Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 1

Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880

Lettie Nazloo

DST 204

Dr. Arlene B. Kelly

Gallaudet University
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 2

Deaf people have existed since the beginning of time. However, not many know of the

journey the world has been through to find a way to educate them. Many have believed that deaf

people simply cannot be taught language. Others believed that deaf people could be educated

through the careful and deliberate teaching of speech and lip-reading. Another group stood firm

that deaf people can be educated through a language that uses the body and hands. According to

Victor Hugo, "What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears. The true deafness, the

incurable deafness, is deafness of the mind" (Mottez, 199).

For my Deaf Culture final research project, I have chosen to research the 1880 Milan

Conference, the attitudes that impacted the decisions at the conference, and the actions that took

place afterward. More specifically, the oralist movement that impacted the decisions at the

conference, and the subsequent decline of education for the Deaf worldwide. Conversely, I will

discuss how the push for oralism made the Deaf community stronger.

I became interested in this research topic upon taking my first Deaf Studies class at

Gallaudet University when I was exposed to the Milan Congress and the impact it had on

education for the Deaf. I was also exposed to oralism and the eugenics movement. Through this

historical knowledge, I understood the oppression of Deaf people, including my own parents, on

a deeper level. I want to explore oralism to understand its roots and its impacts on the

surrounding communities.

In my preliminary research, I have found three books that relate to my topic: A Place of

their Own: Creating the Deaf Community, Never the Twain Shall Meet: Bell, Gallaudet, and the

Communications Debate, and The Mask of Benevolence. These three books have extensive

historical facts from the fight for and against oralism leading up to the Milan Congress and after.

Another source I have found is the original report of the Milan Congress and essays supporting
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 3

oralism from European and American deaf education leaders at that time.

In this essay, I will be heavily discussing oralism. Oralism is the culmination of the attitudes and

beliefs that make up the ideology behind teaching Deaf students how to speak and lip-read in

addition to regular curriculum - instead of teaching regular curriculum using a signed language

can be defined as oralism. Those who support oralism, teachers, lawmakers, and superintendents

are oralist.

Additionally, I will be discussing Manualism and Combined Method. Manualism is a

method of educating the deaf through a signed language. This was made popular by Abbe

Charles Michel de l'Eppe who founded the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris (The

Royal Institution of Deaf Mutes) in Paris, France. He developed a one-hand French manual

alphabet and a language of conventional signs to be used in the classroom and "is generally

regarded as the first teacher of the deaf" (Gallaudet, 2017). Several other schools were

established with this kind of method in mind, such as the first deaf school in America, American

School for the Deaf, formally established as "American Asylum for the Education of Deaf and

Dumb Persons". The American School for the Deaf was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

and Laurent Clerc, a student from the Royal Institution of Deaf Mutes.

A Combined Method started to become popular by a slight change to the Manualist method, one

that Edward Miner Gallaudet supported, the first president of Gallaudet University, formerly

known as the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and the Blind. This Combined

Method of instruction included speech instruction as well as sign language (Winefield, 1987, p.

36).

To understand how a push to teach Deaf children via an oral method came to be, one

must understand the true origins of the attitudes toward Deaf people in general. The oppressive
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 4

teaching method began with linguistic Darwinism: "inferior languages died out and were

replaced by superior languages in the 'struggle for existence'"(Baynton, 1998, p. 40). This

ideology began when people started to question the origin of language itself. Those who believed

in a linguistic Darwinism saw signed language as a primal form of communication, the same as

apes. Language was viewed as a "distinct ability achieved through a process of evolution from

animal ancestors. Sign language came to be seen as a language low in the scale of evolutionary

process, preceding in history even the most "savage" of spoken languages and supposedly

forming a link between the animal and the human." (Baynton, 1998, p. 40).

It was also believed that signed languages were something that belonged to "savage

races". As Baynton quotes from a British anthropologist, Edward B. Taylor, "savage and half

civilized races accompany their talk with expressive pantomime much more than nations of a

higher culture… in the early stages of the development of language gesture had an importance as

an element of expression, which in conditions of highly organized language it has lost"

(Baynton, 1998, p. 41). Those who supported oralism as the best method to give Deaf children

education saw that signed language was behind in development of becoming a "fully developed"

language with speech as its main component. They based their ideologies on research that

attempted to discover the origin of language through studying the languages and communication

methods of people such as, "Africans, American Indians, Australia aborigines, and others … who

were left behind by the more rapidly progressing cultures" (Baynton, 1998, p. 41).

