Who is Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée?
Did you know that today it was a special day for the Deaf community? If not, let learn about Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée in France.
To the Deaf community for he was the Father of the Deaf in France. Today it is a three hundred and six years since his birth at the Palace of Versailles, Versailles, Yvelines. Abbe Charles met two young sisters who were deaf and they were signing each other at the home. These girls need a new instructor according to their mother.
He decided to run a school privately first between 1750 and 1760. The first public school established in 1760 and it was originally in a house at 14 rue des Moulins, butte Saint-Roch, near the Louvre in Paris. The Government decided to give funding in July 1791 through the French legislative (during the French Revolution time). The school called “Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris.”
There is a video in YouTube here.
I visited the school several times in Paris, France. Mind you what I learnt more that abbe Charles was a lawyer at the Parliament of Paris. He devoted to the poor and paupers people. One day he came across two deaf sisters and their teacher was Father Vanin who died at the end of 1759. There was another teacher of the deaf but oral teaching to the deaf children. His name was Jacob Rodrigues Pereire and he was an important person at the King;’s Court for a few rich deaf boys and girls by the rich people only.
