The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-01-14
TEACHING THE DEAF.
THE FIRST SCHOOL FOUNDED IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

EArliest In the United ssates Established
by DR.. Thomas III. Gallaudet at Hart
ford In 1sl7-systems Of Instruction
and Their Friendly Rivalry.
The earliest recorded attempt to found a
school where the deaf could be educated
was made In the early part Of the seven
teenth century by the learned John But
Ter, contemporary of Milton and Bacon.
He, however, says Of the project: II soon
perceived, by falling into discourse with
some rationale men about such designe,
that tho attempt seemed so paradoxicall,
prodigious, and Hyperbolicall that 1t did
rather amuse than satisfie their under
standings" Indeed, IL was not until more
than q century later, when De fEpee,
Heinicke and Braidwood founded schools
IN France, Germany and Great Britain re-
sCectively, that any permanent institu-
ti0ns were established for the education or
the deaf
1t is q very rare occurrence when deaf
person 10 mute for any other reason save
the lack of the instruction which hearing
child receives through his ears Recogniz-
Ing this fact and that speech Is the most
distinctive gift of man, Heinicke and
Braidwood devoted themselves to the
training of the vocal organs OF their pupils
and to teaching them to read the speech OF
others by noting the movements OF the lips
and tongue. On the other hand, the AbDe
De pEpee based his method of instruc-
ton upon the fact that all human beings,
when deprived of speech, either through
deafness or ignorance of the language
spoken about them, resort to signs to make
known their wants. All savage races have
q code Of signs by which they can COM
municate with one another and with the
surrounding tribes. He therefore oonyen-
tionalized and systematized signs and In
vented new ones when natural gestures
failed to convey the idea.
With this system of conventionalized
signs, brought to this country by DIR. Thom-
as II. Gailaudet, school was opened In
Hartford In the year 1917. 1t had been
found, however, that the sign language
did not solve the problem OF giving the
deaf a means of communication with the
world In general Very few people under
stood this language, while its construc-
ton, so far as there was any, and It's con-
ciseness-a single gesture frequently rep
resenting q complete sentence Of spoken
ernaculnr-repdered 1t unfit for repre-.
senting grammatically constructed Ian
guage The method Of spelling the
words with the fingers by means of nm
ger alphabet was then pressed into service
IN conjunction with signs. This Is the
same as writing in foreign characters on
the blackboard or upon paper, except that
IL Is more rapid and more convenient In
this way the reading and writing OF gram
matical English could be taught, and both
the manual alphabet and the sign language
T. ~$..t. lo tAdo
For many years after the founding of
the Hartford school no speech was taught
there, though today the teaching Of articu-
lation is an important factor In the
work In 1857, largely through the efforts
of Horace Mann, who some years previous
ly had visited the schools of Europe, two
institutions were established in this coun-
try where the deaf could not only be taught
to speak, but be taught by speech without
the use Of the manual alphabet or the sign
language. One Of these was In New York
city and the other in Northampton, Mass,
and they are today large aud fourishing
institutions
After the establishment of these iDstitu-
tions there sprang up in this country In
the ranks of the teachers of the deaf
division which already existed in Europe.
On the one side were the ardent advocates
of the eign Language as a means of instruc-
ton and explanation, while on the other
were the opponents of signs, who employed
the manual alphabet, writing and speech
only. The controversy has been waged
with more or less energy ever since; but
like all the ideas Of cruder and less ad-
yanced age the sign language has been
gradually crowded out, until now it Is en-
tirely excluded from many schools and
used but sparingly in others.
A single argument brought forward by
the son of distinguished advocate OF the
ancient method in support of this Ian
Quage Is enough to indicate Its ultimate
fate, though 1t has served noble purpose
in its day. He says, "It is fact worth
noting that the signs used by the Indians
of North America are identical In many
instances with those employed by the deaf
mutes of today" No one will question
the truth of this observation nor deny
that it Is worth noting, but we have reached
stage in the worlds history when we can
lay aside the tools OF savagery. Through
progress in enlightenment we are fortu-
nately able now to give our deaf children q
better means of communication with mon
than that employed by the American In
dian or the African savage 1t Is a friendly
struggle, in which the old school advocates
of the sign language are the defensive party
and the oralists the aggressors. Both are,
however, engaged in the great work OF
.ameliorating the condition Of an unfor-
tunate class and have much that Is com-
mon ground where they can clasp hands
with hearty approval.
In the schools for the deaf In the United
States today three systems Of instruction
are used. Tie methods employe ed are, In
the first system, signs and she manual
alphabet; second system, speech and the
manual alphabet; third system, speech
only. Writing Is Of course employed In
all the systems John Dutton Wright In
Century.