1. The History of Deaf Education and ASL
Part III
J. Parmley Richland High School
Birdville ISD Fort Worth, Texas

2. Deaf Education in America
Gallaudet and Clerc found the American School for the Deaf with 7 students, including Alice Cogswell.
Their legacy still continues today.

3. The first example of an arbitrary name sign
1818: Eliza Boardman Clerc
Clerc falls in love with and marries Eliza Boardman, one of the school’s first students.
The first example of an arbitrary name sign
With their daughter Elizabeth. They had 6 children altogether.

4. Island off the Massachusetts coast
Martha’s Vineyard
Island off the Massachusetts coast
First settled around 1664 by 25 families
Very isolated – the Island was self-sufficient for food and clothing, etc. and the trip was long, dangerous and irregular. In the 19th century it was said that more Island men had been to China than to Boston, only 80 miles away. Even today the natives of MV have a different accent than the rest of Mass. and use words like “housen” instead of “houses.”

5. One early English settler brings a “deaf gene” to the Island.
By the late 1700s, 96% of the pop. married someone to whom they were already related
The deaf gene was recessive, so to be deaf, both parents have to carry the gene. But with just a small group of people living in a small area, anyone you knew was some distant cousin, sometimes double cousins (meaning related on both sides of the family).
The more families interbred, the more common deafness became.

6. In one town, one of every 4 children was born deaf.
Deafness was so common that everyone knew sign language.
Frequency of deafness: Mainland U.S. = 1 in almost 6000
Vineyard 1 in 155
(1 in 25 in Chilmark, and 1 in 4 in Chilmark town of Squibnocket).
A woman named Nora Ellen Groce wrote a book about MV. It’s called “Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language.” People moving to Chilmark had to learn sign language in order to live in the community. Deafness wasn’t considered a handicap. Groce would ask people who was deaf and who hearing, and many times people couldn’t remember; it wasn’t relevant.

7. Clerc’s French Sign Language Epée’s methodical signs
ASL is born from…
Clerc’s French Sign Language
Epée’s methodical signs
Signs from Martha’s Vineyard
Newly created signs
Transportation gets easier, and soon there’s a boat to the mainland every day. The people in MV are excited to learn about the new school in Conn, so many of them leave to learn new trades. As they come to school, they bring their sign language with them. Many stayed on the mainland and married other people, so deafness (literally) dies out on the Island. Since the boat sails both ways, other people move to MV and the gene pool spreads out. The last deaf native of MV died in the 1950s.

8. ASL Grows
The American Asylum grows quickly and becomes extremely popular
They get government funding
They continued Epée’s tradition of sharing with other teachers

9. They help other schools get started, and ASL spreads.
By the mid-1800s, there were Deaf schools in 12 states.
In 1865 there were 36 states, so 1/3 had deaf schools

10. 1864: Edward Miner Gallaudet
Thomas’ son Edward starts the Columbia Institute for the Deaf, the first Deaf college, in Washington, DC
Now called Gallaudet University
Abraham Lincoln signs the charter to establish the school and gives him government money. This is the first college for the deaf anywhere in the world. To this day, Gallaudet is the only federally funded liberal arts college for the deaf.

11. 1869: Clerc dies
Clerc teaches for over 50 years and retires at age 73. He died in Hartford in

12. Obamas at MV