‫In the early 1800s in America,
‫there were no schools for the deaf.
‫A young man named Thomas Gallaudet had recently graduated
‫from Yale College in Connecticut.
‫As he headed back home, he was thinking about
‫his purpose in life.
‫He was looking for something
‫that would have meaning, a mission.
‫When he got back to his old neighborhood
‫in Hartford, Connecticut, some new neighbors had moved in.
‫Next door was Dr. Cogswell, a very prominent physician
‫in the United States, and he had a deaf daughter, Alice.
‫Thomas met Alice and was very intrigued about
‫how to communicate with the deaf,
‫and the idea of providing education for the deaf
‫so they would have the opportunity
‫to live like everyone else, as ordinary citizens
‫but to reach their potential in life.
‫Dr. Cogswell is part of a group of parents in New England
‫that had organized in order to try
‫to establish a school for the deaf,
‫and they had been corresponding with the schools
‫that already existed in Europe,
‫in England, Scotland, and France.
‫Thomas was enlisted to go to Europe,
‫look at the schools there, see what was the best approach
‫that could be used in America,
‫and come back and help to open a school.
‫Thomas set off for Europe and went
‫to the only place he could go to, and that was England.
‫Continental Europe was embroiled in war.
‫Napoleon was still on the march throughout Europe,
‫and the school in France was closed,
‫so Thomas went to London, and there, he went into the school
‫that was run by the Braidwood family.
‫As he entered the school, the rooms were dark,
‫the walls were bare.
‫The students didn't seem very interested in
‫what was going on.
‫Teachers were stern.
‫It was a gloomy environment.
‫These schools were oral schools,
‫and that means that no signing was allowed.
‫The teacher would stand in front of the room,
‫speak to the students, and the students would try
‫to understand.
‫It was very clear to Thomas that this was not
‫what was needed in America.
‫In addition, the Braidwoods had told him,
‫if you want to start a school in America, we can help you,
‫but you'll stay on as an apprentice here for three years
‫and then we'll send one of our family members back
‫to be the headmaster in this school,
‫and you must be sure you can't reveal our secret methods
‫of teaching the deaf.
‫The Braidwoods were interested in the financial aspect
‫of education, not education.
‫So, Thomas had traveled to Europe,
‫he had spent a good portion of the money
‫that had been given to him by this parents group,
‫and he failed.
‫He wasn't sure what to do, but it seemed there was no choice
‫but to go back to America and tell them
‫that it just wasn't possible, he hadn't succeeded.
‫So, he was making his way to Southampton
‫for the passage back home and he stopped off in Brighton.
‫And what are the chances of this happening?
‫He spots a flyer, and this flyer advertises a demonstration
‫by representatives of the Royal Institute
‫for the Teaching of Deaf/Mutes from Paris, France.
‫You see, they were in exile
‫because of all the turmoil in France,
‫and they were putting on exhibitions
‫to make a little pocket money
‫so they could survive until it was safe to go home.
‫So, Thomas, of course, went to this exhibition
‫and was dazzled when we saw this young, deaf French teacher,
‫Laurent Clerc, talk about French Sign Language,
‫talk about deaf education, and take questions
‫from the audience.
‫He had with him his headmaster from his school,
‫the abbe Sicard, who acted as his interpreter
‫since the abbe could hear.
‫After the demonstration, Thomas was very excited
‫to meet Laurent Clerc and asked
‫if he could visit their school, and they said, of course.
‫As soon as it was safe to go back home, they would.
‫And in a short time, Napoleon is defeated
‫and they set sail for France.
‫When he arrives at the school,
‫which now has been recently opened again,
‫it's full of color, there are maps,
‫there are pictures, there are paintings.
‫The children are animated and engaged, they're signing.
‫The teachers are pleasant and friendly.
‫This is a real school.
‫This is what Thomas sees for America for deaf education.
‫But how could he do this?
‫He's not a teacher of the deaf.
‫He doesn't know sign language.
