Unit 2: Deaf Education

Grades

• 9-10
• 11-12

Subjects

• Civics
• History
• Social Studies

Overview of Lesson Plan

• In this lesson, students closely examine the issues surrounding the prevailing religious and cultural beliefs in the early 19th century United States and how they influenced the education of deaf people. Students will apply this information to modern day contexts in which issues of deafness, deaf education and cultural beliefs intersect.

Standards

• 1. Analyze and explain the ways groups, societies, and cultures address human needs and concerns.
  2. Demonstrate the value of cultural diversity, as well as cohesion, within and across groups.
  3. Examine the interactions of ethnic, national, or cultural influences in specific situations or events.
  

Objectives

• 1. Learn about the biographical history of Laurent Clerc, Thomas Gallaudet and Mason Cogswell and understand their respective motivations regarding deaf education.
  2. Assess the cultural and religious climate in the United States in the early 19th century and specifically how Protestantism influenced deaf education policies and practices.
  3. Consider how the usage of language describing the deaf and deaf education has evolved over time from 1810 to the present.
  4. Examine the contract between Clerc and Gallaudet to determine its significance with regard to religion and Clerc's responsibilities as a deaf educator.
  

Questions to Consider

• 1. What were the motivations for teaching deaf people sign language?
• 2. How has the language used to refer to deaf people changed since the early 19th century?
• 3. How were deaf people viewed in the early 19th century?

Resources and Materials

• NOTE: Some of these links may lead to external web sites.
  1. Laurent Clerc: "Apostle to the Deaf People of the New World"
  2. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
  3. Gallaudet, "On The Natural Language of Signs; And Its Value And Uses In The Instruction Of The Deaf And Dumb, Part 1," 1847
  4. Contract between Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet
  5. Diary of Laurent Clerc's Voyage from France to America in 1816 (Paragraphs 1-20)
  6. Letter from Mason Cogswell to John Braidwood, April 20, 1812
  7. Gallaudet, "Sermon on the Duties and Advantages of Affording Instruction to the Deaf and Dumb," 1824 (Introduction and Paragraphs 1-15)
  8. "A Brief History Of The American Asylum, At Hartford, For The Education And Instruction Of The Deaf and Dumb," 1893 (Paragraphs 1-6)
  9. Visuals of Clerc, Gallaudet, Cogswell, and the American Asylum.
  10. Schwartz, "Terminology Used to Refer to Deaf People."
  11. Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, 1888 (Paragraphs 1-18).

Activities and Procedures

• 1. Think.  Have students individually read the "Letter from Mason Cogswell to John Braidwood, April 20, 1812," and respond in their journal to the following questions: What do you think life was like for a deaf person in America in the year 1812 based on the letter written by Cogswell?  How might Deaf individuals respond to Cogswell's statements if he were to publish the same letter in the present day?
  Pair.  Have the students get together in random groups of two.  Ask the pair to discuss their journal responses to the questions posed about Cogswell's letter.  They should compare and contrast their ideas with regard to each question.  Ask one student to act as the spokesperson for the group.  
  Share. The teacher should lead a discussion where groups share their main ideas from the journaling exercise with the entire class in a large group discussion format.  The teacher should record the main themes on the board or overhead during the discussion.  Questions to guide the discussion: What was Cogswell's purpose in writing the letter to Braidwood?  How does Cogswell use persuasive language to make his requests? Examples?  How would Cogswell's description of his daughter as belonging to a "class of unfortunate beings" be received in modern society?  What can you infer about the relative educational and vocational opportunities available to deaf people in the early 19th century?
• 2. Have the pairs of students from the first part of the lesson cluster together in small groups of four. Each student will read a copy of the contract between Clerc and Gallaudet paying particular attention to article 11 and Gallaudet's sermon. Each of the four students will then take on the responsibility of carrying out an information quest related to one of the following topics and later report back to the group. The students may use reference materials in the Disability History Museum, the Internet, the library, textbooks, etc. to locate this information. Following the information quest, the team of students will briefly report on their findings to the rest of the group.
• Biographical information on Laurent Clerc
• Biographical information on Mason Cogswell
• Biographical information on Thomas Gallaudet
• 3. Students would work individually or in teams to complete one of the following application projects:
• Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper on the importance of bringing religion to deaf people.
• Write a letter to the editor of an 1816 newspaper stressing the importance of religious tolerance.
• Write a poem from the perspective of a deaf person living in 1816.
• Write an essay about international travel in the early 19th century based on Clerc's diary of his trip from France.
• Write an essay comparing and contrasting the use of language to describe deaf individuals in 1816 versus the present day.

Eras

• 1810-1865
• 1866-1920

Disability

• Deafness

Topics

• Education
• Religion
• School

Copyright

• ©Syracuse University, 2002.  All rights reserved.

Author(s)

• John Tillotson, Ph.D., with Michael Schwartz, J.D. and Steven J. Taylor, Ph.D.

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