How America's first Deaf school was Established

Transcript

00:00

How the first American Deaf school was established

00:04

In 1814 a man named Thomas Gallaudet met a little girl

00:06

He noticed she was always alone

00:08

The other children told him she was Deaf and dumb

00:12

Her name was Alice Cogswell

00:15

America believed deaf children were unteachable

00:19

Gallaudet drew words in the dirt and pointed to the object

00:22

He wanted to see if she could understand

00:25

She made a connection to the word "hat" and pointed to his hat

00:31

Gallaudet showed this to Alice's father

00:33

He was happy at the news

00:36

He wanted Gallaudet to be her teacher

00:38

Gallaudet was able to teach her some basics

00:40

Gallaudet promoted the need to establish a Deaf school

00:46

At first this idea was opposed

00:49

After seeing Alice's progress the town agreed

00:51

They raised money to send Gallaudet to England to observe the teaching techniques at an  established Deaf school

00:56

The Deaf schools in England refused to share  their teaching secrets with Gallaudet

00:60

Gallaudet was upset because he though he would have to go home empty-handed

01:07

By accident he ran into some men doing a  demonstration on educating the Deaf

01:09

The men doing the demonstration were Abbe Roch-Ambroise Sicard, Jean Massieu, and Laurent Clerc and their school was in Paris, France

01:12

After the demonstration they offered to take Gallaudet to their school and teach him their teaching techniques

01:22

Gallaudet learned a lot about teaching Deaf people

01:24

Eventually he had to go back to America and use this knowledge to establish their own school, but he still was not fluent in sign language, which is what was used to teach the Deaf children in Paris

01:34

He brought Laurent Clerc, who was Deaf, with him to help him establish the school

01:37

Gallaudet taught Clerc English while Clerc taught  Gallaudet sign language

01:44

In 1817 the first school for the Deaf was established in America in Hartford, Connecticut

01:45

The school still stands and is now known as "The  American School for the Deaf" or ASD

01:48

There is a famous statue in front of the school  of Alice and Gallaudet