Speaker 1:
The History of Deaf Education has been full of monumental moments and is still growing to this day.
Today I want to talk about these moments starting from 437 BC to 1988.
Deaf Education was not always looked at in a positive manner.
In the early days people like Plato and Aristotle believed there was no point in educating the deaf.
To them deafness was a form of unintelligence.
In 437 BC Plato made the following statement “All intelligence was present at birth,
without speech, no outward sign of intelligence.”
Similar to Plato, in 335 BC Aristotle, the greek philosopher was asked about deaf education
and he stated “If born deaf, they are senseless, and incapable of reason.”
Unlike the earlier years the 1500s kicked off a more positive growth of deaf education.
In the early 1500s was a first attempt at teaching the use of code as symbols.
This was done by a man named Geronimo Cardano who wanted to communicate with his deaf son.
Following that in the late 1500s early 1600s Pedro Ponce de Leon and Juan Pablo Bonet were
the first credited with helping the deaf acquire language, which was mostly fingerspelling.
As the 1600s came to an end the 1700s was known to be the time period of Deaf education spreading around the world.
The most influential moment of this century would be in 1771 when a French priest named
Abbe’s Charles de l’epee knowns as the “father of sign language and deaf education” opened the first free public school for the deaf.
Following the 1700s, the 1800s is known as the golden age of Deaf education.
In 1817 the first American School for the Deaf was built.
It was built by a man named Thomas Hopkins Galluadet and a deaf woman named Laurent Clerc
in Hartford, Connecticut.
Laurent Clerc also became the first deaf teacher in the United States.
It wasn’t until 1853 that Louisiana itself built its first school for the deaf, which was built and still running in Baton Rouge.
In 1864 the first Deaf college was built in Washington DC.
The college was named Gallaudet University after its founder.
At the start of the University over 40% of its staff were deaf teachers.
Throughout the 1800s a debate brewed over oral deaf education and in 1880 a conference for the endorsement was held in Italy.
As the majority agreed with the movement sign language became banned and oral education started.
After the end of the 1800s the movement of oral education continued into the 1900s.
1927 is known as the height of pure oralism.
Oral education for the deaf was at its peak.
The percentage of deaf teachers dropped to only 15%. But, it was short lived.
In 1948 there was a resurgence of signing spreading across the world.
In 1960, a man named William Stokoe begin doing research on the language of the deaf and coined the name American Sign Language.
He wrote the first linguistic book on ASL.
Four years later in 1964, the congress finally issued a report and stated, “Oral Deaf Education Labeled Failure.”
Later in 1970, the development of manually coded systems begun, which still used English word order because people were not fully convinced that ASL was the way to go.
The first created was Signed English by Harry Bornstein.
It was created to approximate english and be simple to use.
Following Signed English, in 1972 Signed Exact English was created by Gerilee Gustaso.
This form of manually coded systems was the most successful due to its broader vocabulary.
The final date of history I will bring up is known as the “Deaf President Now” movement.
This movement started in 1988 at Gallaudet University.
When a hearing president was hired the students went on strike and demanded the presented be replaced with a deaf president.
In the end they won and their final statement will be a motto for Deaf Education for years to come.
The statement was “Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do except hear.”