It was the aim of the educators of the Deaf who supported oralism, to ensure that Deaf

people were not to be seen as people who are less than. In a way, those who supported oralism,

wanted Deaf people to be seen as equal. However, their seemingly good intentions did not turn

out well for the future of educated Deaf people to come. According to Lane, "An increasing part
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 5

of classroom time was devoted to the attempt of oralizing the children… Hearing educators of

deaf pupils commonly were not trained in specific academic areas because none could be truly

taught to the children under the oralist regime" (Lane, pg. 132-133). Thus, an education focused

on solely improving the speech and lip-reading skills began to overtake deaf schools in America

and Europe.

One of the first American schools founded solely to educate Deaf children on speech was

the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes in 1867. It was founded by Gardiner Green Hubbard in

Northampton, Massachusetts. He was inspired to open this school because his young daughter

was struck by scarlet fever and became deaf at age four. A philanthropist named John Clarke

helped Hubbard establish the Clarke school. They both believed that deaf students should be

taught using the oral method so that they could be successfully mainstreamed into schools with

their hearing peers (clarkeschools.org, 2017). The Clarke school's philosophy still stands today.

As stated by on their website: "Clarke is a listening and spoken language program, which means

that we teach children to listen and speak, rather than use sign language. Children served by

Clarke use cochlear implants and hearing aids to maximize their access to sound, and our

specially trained teachers, audiologists and speech-language pathologists help them develop

listening, literacy and spoken language skills to maximize their learning" (clarkeschools.org,

2017). Their goals from 1867 are still the same as they are today in 2017. With multiple

locations and the advancement of technologies in cochlear implants, it is obvious that the Clarke

Schools have had much success in teaching deaf children via an oral method. Again, while those

who support oralism have good intentions in making sure that deaf individuals are seen equal to

hearing individuals, it can still be damaging to the integrity of the deaf community.

To understand the Clarke school better, I found an annual report from their school from
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 6

1893. This is an excerpt from a Report of the Corporation to the Massachusetts Board of

Education by Lewis J. Dudley, the President of the Clarke school at that time: "Organized as it

was, twenty-six years ago, without any established precedent in this country, in the face of

strenuous opposition and predicted failure, it has pursued the even tenor of its way, in friendly

rivalry with the older method of instruction, until of the 80 schools of the deaf now in the United

states, 20 are distinctly oral, 53 others have introduced elements of the oral system, some of them

making speech the medium of instruction with a part of their pupils, other teaching articulation

and lip-reading as an accomplishment, while only 7 schools continue purely manual. It may be

reasonably hoped that such skill will yet be developed in the application of the oral system that

no deaf child in Christendom will long remain devoid of speech simply because devoid of

hearing" (Annual Report of the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes, 1893).

With a higher demand for deaf children to be taught via an oral method, schools like the

Clarke Institute had to play catch up in hiring more teachers to satisfy the amount of students

being admitted into their school. It is not clear if these teachers were qualified to teacher a

curriculum of that which would satisfy the schools of hearing children, but in the Principal's

report from the Clarke Institute for Deaf Mutes in 1893 he stated that "These teachers passed an

entrance examination such as our own teachers pass. Their study during the year embraced

subjects connected with language teacher; general mental development in deaf children; methods

of instruction in speech and lip-reading; physiology and anatomy of the vocal organs; history of

deaf-mute instruction etc." (Annual Report of the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes, 1893). It is

clear that the main focus of the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes at that time was to make sure

that their deaf students had the ability to speak. However, the Clarke Institute did provide

courses such as U.S. History, Geography, Elements of Zoology, Elements of Natural Philosophy,
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 7

and Drawing. Additionally, at every level of education, courses in Articulation and Language

were required (Annual Report of the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes, 1893). It is unclear on

how much of instruction time was spent on each course.

According to Lane, the effort to replace signed languages (a minority language) with

spoken language (a majority language) in educating deaf children began with a group of forty-

five hearing French educators meeting in Paris at the French Exposition of 1878. Only half of the

group were educators of the deaf and only two non-French attendees (Lane, p. 113).

Additionally, "no deaf people were allowed to attend, although at the time a majority of the

instructors in deaf education in France were themselves deaf" (Lane, p. 113). This group called

itself the "First World Congress to Improve the Welfare of the Deaf and the Blind" (Lane, p.

113). At this first meeting, an attempt to control education for the deaf, we see the clear

discrimination against deaf educators of the deaf. They were barred from even participating in a

discussion that concerned their own future generations. At this point, it has become clear that

society had begun to reject the Manualist narrative and replace it with a controlling, oppressive,

and exclusionary one - one that included banning a deaf child's right to natural language

acquisition.

This World Congress decided on their second gathering in Milan, nearly two years later.

