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Page Chapter 2
The education of the deaf was almost a family enterprise, and Gallaudet was the Daddy. Oralists were always treated with
deference on the campus. The faculty, no matter how they truly felt, were almost obsequious in appeasing the oralists.
LOU FANT
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Page From the time of its founding, Gallaudet College held out the promise of a continuation of the success that Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet had achieved by bringing sign language to America and using it to educate deaf students. But changes in the philosophy and practice of deaf education over the next hundred years took their toll fewer and fewer deaf students attended college, and those who did were perceived by the hearing establishment that had gained control of their education to be suffering from a condition that encompassed "a wide variety of problems" For deaf people school has always been one of the few places where they can be together and experience the camaraderie of easy communication even when they were forbidden to use their sign language in the classroom, deaf students used it among themselvesoften in secretin the dormitories and on the grounds. Lifelong friendships are made at these institutions. Often, when deaf people meet each other their first topic of conversation is which schools they have attended and when.
Gallaudetthe first and still the only liberal arts college in the world devoted exclusively to deaf studentswas always held in high esteem among deaf people. It was the place where they could learn the history of their people, where they could gain knowledge of and pride in their culture, where they could be with others who viewed deafness as a condition, not as a handicap. So many
Gallaudet graduates have gone onto make outstanding contributions in both the deaf and hearing societies that the school's alumni list reads like a Who's Who of deaf leaders in America. But the history of Gallaudet is inextricably woven into the history of the worldwide conflict between oralism and sign language. From the time of Edward Miner Gallaudet's presidency, this bitter debate has had a direct impact on the college. As oralism became the accepted mode of teaching and communication, it logically followed that the teachers and top administrators in schools for the deaf tended to be hearing advocates of oralism, depriving deaf people of the ability to represent themselves and their interests. Jerome Schein describes the conditions typical of American schools for the deaf in the sand 1950s:
Most deaf students did not have much contact with Deaf adults who could serve as role models. Their teachers, ad-

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