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Gallaudet's Take-Aways from France and the Establishment of His New…
Gallaudet's Take-Aways from France and the Establishment of His New School
1) Staff at the Paris School
Gallaudet had a warm welcome when he was introduced to Roche Ambroise Sicard, the Abbé at the Paris school, who was Jansenist, which is essentially Calvinism.
Gallaudet also got to know Jean Massieu, who was born deaf and was a great tutor and teacher at the school. He was, however, a bit childlike in his behavior. (Wearing three or four watches, stuffing his pockets with books and chalk, etc.) This all made him seem harmless to Gallaudet
Louis-Pierre Paulmier was not so harmless in Gallaudet's eyes. His manners and actions were seen as odd and Gallaudet in later years, recounted that Paulmier asked him "only for a kiss" when he inquired about his tutoring charge
Laurent Clerc, who was likely born deaf although his parents said otherwise, would become a lifelong friend of Gallaudet's, who very much trusted his expertise
2) The Paris School Setting
The school separated the sexes, which most likely made Gallaudet feel more comfortable
Sicard had discontinued speech lessons and considered oral training, "almost always very painful, harsh, discordant, and completely useless"
The curriculum was based on translating French directly into signed words, an idea that Gallaudet quickly accepted and attempted to do the same with English
3) Experience Outside of the School
Gallaudet was very unhappy and uncomfortable by his depressing hotel and the bad influences that he felt were all around him in France
He wrote a letter to Cogswell, describing that the trip is not a "delightful excursion" like he may think, but instead "temptation to forget divine things"
In another letter to Cogswell he writes about France, "As a Philadelphian and I hope as a Christian I despise it." The comfort of Hartford "outweigh all the pomp and splendor, and gaiety, and novelty, and science of this proudest European cities."
4) Coming Back to America
At some point, with the influence of Sicard and Clerc, Gallaudet realized deaf education was not an "art" but a shared language
He wanted to duplicate the methods he saw at the Paris school, in Connecticut
Gallaudet left France and brought Clerc with him, both without telling Cogswell beforehand. Only once he had left, he sent a carefully worded letter, explaining his actions that he knew Cogswell wouldn't be happy about
Upon arriving in New York, Clerc noted that Gallaudet didn't receive a very warm welcome from his family, only an exchanging of handshakes. He also wrote about how he was dismayed by how fast everyone walked and how similar they all looked
In 1835, Gallaudet proclaimed a, much questioned, view of Clerc's, that deaf children learn abstract concepts the same way hearing children do
5) The New School
Gallaudet , Clerc and Cogswell began fundraising for the Connecticut school, beginning in Boston, where they stated their purpose as being "to solicit the appropriation of Funds by the affluent, to educate gratuitously the Deaf and Dumb children of persons who are indigents..." and "to complete all the Buildings necessary for it"
Gallaudet had a fundraising strategy that he consistently used beginning with a publicity announcement, followed by a public demonstration, where Clerc was very skilled at tailoring their appeals to the specific crowd
In New Haven Gallaudet, Clerc and Cogswell met with the governor and both houses of legislature to request that the state should subsidize the cost of the school. As a result, they received $5,000 for the "...instruction and support of the indigent deaf and dumb persons" Cogswell was very upset with how little they got, but the directors of the school were worried about the language. They wanted the money for a campus, not to waive tuition.
Cogswell wanted a monopoly on deaf schools and was opposed to any other state that tried to establish one.
Once the school was opened, quickly more and more students enrolled and Gallaudet must have struggled to keep up aa a new signer. Clerc was likely the one holding the school together