How Did Thomas Gallaudet Contribute To Education

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Thomas Gallaudet was an inspirational man and role model for many people all over the world. Not only the Deaf community was impacted by his motivation towards education and communication modes for the Deaf community. Thomas united the hearing community as well as the Deaf community. Thomas was a hard worker and succeeded in nearly everything he did. Thomas traveled to Europe in hopes to uncover education modes for the Deaf. He also started the first school for the Deaf called American School for the Deaf. Thomas united many people in his years. He met many people along the way and impacted many students lives. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was born on December 10, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of 8 children. When he was …show more content…

In Connecticut, 8 students were quite a lot for their first enrollment and considering most of them were Deaf as well as mute. Alice Cogswell was the first out of the 8 to be enrolled. While in school, the students quickly learned all of the signs they were being taught, and for the first time in their lives they were able to communicate with others easily. Because of this, the students felt connected with themselves and also each other. The students had a new way to express themselves and meet people with the same language that they used to communicate. People soon began to find out about the school and by winter their enrollment had grown to nearly 30 students. The U.S. President at the time, James Monroe, soon heard about the schools and felt compelled to visit it. Once James visited the school, he was interested in it and donated a very large piece of land and a 3- story building for the growth of the school.Because the President of the U.S. visited the school, it created quite a lot of publicity for the school. In August of 1821, Thomas ended up marrying one of his students, Sophia Fowler. Soon after their marriage, they decided that they were both ready for a child. She then became nervous that they baby was deaf so they tested the baby and it could hear. The baby was raised and used sign language as the main mode of communication because Sophia was deaf. As the years passed, Thomas became a parent of 8 children, similar to the size of family he was raised in himself. Gallaudet continued to work for the American School for the Deaf until 1831 as an educator as well as part of the faulty. When Gallaudet retired from the American School for the Deaf, he eventually pursued his interest in ministry and began working two jobs as a priest as well as continuing his advocation and education for the Deaf community. One of the ministry jobs he later worked for was for a local jail. The second job