Essay Laurent Clerc Pioneer Teacher - 958 Words

Laurent Clerc Pioneer Teacher 1785-1869 Laurent Clerc was born in LaBalme, France, on Dec. 26 1785. His father was Mayor of the town and the family could boast of a long line of magistrates in the Clerc lineage. At the age of one, the infant fell from a kitchen chair by accident into a nearby fireplace. He was burned on one side of his face and a fever left him totally deaf. He had uncle also named Laurent Clerc, who heard about the school for the deaf in Paris. When he was twelve years old, his uncle brought him to Paris and took him in the Royal Institution for the Deaf. In 1816, his eight year as a teacher, an event happened which changed the course of his life. He met a young idealist from America, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,†¦show more content†¦At age 84, Laurent Clerc died on July 18, 1869. History of Laurent Clerc There are a lot of firsts that Laurent Clerc accomplished. He was the first deaf teacher in America, the first deaf person to appear before U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. to talk about establishing public schools for the deaf, and the first deaf person to get an honorary M.A. degree from Trinity College. Clerc was born to a prominent family in the village of LaBalme, France. His father was a notary by profession and a mayor of the village for 34 years. His mother was the daughter of another notary. Males in Clercs family held the office of Tubelion (a Royal Commissary) in that village for over 300 years. Clercs family believes that he became deaf after falling from his highchair into the kitchen fire, but he might have been born deaf. His right cheek was burned from the accident- hence the name sign of brushing two fingers across cheek. Clerc lived through the French Revolution, witnessing Napoleons rise and fall. In fact, he lived in England for a while to escape from the turmoil. Clerc had once been considered to help start a school for the deaf in Russia but was passed over because he was deaf. He agreed to coe to America for only three years for three reasons: 1) to help organize a new school for the deaf; 2) to be the first experienced teacher; and 3) to teach others how to teach deaf. However, he married one of his beautiful, dark-eyed, dark-haired, slender,Show MoreRelatedEdmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer Essay1064 Words   |  5 PagesEdmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer Edmund Booth was born on a farm near Springfield, Massachusetts in 1810. Some of the hats he wore during his lifetime were farmer, teacher, activist for the deaf, pioneer settler, 49er, journalist, and politician. The consistent theme in Booths life, one to which he always returned, was his commitment to the deaf: working for the rights of all deaf people in this country, including education of deaf children. Booths interest in deaf issues wasRead MoreSign Language Is A Complex System Of Communication2007 Words   |  9 Pagesaristocrats who could afford private tutoring and helped children to learn how to speak audibly and instructed children in writing and simple gestures. De Ponce’s success would have not been if not for Bonnet. In 1620, Bonnet went down in history as the pioneer of education for the deaf. Juan Pablo published the first book on deaf education in Madrid that is considered the first modern treaty of phonetics and speech therapy, setting out a method of oral education for deaf children by means of the use of