History of deaf education in the United States

Before the 1860s and before the American Civil War, manual language was very popular among the deaf community and also supported by the hearing community.^[1] The hearing community viewed deafness as “[isolating] the individual from the Christian community”.^[1]

At the time, the people of the United States were fairly religious (notably Christian), and the hearing-advantaged believed that sign language opened deaf individuals’ minds and souls to God.^[1] Through this, the hearing community believed that manualism brought deaf people closer to God and opened deaf people to the gospel, which brought manualism general acceptance.

Prior to the 1860s, the American hearing community viewed manualism, sign language, as an art, and naturally beautiful.^[1] They also thought of deaf people who signed as being like the Romans because of the pantomimes that are a part of the language.^[1] An important manualist was Laurent Clerc who brought his signs to the deaf community of the country and was the “first deaf person to teach deaf students in the United States”.

Other defining individuals for the manualist side included Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his son Edward Miner Gallaudet. Edward Miner Gallaudet strongly believed in the use of sign language and had a number of arguments with Alexander Graham Bell, an oralist.^[2] The first school for the deaf community, opened by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet with the help of Laurent Clerc, was built in 1817. Named the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, at Hartford, Connecticut, it was a manualist school taught by mostly male teachers. The teaching of manualism continued to be used in schools for the deaf until the late 1860s.

By the end of the American Civil War in the late 1860s, the argument for “Survival of the Fittest” was applied to the issue of education for the deaf as a result of a Darwinist perspective of Evolution.^[1] This movement brought manualists arguing their view that signs were closer to nature because the first thing babies learn to do is gesture, which is akin to sign language.^[1] To the deaf community, manualism was at the time considered a gift from God.^[1] During this particular time in the United States, oralism was coming about which gave some a negative view of manualism because, it was argued, it was not a natural language.^[1]

Support for oralism gained momentum in the late 1860s and the use of manualism started to decrease. Many in the hearing community were now in favor of the evolutionary perspective, which depicted deaf people who used manual language akin to “lower animals”.^[1] Some hearing people viewed speech as what separated humans from animals, which in turn caused manual language to be viewed as unhumanlike.^[1]

At that time the teaching of manual language was restricted because the American Hearing Society saw deaf people who used it as different, as foreigners, or as a group with a separate language that was a threat to the hearing society.^[1] Members of the hearing community who were in favor of oralism took offense to deaf people having their own group identity and refusing to integrate within the greater community.^[2]

Oralists believed that the manual language made deaf people different, which in turn led them to believe that deaf people were abnormal. Oralists believed that the teaching of oralism allowed deaf children to be more normal.^[2] Oralists strongly believed that deaf children should put as much effort as possible into learning how to live in spite of their disabilities, thus promoting the teaching of lip reading, mouth movements, and use of hearing technology.^[2] Oralists also argued that if deaf people continued the use of manual language as their form of communication, they would never integrate within the rest of society.^[2]

A model figure for oralism and against the usage of sign language was Alexander Graham Bell, who created the Volta Bureau in Washington, D.C. to pursue the studies of deafness. Two other Americans who encouraged the founding of oralist schools in the United States were Horance Mann and Samuel Gridley Howe, who travelled to Germany to see their oral schools and who wished to model them.^[2]

The first schools for oralism opened in the 1860s were called The New York Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes and The Clarke Institution for Deaf-Mutes (now the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech). The work of deaf educators in the oralist schools, who were mostly women, was to prepare the deaf children for life in the hearing world, which required them to learn English, speech, and lipreading.^[2] These oralist schools restricted the deaf students’ use of American Sign Language (ASL) in class and in public. If teachers or citizens of the community saw a deaf child use manual signs, the student was punished.^[3] One type of punishment used on deaf students was to force them to wear white gloves that were tied together to prevent them from using signs.^[3]

See also

• Deaf culture
• Education of the deaf
• History of sign language
• Schools for the deaf in the United States
• Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Baynton, Douglas. Forbidden Signs. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996. 15.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Winefield, Richard. Never the Twain Shall Meet. Washington, D.C: Gallaudet University Press, 1987. 4.
3. ^ ^{a b} Through Deaf Eyes. Diane Garey, Lawrence R. Hott. DVD, Pbs (Direct), 2007.