Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Laurent Clerc is famous for being a Deaf educator and co-founder of the first school for the Deaf in the United States, the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut. He was instrumental in promoting the use of American Sign Language and the advancement of Deaf education in America.
Laurent Clerc and Thomas H Gallaudent
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet & Laurent Clerc
Born in France (1785) , Louis Laurent Marie Clerc was a year old when he lost his hearing. He eventually became a teacher at the famous Parisian school of the deaf, and later traveled to England and the United States where in 1816 he and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet established the first American School for the Deaf at Hartford, Connecticut. He served there until his death in 1869.
The first hearing impaired school in the United States was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in 1817. Gallaudet and Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
The first school for the deaf in America was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in 1817. This school is now known as the American School for the Deaf and is located in Hartford, Connecticut.
Laurent and his wife, Elizabeth, are buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Hartford. In 1992, a deaf man, Alan Barwiolek, visited the Clerc gravestone's. He was appalled at the deteriorated and vandalized headstones and started a nationwide campaign to restore the headstones. His efforts drew great support from countless individuals and organizations, including the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association. Six years later, honor was brought back to the Laurent with the unveiling of new headstones at their final resting place.
The first school for the Deaf was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet wanted to find a way to teach deaf children. His neighbor Mason Gogswell had a deaf daughter, Alice, and Gogswell did not want her locked away in a mental institution, as was common practice during those times. Thomas left the U.S. in search of a way to educate deaf people, in 1816, while in England seeking their method of educating the deaf he attended a deaf-mute show which featured it's star pupil: Laurent Clerc, a brilliant deaf student from France. Gallaudet convinced Clerc to come to the U.S. and help set up a school and hence in 1817 the first school for the Deaf opened in Hartford Connecticut. Source: "Learning to See: Teaching American Sign Language as a Second Language" by Sherman Wilcox and Phyllis Perrin Wilcox (Pp. 17-19)
American Sign Language (ASL) was not created by a single individual. It evolved naturally over time from various sources, including French Sign Language, Indigenous signs, and home signs used by Deaf communities in the United States. It became recognized as a distinct language in its own right in the early 19th century.
Define teacher>? The first teacher of signing was probally Laurent Clerc, a french citizen who had worked with deaf and Deaf people in France, and had helped in the development of ASL here.
Orginally it was Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb on April 15, 1817 in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. it evolved into Gallaudet Univesity.
When he was about a year old, Clerc fell from his high chair into the kitchen fireplace. His right cheek was severely burned, a fever developed, and later, it was discovered that his senses of hearing and smell were damaged. It was never clear if this resulted from his accident or if he was born with those disabilities.