No systematic attempt to educate the deaf was made
previous to 1648, when John Bulmer published a book advocating the education of deaf-mutes.
Following this, there were a few attempts to educate the mutes in the families where they lived.
Although these were, in the main, successful, it was not until 1760 that Thomas Braidwood opened
in Edinburgh the first private school for the deaf on British soil. In 1792 Braidwood opened the
London Asylum, which is considered the first public English school for the deaf. The first public
school for the deaf in any land, however, was opened at Leipsic in 1778. The vocal system of
instruction was early introduced into this school.
In America Dr. W. Thornton of Philadelphia published in 1793 an essay on Teaching the Deaf to
Speak. In 1811 in both New York and Virginia, a grandson of Braidwood made unsuccessful
attempts to establish schools for the deaf. In Connecticut, however, private contributions were
secured by a few enthusiastic persons; and in May, 1816, they sent the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet
to Europe to investigate conditions there. In the same month, with an appropriation of $5000, the
Legislature incorporated the Connecticut Asylum, subsequently known as the American School for
the Deaf, at Hartford. Upon the return of Gallaudet, this school was opened, Apr. 15, 1817; and two
years later it received by act of Congress a land grant which yielded an endowment
amounting to upwards of $350,000. The success of the experiment at Hartford led to the admission
there of pupils supported by legislative appropriations, from the other New England States, from
South Carolina and Georgia. Dr. Gallaudet married one of his deaf pupils, Sophia Fowler, and their
sons have rendered services of untold value to the nation.
Meantime the Empire State had incorporated in 1817 the New York Institution for Instruction of the
Deaf and Dumb, which from 1831 to 1867 was directed by Harvey P. Peet, who had been one of the
most successful of the Hartford instructors. Pennsylvania was fortunate in the establishment of a
similar institution at Philadelphia in 1820, through the efforts of Joseph Seixas. Other states soon
recognized that, by the methods already developed, it had become quite as possible, if not as
easy, to give a good common school education even to those born deaf as to those not thus
handicapped. Moreover, it seemed obvious that the interests of the commonwealth, not less than
justice to the individual, must ever demand special schools for all who, through no fault of their own,
were unable to profit by those schools which served with considerable adequacy the needs of the
majority. This belief soon crystallized into action. Today every state maintains one or more schools
for the deaf, the total number being about 137. These American state schools report more than
1200 instructors and over 17,000 pupils. Their libraries contain some 120,000 volumes, they expend
about $3,000,000 per annum, and the total value of their properties exceeds $16,000,000. There are
also in America some 20 private schools for the deaf, enrolling 700 pupils, and numerous day
schools to which further reference is made in this article. Some of those who have studied this
subject profoundly have come to believe that it is, on the whole, better that the state should
maintain numerous widely scattered day schools rather than concentrate the deaf in large numbers
in a single institution.
The deaf have certain obstacles to overcome. It seems not unreasonable that, while receiving daily
assistance from an expert teacher, they may more rapidly assume the manners and learn the
articulation of hearing persons, if they associate with them when outside the classroom.
Moreover, prolonged association in large state schools tends naturally to the formation of pleasing
acquaintances and strong attachments between the deaf just as do the school life and college life
of other young people. To counteract the tendency to intermarriage between the deaf, which is
detrimental to society, resulting from these attachments, the segregation of the sexes is perhaps
less feasible than the substitution of local day schools which bring the deaf together for only a part
of the time. Believing that local day schools are better able to serve both the interests of the
individual and the interests of society, a number of states have enacted legislation favorable to such
schools; and, of all the pupils in their public schools for the deaf, Massachusetts, New York,
Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin now have one out of every four in their day schools. Michigan
alone had 14 such schools in 1910, while Wisconsin led with a total of 20.
In the past there have been some differences of opinion regarding the most effective methods of
teaching those who hear imperfectly, or not at all, and especially those who have been deaf from
birth. The influence of Alexander Melville Bell, who invented and introduced the methods of visible
speech, and that of his distinguished son, Alexander Graham Bell, have done much to increase the
efficiency of all instruction in schools of this kind.
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