Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet" - New World
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Gallaudet was born in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]. His family soon moved to Hartford, Connecticut and as a young boy he attended school there. He went to [[Yale University]] at age fourteen, earning his [[Bachelor's degree]] in 1805, at the top of his class. He then received his [[Master's degree]] in 1810. He spent some time in the study of law, business, and the study [[divinity]]. He attended Andover Theological Seminary from 1811-1814. In 1814 Gallaudet became a preacher; he later became interested in writing children's books. | Gallaudet was born in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]]. His family soon moved to Hartford, Connecticut and as a young boy he attended school there. He went to [[Yale University]] at age fourteen, earning his [[Bachelor's degree]] in 1805, at the top of his class. He then received his [[Master's degree]] in 1810. He spent some time in the study of law, business, and the study [[divinity]]. He attended Andover Theological Seminary from 1811-1814. In 1814 Gallaudet became a preacher; he later became interested in writing children's books. | ||
| − | Gallaudet devoted his life to the communication of the deaf. Upon her graduation from the the Hartford School for the Deaf, he married Sophia Fowler. They had eight children. | + | Gallaudet devoted his life to the communication of the deaf. Upon her graduation from the the Hartford School for the Deaf, he married Sophia Fowler. They had a happy marriage, <ref>Edward M. Gallaudet, ''Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet'' (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Comany, 1888).</ref> |
| + | and had eight children. | ||
He died at his home in [[Hartford]] on September 10, 1851, aged 63. | He died at his home in [[Hartford]] on September 10, 1851, aged 63. | ||
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Thomas H. Gallaudet saw a barrier between the hearing world and the deaf and spent his adult life bridging the communication gap. There is a residence hall near where he lived in Harford named in his honor at nearby [[Central Connecticut State University]] in [[New Britain, Connecticut|New Britain]]. | Thomas H. Gallaudet saw a barrier between the hearing world and the deaf and spent his adult life bridging the communication gap. There is a residence hall near where he lived in Harford named in his honor at nearby [[Central Connecticut State University]] in [[New Britain, Connecticut|New Britain]]. | ||
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| + | ==Notes== | ||
| + | <references/> | ||
==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
Revision as of 21:29, 10 July 2007
Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, LL.D., (December 10 1787 – September 10 1851) was a renowned American pioneer in the education of the deaf. He helped found and was for many years the principal of the first institution for the education of the deaf in the United States. When opened in 1817, it was called the "Hartford School for the Deaf" in Connecticut, but it is now known as the American School for the Deaf.
Life
Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family soon moved to Hartford, Connecticut and as a young boy he attended school there. He went to Yale University at age fourteen, earning his Bachelor's degree in 1805, at the top of his class. He then received his Master's degree in 1810. He spent some time in the study of law, business, and the study divinity. He attended Andover Theological Seminary from 1811-1814. In 1814 Gallaudet became a preacher; he later became interested in writing children's books.
Gallaudet devoted his life to the communication of the deaf. Upon her graduation from the the Hartford School for the Deaf, he married Sophia Fowler. They had a happy marriage, [1] and had eight children.
He died at his home in Hartford on September 10, 1851, aged 63.
Work
Gallaudet's wish to become a preacher was put aside when he met Alice Cogswell, the nine-year-old deaf daughter of a neighbor, Dr. Mason Cogswell. He taught 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 Edinburgh, Scotland. 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. Some hearing students came to this school to learn as well.
Gallaudet retired from the school in 1830, because of health problems. By this time the school had 140 students and was widely recognized throughout the United States. Gallaudet was offered other teaching leadership positions at special schools and univerisities, but declined these offers so he could write childrens' books and advance education. He wrote several Christian books, as well as a dictionary and a speller. He also took to caring for those with mental illness and was chaplain twice of both an insane asylum and a county jail.
Legacy
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 Kendall Demonstration School for the Deaf, the middle and high school is Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD).
The primary language used on the Gallaudet University Campus is American Sign Language (ASL), which Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet contributed to the formation of. Like any language, ASL has a complex history. It is a combination of the informal signs that were already in use by the deaf in America, French Sign Language, and attempts by Gallaudet and Clerc to add English grammar to some words. While Gallaudet helped to bring to signing to the deaf, it would not be until 1960 that Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr.,Professor Emeritus at Gallaudet University, proposed that 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
Gallaudet had another son, Thomas Gallaudet, who became an Episcopal priest and also worked with the deaf.
Thomas H. Gallaudet saw a barrier between the hearing world and the deaf and spent his adult life bridging the communication gap. There is a residence hall near where he lived in Harford named in his honor at nearby Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
Notes
- ↑ Edward M. Gallaudet, Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Comany, 1888).
Sources
- "Recent Deaths"; New York Daily Times; September 18, 1851; page 2. (Accessed from The New York Times (1851–2003), ProQuest Historical Newspapers, September 19, 2006).
- "Tribute to Gallaudet—A Discourse in Commemoration of the Life, Character and Services, of the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL.D.—Delivered Before the Citizens of Hartford, Jan. 7th, 1852. With an Appendix, Containing History of Deaf-Mute Instruction and Institutions, and other Documents." By Henry Barnard, 1852. (Download book: http://www.gallyprotest.org/tribute_to_gallaudet.pdf)
External links
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