The Journey of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s Life
by Surya Sahetapy (Panji Surya Putra)
Source: http://www.ilusa.com/WebCal/output/ilusa_calendar/thomas_hopkins_gallaudet2011.jpg
A precious man comes as savior for the deaf people in the world when he found something important about education in the 1880. He was born on December 10, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When Gallaudet was thirteen years old, his parents moved to Hartford, Connecticut to prepare for his college education. “His parents, being of Huguenot origin and thoroughly grounded in the Protestant religion, had a profound effect in young Gallaudet’s desire to become an ordained minister.” (lifeprint.com)
1805 was the special moment for Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet due to his graduation with a degree in Education and he was not sure of the direction what he wanted about career. For this reason, he retook his study at Yale University again in 1808 for his Master of Arts degree and “He became an ordained minister at the age of twenty-seven (27) years old” when he participated at the Theological Seminary at Andover in 1811. At the time, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet wanted to learn many things such as theology, and to engage in trade and law. (lifeprint.com)
“In Hartford, Gallaudet met a young deaf girl named Alice Cogswell, the daughter of his neighbor, an eminent surgeon named Mason Fitch Cogswell.” (Higgins Sean, 2009) In the 1814, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was walking in around his complex house at Hartford, Connecticut and found the 9th year old girl for the first time who was only watching a game alone while other children played together on that summer morning. At that time, he tried to call that girl many times and received no response or even reaction. Thus, he touched her body then asked why did not she play with her friends and the girl surprised Thomas H. Gallaudet because the girl could not answer even speaking. Therefore, Gallaudet visited her parents one of whom was a wealthy doctor, to explore more about that girl and found that “a bout of scarlet fever had robbed her of hearing years ago, and the loss left her with few communication skills.”. (disabilitymuseum.org)
After visiting Alice Cogswell’s parents, Gallaudet refused to believe that Alice could not learn as her future looked grim. For this reason, he decided to try discovering ways to communicate with her. Moreover, he tested her by drawing “the word “hat” with big letter on the ground with a twig and he pointed it out to Alice then pointed to her hat”. (Sean Higgins, 2009) He did it repeatedly until Alice understood what Gallaudet did and made Thomas Hopkins inspired to teach her more. (Proquest.com)
The Alice Cogswell’s case, increased Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s interest about education and there was no school, designed for the deaf children and people. For this reason, Mason Cogswell looked many way to establish a school, designed for deaf children. At that time, the Braidwood family was known as the best educators of deaf people and they had a school in two different cities, London and Edinburg with high tuition fees. “Cogswell persuaded Gallaudet to go to Britain and investigate their educational methods. After much worry about whether his health was up to it, Gallaudet agreed.” Then, Gallaudet went to Britain to explore Educational methods for the deaf by attending Briadwood’s school. During the observation, Gallaudet found the method was unproductive and Braidwood offered him “to take him on as an apprentice and teach him their method, but he had to promise to keep these methods secret and not share them with others, and Gallaudet refused” because Gallaudet need to pay for the rights to use the school’s methods and that made it hard for Gallaudet to use it again for deaf children in America. At least, what Gallaudet learned in Britain broadened his horizon about deaf education and improved his experience so widely to match the best education for deaf American. (disabilitymuseum.org;disabilitymueseum.org)
Meanwhile, Gallaudet met Abbe Sicard who was a teacher for the deaf from France that used sign language as a form of communication for the deaf. The meeting was impressive, because Sicard invite him to learn the teaching method,which demonstrated by Sicard with Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc in l'Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris (school for the deaf) in Paris, France. The teaching method made Gallaudet interested and asked them to teach the signing method and they taught him.” The French model -- a free public institution where sign was used by teachers and pupils, and oral speech was unimportant -- was what Gallaudet would bring back from Europe,” (Sean Higgins, 2009) but, Gallaudet have persuaded so hard to convince Laurent Clerc for moving to America and teach. Finally, Gallaudet brought him to America as teacher for the deaf children after arguing with Laurent Clerc because due to his job and passion for teaching in French. Meanwhile, Laurent Clerc requested to Gallaudet for teaching him about English and also Gallaudet asked him to teach Gallaudet about Sign Language. (lifeprint.com;Proquest.com)
Moreover, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Mason Cogswell successfully persuaded private donors to fund government institute to build a school for the deaf in Hartford. With different name, later changed with new name is American School for the Deaf and Alice Cogswell became the first student with six students that taught by Gallaudet and Clerc. “Gallaudet was principal until 1830.” (disabilitymuseum.org)
Finally, he was advocating for deaf people to have acess to Education since he retired from the school where he taught in 1832 and also wrote and published many children’s stories”. In 1821, Gallaudet married a former Academy student, Alice Fowler and they had eight children. Death of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet happened on September 9, 1851 in Hartford, Connecticut and at that the time was survived with his wife and two sons. Importantly, the last son they was named Edward Miner Gallaudet continued his father to responsible a school for deaf children when he was 20th years old. Since then, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet became hero of deaf people in the world because he made it look alive by creating Gallaudet University that exist till now. (disabilitymuseum.org)
A few years later especially in 1864, President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln ratified the charter to recognize a national college for deaf students where Gallaudet was made president of the institution that had eight students. The name of college for the deaf was changed to Gallaudet College as an honor for Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet as founder through an act of Congress in 1954. The act of congress that continued by creating, recognizing and signing such as signed an act to create the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) and at same time, Gallaudet President Leonard Elstad who held his position as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, signed an agreement to authorize the establishment and operation of MSSD on the Gallaudet Campus. One year later, President Richard Nixon authorized the establishment of Kendall Demonstration. Later on, the two school are part of Gallaudet’s Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center where designed to deaf students nationwide for the educational opportunities. (Gallaudet.edu)
Gallaudet University is a deaf university, which designed for the deaf and hard of hearing student where provide departments such as department of ASL & deaf studies, department of counseling, department of education, department of government & public affairs, department of hearing, speech and language science, department of history, philosophy, religion & sociology, department of interpretation, department of linguistics, department of psychology, department of social work. (Gallaudet.edu)
References
Disability History
Museum Staff. Rev. Thomas gallaudet. Disability
History Museum Retrieved from
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Gallaudet
university. (2015) History of gallaudet
Retrieved from http://www.gallaudet.edu/history.html
Higgins,
S. (2009, Dec 14). Thomas gallaudet gave deaf people A clear boost never give
up: His dedication brought sign language to america, leading to the opening of
gallaudet university in D.C. Investor's Business Daily Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1008471970?accountid=108784
Naranjo,
Diane. (2008, April 27). Deaf people: laurent clerc. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/clerc_laurent_7.htm
Mikle,
Shielonda. (2003, March 16). Thomas hopkins gallaudet. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/gallaudet-thomas-hopkins3.htm
P.S. : In further, I would like to post any writings which might be related with Deaf World in order to improve my writing. Therefore, I am pleased if you give any correction-suggestion about my English grammar or information in this post. Previously, I took the post from assignment for U.S. History subject as requirement to finish the class. If possible, I would like to discuss with you regarding English literacy skill for deaf people in any scale as foreign language.
