Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author

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Page In 1870 Gallaudet announced in his annual report the career plans of the first three graduates of the college "One in the service of the Patent Office one to instruct his fellow mutes in Illinois and the third to supply a professor's place, as tutor, in the college from which he has just graduated" 9 The report reflected precisely what Gallaudet and his father had always known:
that deaf students educated through manual sign language could develop the skills and the knowledge necessary to lead productive and fulfilling lives, particularly in the service of other deaf people. The graduation was the culmination of the work that had begun when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet returned to the United States with Laurent Clerc.
However, Edward Miner Gallaudet never rejected the possibility of the use of oral methods if they could enhance the educational achievements of deaf students. On his return in 1867 from a tour of European schools, he presented a detailed report to the board of the college. In the report he observed that in the European schools, "the intellectual and moral development of the pupil was deemed to be the true aim in his education, the sign language being regarded as an instrument only to do this,
and articulation as a valuable means of communication between the deaf-mute and his hearing-speaking fellows, the imparting of which should be attempted in all cases when success is reasonably to be expected In 1868, when Gallaudet called fora meeting of all principals of day and residential schools to beheld at his school, he included "the officers of the then newly started oral schools in Massachusetts and New York."11
Bell, on the other hand, convinced that he was doing what was best for deaf people, devoted his energies to securing an acceptance of oralism in the United States with the purpose of eliminating all sign language. Ignoring the fact that many deaf people perceived their deafness as a condition, not an affliction, he once said to a deaf audience "You have to live in a world of hearing and speaking people, and everything that will help you to mingle with hearing and speaking people will promote your welfare and happiness."12
Furthermore, Bell had become interested in eugenics, and many of his ideas were deeply offensive to deaf people, partic-

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