Who is Laurent Clerc? Why was he important to many D/deaf people? Do any D/deaf people in New Zealand know or heard about him? What about you?

Something is happening over in America! Many Deaf people and children want to honour someone special to their hearts by putting on the postage stamp. Take a look at the mystery honourable person.

Laurent Clerc, the man who aspires to many D/deaf people in France and America from 1816s. Laurent was the first Deaf teacher of the deaf children in Galluadet School, America. To many D/deaf people called him ‘The Apostle of the Deaf in America’. Laurent’s life had not been taught or partially taught a brief history in Deaf schools in New Zealand. How have I come to know about Clerc’ life? During my travelling days-months around Europe from 1983, I stayed with a Deaf woman who lives in Jura, Switzerland, in 1999. We talked about my next visit trip to France then to The Netherlands. She was telling me about  Abbe de L’Epee, the first public school for the Deaf – Instit Nationale de Jeune Sourds-Muets in Paris (currently Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris), and Abbe Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard – Spiritual Father of the Deaf. She mentions Laurent Clerc in another village called  La Balme-les-Grottes, a small village in the north of the department of Isère, South of France. After my stay in Jura and part of Switzerland, I head out to Paris as my second stop during the OE. I visited Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris. That is where I learn more about Clerc as a student and a teacher before leaving for America. I visited La Balme-les-Grottes, near Lyons and retraced his birthplace with a limited French-English language from the local people of  La Balme-les-Grottes. I met one Deaf man, and his name was Armand Pelletier.

Do you wonder where is La Balme-les-Grottes, and what the village look like? Here are several photos where I visited several times. La Balme-des-Grottes is located some 32 km east by north-east of Lyon and 11 km south of Ambérieu-en-Bugey on the right bank of the Rhône. It was a lovely village – a bit like a ‘commune’ where local people lives together and

Where does Laurent Clerc fit in? The richest of his history to many D/deaf people who come to know and learn about him was the Deaf teacher of the Deaf in Paris and America. Here is a bit of his life to start.

Louis Laurent Marie Clerc born a hearing and healthy boy in 1785 in La Balme des Grottes, France and died in 1869 in Hartford, Connecticut, US. When he was one year old, he accidentally fell into a fire and lost his hearing and sense of smell. Laurent’s right side of his face was scarred by badly burnt from the fire and carried the scarred for the rest of his life. Here is a photo of the bust made by one of the deaf carvers. I forgot the carver’s name at La Balme des Grottes in 2003.

Today, one of the Clerc descendants came to the conference – Deaf History International in France in 2003. It was the seventh generation through Laurent Clerc, and here is a photo of him Laurent Clerc Holt, standing in front with his thumb up. It was a privilege to met him throughout the conference where I visited again.

I started to unravel the history of our sign language and our culture from 1983 to the present. I decided to explore and understand where our NZSL came from, where our New Zealand history and many other resources from overseas were where I travelled a lot. Our New Zealand sign language came from England and Australia, where Old French Sign Language started in Europe and influenced America, but now it is ASL (American Sign Language). In New Zealand, there was no Deaf teacher at all from 1880.

Here is another quote from Laurent Clerc, and it gave me a thought and encouragement to continue the works. Today we, Deaf people, want the right to use our sign language, be included in ALL Education, being equal to everyone.