‫He can't open a school for the deaf.
‫He's found a method that could be successful,
‫but he doesn't have the ability to make it happen,
‫so he tries to enlist Laurent Clerc to come with him.
‫Laurent Clerc is intrigued, but he has a lot of reasons not
‫to come to America.
‫The number one reason, he's Catholic
‫and America is full of those Protestants,
‫and he'd been warned about that.
‫He would be leaving his school, his community,
‫his second family.
‫He would be going to a place that had a reputation
‫for being lawless and dangerous,
‫and think about this, he would be the only educated
‫deaf person in North America.
‫How lonely would that be?
‫It's a big consideration.
‫Thomas, however, convinces him, this is your mission,
‫you have to do this.
‫Deaf people in America, without you, have no future.
‫They have no hope.
‫It all rests on you.
‫So, Clerc, of course, is moved by that and decides,
‫I'll come to America for a year,
‫I'll help you get your school started,
‫and then I'll come back home.
‫Laurent Clerc died at a ripe old age
‫in Hartford, Connecticut.
‫He, too, found his mission, but the warnings were true,
‫he died as an Episcopalian.
‫But back to the story of how this all gets really started.
‫Clerc and Gallaudet now set sail for America,
‫and in the two months that it takes
‫to cross the Atlantic Ocean,
‫Clerc continues to work on reading and writing English
‫with the help of Thomas, and Thomas learns
‫French Sign Language from Laurent Clerc,
‫as much as he can absorb.
‫They arrive in New York, go to Hartford,
‫and in the spring of 1817,
‫finally, the first permanent school
‫for the deaf in the United States,
‫now known as the American School for the Deaf,
‫opens up in Hartford, Connecticut.
‫Laurent Clerc is the first teacher,
‫and Thomas Gallaudet handles the administration
‫of the school as he continues to learn French Sign Language
‫and to learn how to be a teacher of the deaf.
‫Clerc starts teaching with great enthusiasm,
‫and soon, he's quite discouraged.
‫He thinks the deaf of America, they have no language,
‫they have no education.
‫I will bring it to them.
‫They will love my beautiful French Sign Language.
‫The Americans didn't, and Clerc was confused and frustrated.
‫You see, what he didn't realize was,
‫the Americans already had their own
‫old American Sign Language.
‫They were not without language,
‫but their language wasn't nearly as highly developed
‫as Clerc's French Sign Language
‫because they didn't have schools.
‫There was no academic language,
‫there was no language signs for countries,
‫for historical events, for famous people.
‫There was no complex numbering system for doing mathematics.
‫There was no fingerspelling system
‫because they weren't reading and writing.
‫So, they had a language that talked about daily activities
‫and family and their immediate environment,
‫but not a full language like French Sign Language.
‫Clerc finally came to realize that, over time,
‫what was happening was, these two languages were merging.
‫They were turning into a creole,
‫developing into our modern American Sign Language.
‫And so, deaf education gets off to a great start.
‫The school is successful, and soon,
‫schools are opened up in Pennsylvania, in Virginia,
‫in New York, until almost every state has its own school
‫for the deaf, all learning by means of this brand new
‫American Sign Language.
‫And for the next 50 years, after the start
‫of that first school for the deaf,
‫deaf education flourishes and culminates
‫with the opening of a college for the deaf
‫in Washington, D.C., which later was named in honor
‫of Thomas Gallaudet, as Gallaudet College,
‫and it is now Gallaudet University.
‫The charter for that university was signed
‫by President Lincoln.
‫And so, for that first 50 years of deaf education,
‫because of American Sign Language,
‫deaf students were successful
‫and they were able to live like everyone else.
‫In another segment, I'll tell you what happens after
‫that 50 years, where things changed dramatically,
‫and certainly, for the worse.
‫But that first period is important for us
‫to look back on as we see what happens in our modern times
‫with deaf education and the reemergence
‫of what you're about to learn, American Sign Language.