1. Contact: Dr. Karen Dilka Eastern Kentucky University Date submitted to deafed.net – February 27, 2006 To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail: Karen.Dilka@EKU.EDU To use this PowerPoint presentation in its entirety, please give credit to the author.

2. Laurent Clerc Founder of Deaf Education in the United States

3. Important Facts Born in La Balme, France Attended the Institute for Deaf and Mutes in Paris Founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, CT

4. Institute for Deaf and Mutes Clerc spent his formative years at the Institute for Deaf and Mutes under the guidance of Abbe Charles-Michel de lEpee

5. History Laurent Clerc Pioneer Teacher 1785-1869 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 eighth year as a teacher, an event happened which changed the course of his life. He met a young idealist from America, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who had gone to Paris to learn the best method of educating the deaf. Gallaudet taught Clerc the English language and Clerc taught Gallaudet sign language. They arrived in New York on Aug.9th. The first school was established at Hartford. It opened on April 15, 1817. Gallaudet became the principal and Clerc also became the teacher. He married Elizabeth Broadman and had four children. At age 84, Laurent Clerc died on July 18, 1869.

6. Laurent Clerc Innovator Educator Advocate Clerc

7. Bibliography American Sign Language, a student text by Dennis Cokely and Charlotte Baker Copyright 1980 Educating the Deaf, Psychology, Principles, and Practices by Donald F. Moores Copyright 1996 http://www.wpsd.org/deaf awareness/lclerc.html