who was the deaf person who traveled to america in 1817 to help set up a school for the deaf 1.1
History of deaf education in the United States In 1812 in New England, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet met a little girl named Alice Cogswell, who inspired him to create a school for the deaf in the United States. In 1815, he traveled to Europe to gain insight on their methods of teaching deaf students.[11] He attempted to learn from the Braidwood system, but the administrators wanted him to sign a contract, remain at the school for several years to be trained in oralism, and agree to keep the teaching methods of the school a secret; Gallaudet refused this.[11] He attended a lecture in France by Abbé Sicard showcasing two successful pupils of Paris' National Institution for Deaf-Mutes, Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc. Gallaudet spent several months at the school, and he convinced Clerc, a thirty-year-old assistant teacher, to return with him to Hartford, Connecticut. Back in America, they established the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, which was later named the American School for the Deaf, in 1817. Gallaudet was the director, and Clerc was the first deaf teacher in America. Alice Cogswell was one of the first seven students.[12]
History of education in the United States The first American schools in the thirteen original colonies opened in the 17th century. Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 and is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States.[1] The first free taxpayer-supported public school in North America, the Mather School, was opened in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1639.[2][3] Cremin (1970) stresses that colonists tried at first to educate by the traditional English methods of family, church, community, and apprenticeship, with schools later becoming the key agent in "socialization." At first, the rudiments of literacy and arithmetic were taught inside the family, assuming the parents had those skills. Literacy rates were much higher in New England because much of the population had been deeply involved in the Protestant Reformation and learned to read in order to read the Scriptures. Literacy was much lower in the South, where the Anglican Church was the established church. Single working-class people formed a large part of the population in the early years, arriving as indentured servants. The planter class did not support public education but arranged for private tutors for their children, and sent some to England at appropriate ages for further education.