For my Deaf Person in History, I chose Alice Cogswell. I will be honest, before I started this paper, I had never heard of Alice Cogswell. I chose her because I have always loved the name Alice. However, now that I have read about her, I can truly see how important she was to the deaf people. Alice Cogswell was born in Hartford, Connecticut on August 31, 1805. When she was two years old, she got extremely sick with cerebral spinal meningitis, also known as “spotted fever”. It was because of this illness that she lost her hearing and eventually her speech as well. A man named Thomas Gallaudet moved next door to Alice and her family when she was nine years old. When he realized that she was not socializing with any of the other children, he
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I feel that it is actually a huge success story, Based on the fact that before the 1800s, the deaf were treated as if they had a mental illness and as if they were unable to learn. If it weren’t for Alice meeting Thomas Gallaudet and inspiring him to find a way for her and other deaf people to be able to get a proper education, the deaf might have never had the same opportunities that hearing people have. I truly think it is amazing that a young man was so inspired by a deaf nine year old girl, that he was determined to make it possible for her and other deaf people to get a proper education. There is a statue of Thomas and Alice on the campus of Gallaudet University. The statue is of him seated in a chair with her standing beside him and they are both doing the letter “A” in fingerspelling. There is something that the Gallaudet University Alumni Association does that I think is absolutely amazing, and that is that they have an award called the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund Alice Cogswell Award. It is awarded to people that have provided a valuable service for deaf citizens. I. King Jordan’s famous quote, “Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear.” And from everything I have read, Alice Cogswell is a perfect example of this quote. I really did enjoy learning about Alice and the things
I feel that it is actually a huge success story, Based on the fact that before the 1800s, the deaf were treated as if they had a mental illness and as if they were unable to learn. If it weren’t for Alice meeting Thomas Gallaudet and inspiring him to find a way for her and other deaf people to be able to get a proper education, the deaf might have never had the same opportunities that hearing people have. I truly think it is amazing that a young man was so inspired by a deaf nine year old girl, that he was determined to make it possible for her and other deaf people to get a proper education. There is a statue of Thomas and Alice on the campus of Gallaudet University. The statue is of him seated in a chair with her standing beside him and they are both doing the letter “A” in fingerspelling. There is something that the Gallaudet University Alumni Association does that I think is absolutely amazing, and that is that they have an award called the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund Alice Cogswell Award. It is awarded to people that have provided a valuable service for deaf citizens. I. King Jordan’s famous quote, “Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear.” And from everything I have read, Alice Cogswell is a perfect example of this quote. I really did enjoy learning about Alice and the things