method. At the same time, he was not satisfied that the oral method produced desirable results. While still in Great Britain , he met Abbé Sicard , head of the "Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets" in Paris , and two of its deaf faculty members, Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu . Sicard invited Gallaudet to Paris to study the school's method of teaching the deaf using Manual Communication . Impressed with the manual method, Gallaudet studied teaching methodology under Sicard, learning Sign Language from Massieu and Clerc, who were both highly educated graduates of the school. Having persuaded Clerc to accompany him, Gallaudet sailed back to America. The two men toured New England and successfully raised private and public funds to found a school for deaf students in Hartford, which later became known as the American School For The Deaf . Young Alice was one of the first seven students in the United States. This is where his school began. Even some hearing students came to this school to learn. His son Edward Miner Gallaudet (1837-1917) founded in 1857 the first college for the deaf which in 1864 became Gallaudet University . The university also offers education for those in elementary, middle, and High School . The elementary school on the Gallaudet University Campus is named The Kendall School , the middle and high school is The Model Secondary School For The Deaf (MSSD). The primary language used on the Gallaudet University Campus is American Sign Language , which many believe Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was the father of. Alternatively, Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr. , Professor Emeritus at Gallaudet University, proposed to linguists that American Sign Language was indeed a language, and not a signed code for English. He was the author of "Sign Language Structure" , published in 1960. Many people within the deaf community believe Dr. Stokoe to be the real father of American Sign Language as opposed to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. The residual effect of Dr. Stokoe's studies has resulted in American Sign Language becoming a federally protected and recognized language in the academic world. He had another son, Thomas Gallaudet , who became an Episcopal priest and also worked for the deaf. Thomas H. Gallaudet saw a barrier between the hearing world and the deaf and spent his adult life bridging the communication gap. He died in Hartford in 1851 . |
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