Gallaudet, Edward

Gallaudet, Edward Miner

ACHIEVEMENT(S): Pioneer in teaching the deaf in the US

NICKNAME/ALIAS: None

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: February 5, 1837, Hartford, Connecticut

DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: September 6, 1917, Hartford, Connecticut. Aged 70

DISCIPLINE: Teaching of the hearing and speech impaired

FIELD: Education

LANGUAGE: English

PARENTS: Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet; Sophia Fowler

SIBLINGS: Unknown

SPOUSE: 1) Jane M. Fessenden; 2) Susan Denison

CHILDREN: Katherine: Grace (Mrs William Closson ???); Denison and Edson F. (airplane manufacturers); Rev. Herbert D., officer of National Army; Marion (Mrs John Edgerton ???)

EDUCATION: Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

MAJOR WORK: The expansion of Gallaudet College

LIFE AND TIMES:

Gallaudet's father, the Rev. Thomas Gallaudet*, was a strong willed and authoritarian man, who gave his children a strict religious upbringing. Before becoming chaplain at the Hartford County Prison, the elder Gallaudet had served as the first head of the Connecticut Asylum for the Education of and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, (now the American School for the Deaf) in Hartford, CT. Gallaudet's deaf mother had been one of his father's first pupils.

When Gallaudet was 12, his father suggested he pursue a career working with the deaf, but Gallaudet preferred business. When he was 14 his father died and he was obliged to find a job. He became a bank clerk, did well, was promoted several times, but found the work boring. At 17, he decided to go back to school, and supported himself by working three hours a day at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum.

After he got his Bachelor of Science degree in 1856, he accepted a supervising post at a new school for the deaf established in Washington DC by the 66-year-old politician Kendall* .

In June, 1857 Gallaudet was installed as principal at this school, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind. Kendall insisted that Gallaudet's deaf mother be matron of the school, which undoubtedly was of some comfort to the pupils, but also assuaged the board of directors, who were uneasy about handing over the school to an unmarried 20-year-old man.

At the beginning, the school had just nine deaf and five blind pupils. The staff consisted of Gallaudet, his mother, her assistant and three assistant teachers. Though young, Gallaudet worked with maturity and diligence, and the school began to thrive. From the outset he insisted that the school seek the status of College with the power to award degrees.

Three months after he arrived, the directors asked him to build the school up to 50 students, promising all the additional buildings and teachers he might need in spite of the fact that funding was a matter for Congress. Displaying sophisticated diplomatic and political skill, Gallaudet became the consummate lobbyist. The school was allowed to expand, and in 1864, Congress granted it the right to confer degrees.

An alliance between Gallaudet and the 72-year-old legislator Thaddeus Stevens helped get Congressional funds for the foundation of an advanced faculty, including more new buildings and dormitories. A considerable number of scholarships were also set up, sponsored by private citizens. Gallaudet became the first President. In 1894, the advanced department was renamed Gallaudet College, after his father.

The Institute was the only place in the world that offered college education to the hearing- and speech-impaired. Set among beautiful grounds, it offered good teachers and a full liberal arts program and taught male and female students. It remains today the only liberal arts college with a deaf undergraduate student body.

Gallaudet pioneered an educational system for the deaf called the "combined method", which included lip-reading, speech and sign language. Most instructors preferred the lip-reading and speech method, or "oralism", and some believed sign language, or "manualism", should not be taught at all.

Though Gallaudet believed all deaf children should receive instruction in "oralism", he was a passionate advocate of "manualism", believing sign language to be the "natural" language of the deaf. He acknowledged that the oralist approach allowed a greater possibility for integration with society, and hired oralist teachers in his college. But he insisted that sign language was essential to stimulate thought and explain new words and ideas.

This brought him into strong conflict with the leading oralist of the time, educator and inventor Alexander Graham Bell*. After a number of setbacks, Gallaudet's "combined" approach eventually gained acceptance.

In 1886, Gallaudet was invited by the British government to testify before the Royal Commission for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, and made a significant impact.

Gallaudet wrote many articles on the education of the deaf, more than a 100 of which appeared in "American Annals of the Deaf". He also wrote for "New Englander", "Penn Monthly", "Harper's Monthly" and "International Review". After 54 years at the College, Gallaudet retired and returned to Hartford.

He received several honorary degrees: a Ph.D. from the Columbian University, now George Washington University (1869); an LL.D. from Trinity Harvard (1869); and an LL.D. from Yale (1895.) He also received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor from France in 1912

ASSESSMENT: Contributed much to the advancement of education for the deaf in the United States, notably, through the introduction of the "combined method".

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: Edward Gallaudet, pioneer in teaching the deaf

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Richard Winefield, Never the Twain Shall Meet: Bell, Gallaudet, and the Communications debate, Gallaudet University Press. Washington D.C.. 1987