Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
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 the principal for many years 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. Gallaudet had health problems throughout his life, but did not allow that to stop him from achieving his goals. 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 studied law for one year, studied teaching for two, and was actively involved in business for three years. [1] He also attended Andover Theological Seminary from 1811-1814. In 1814 Gallaudet became a preacher, and his strong Congregationalist faith guided him throughout his life. Although most of his life would not be actively spent preaching, Gallaudet continued to somewhat serve in this capacity, giving guest sermons and uplifting both congregations and individuals. [1] He later became interested in writing Christian children's books.
He declined an offer to be the minister of a large church in America, and thereafter Gallaudet devoted his life to the communication of the deaf. [2] Upon her graduation from the the Hartford School for the Deaf, he married one of his students, Sophia Fowler. They had a happy marriage, [1] and had eight children. [2]
He died at his home in Hartford on September 10, 1851, at the age of 63.
Work
Gallaudet put his wish to become a preacher 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 London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. Gallaudet found that the Braidwoods were only willing to share their methods of teaching the deaf if he promised to be their assistant for three years, and would not share the knowledge he learned with others. Gallaudet felt an expediency to return to America to start teaching to deaf and did not want to wait three years. He also was not convinced that the Braidwood method was the best way to teach the deaf, and was eager to travel to France and be trained in their methods as well.
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.
While at the school in Paris, Clerc offered to accompany him back to the United States and teach with Gallaudet, and the two sailed 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. [1] 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 was principal of the school from its opening to 1830, when he retired due to health problems. During most of his time as principal he also taught a daily class. By the time he retired the school had 140 students and was widely recognized throughout the United States. Gallaudet was offered other teaching leadership positions at special schools and universities, 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 the first college for the deaf in 1857, and in 1864 it 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).
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet's work helped to develop American Sign Language. 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 efforts by Gallaudet and Clerc to add English grammar to some words. [3] 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 Hartford named in his honor at nearby Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Edward M. Gallaudet, Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1888).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cathryn Carroll, A Father, A Son, A University Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet University. Retrieved July 1, 2007
- ↑ Timothy Reagan, Learning to See: Teaching American Sign Language as a Second Language (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1997).
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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