Sarah M. Summerlin
11/7/2014
Becky Atkins
The Story of Laurent Clerc

Louis Laurent Marie Clerc entered this world on December 26, 1785. Clerc didn’t enter just an ordinary family; his father was a royal civil attorney, justice of the peace and mayor. (Center, 1993) His important parents were Joseph Francois and Marie Elizabeth Candy. Both sides of his family practiced law. He was born in La-balme-les-Grottes France. Due to an horrific accident at the age of one, he fell from his high chair hitting his head on the fireplace. It left a permanent scar on his face. After this incident, it was discovered that his sense of hearing and smell were damaged. There were many attempts to restore his hearing, but there was no success. “His name-sign derives …show more content…
the American Asylum for the Instruction of Deaf students opened on April 15th, 1817 with Gallaudet as the principal and Clerc as the head teacher. Laurent’s first student at the Asylum was Alice Cogswell. A year later, the school was filled with students all different ages from ten years of age to fifty-one. Clerc, along with help from Gallaudet, was the first deaf person ever to address the Connecticut Legislature. “Henry Clay, the congressman from Connecticut sponsored a bill granting the school with 23,000 acres of government land in Alabama.” Laurent established life in Hartford, Connecticut making only three visits back to France. He married Eliza Crocker Boardman in 1818, this being the first recorded marriage in the United States. Laurent had six hearing children. Two of the first Hartford students became teachers of the deaf starting a great American tradition of the best students becoming teachers of the deaf. “Old Hartford became a model for the establishment of dozens of other schools for the deaf.” To this day, Laurent Clerc, leaves an lasting impact to the deaf community for deaf education around the world. Many can succeed because of what he did more than a decade