This convention was attended by, as noted by Edward Miner Gallaudet, more than half Italian

leaders in education for the deaf. Gallaudet additionally noted that the Italians had "abundant

resources to hire twice as many teachers as the United States" (Winefield, 1987, p. 35). From this

imbalance, it was clear that this Congress gathering purposefully excluded those who wanted

education for the deaf to steer toward Manualist or Combined Methods.

Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 8

The direct report from the International Milan Congress in September 1880 outlined the

issues that were brought up and discussed at the Congress. The issues were figuring out if signs

were effective for mental development, finding differences between pure oral or combined

methods of teaching, a natural way to teach Deaf students, when to introduce books to Deaf

students, and grammar use in language teaching. Proceeding these issues are the declarations of

the decisions made by the officials at the Congress. These declarations mostly determined that

the Oral method was the most effective way to teach Deaf children, highlighting an "intuitive"

method where language is acquired by placing objects in front of students and providing spoken

and written instruction for the object (Report, 1880). The Congress had 164 participants from

mainly European countries. The Americans in attendance were James Dension, Edward Miner

Gallaudet, Reverend Thomas Gallaudet, Issac Lewis Peet, and Charles A. Stoddard (Van Cleve,

1989, p. 110). All of the members of the Congress were hearing - except for one James Denison,

the principal of the Kendall School in Washington, D.C. (Van Cleve, 1989, p. 109).

One quote that I found to be quite shocking was one from a Sweden Institute for the Deaf

and Dumb stated that "the opinion [after many Congresses] was that the deaf and dumb should

be divided into three classes, 1. Those who could be taught to speak. 2 . Those who could not

(though not markedly deficient in intellect). 3. Those who were idiotic" (Report, 1880). The

President of the Congress, Caval. Sac. Giulio Tarra, Director of the Institution for the Deaf and

Dumb Poor of the Province of Milan began the Congress with a speech stating that the Deaf-

Mute can be taught to articulate, thus the Oral method is successful. He proclaimed that "In the

school-room begins the " redemption " of the deaf-mute ; he is waiting to be made a man of by

his teacher. Let the pupil be taught to move his lips in speech, not his hands in signs" (Report,

1880). He says that the deaf-mute can be taught to speak through patience and determination of
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 9

the teacher. We can see through this opening speech that the Oralist's goal is to free the deaf-

mute child so that he can succeed within the world.

Attempts to stop the Oral method being forced into education for the deaf were made by

E.M. Gallaudet, Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, and Dr. Peet. The Rev. Thomas Gallaudet shared that

"Having used the sign language for fifty years, he believed fully in its importance to the deaf-

mute, and that it is necessary, in order to lift him up from ignorance to ideas. He accompanied

his speech throughout by signs, and concluded by giving a sign version of the Lord's Prayer"

(Report, 1880). E.M. Gallaudet supported the Combined system of educating the deaf, remaining

adamant that signs were the "natural" language of the deaf, "as also the mother language of

mankind" (Report, 1880). Dr. Peet supported this concept of signed language coming naturally to

deaf students. He stated that " [he] thought that signs grew naturally out of the mind-picture of a

deaf-mute, and that two deaf-mutes placed together would unquestionably develop a language of

signs…. Those who say that the sign language injures the English language should make the deaf

mute blind as well, for nothing they see is in the English language ; but all in the language of

signs" (Report, 1880). He also shared signs that he had established to represent abstract ideas of

religion and philosophy.

However, despite the Americans' best efforts, the Congress ultimately "considering the

incontestable superiority of speech over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society, and in giving

him a more perfect knowledge of language, declares That the Oral method ought to be preferred

to that of signs for the education and instruction of the deaf and dumb" (Report, 1880). The vote

won with 160 votes in favor of this motion and 4 not in favor.

The results of the Congress decision impacted both Europe and America and "was a pivotal

incident in the growth of the oral movement in the United States" (Winefield, 1987, p. 35). From
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 10

the Mask of Benevolence, Lane provides the statistics behind this drastic change in education for

the deaf: "In America, there were 26 institutions for the education of deaf children in 1867, and

ASL was the languages of instruction in all; by 1907, there were 139 schools for deaf children,

and ASL was allowed in none. The French figures provide a comparable glimpse of ruthless

linguistic imperialism: in 1845, 160 schools for deaf children, with LSF the accepted language;

by the turn of the century, it was not allowed in a single French school" (Lane, p. 113). The

dropping number of schools taught with signed language in a short amount of time is shocking.

In America, the number of deaf schools drastically rose - but none of them allowed signed

language instruction. This shows that while schools were opening for deaf children, their

education was simply to guide them into becoming more like hearing people.

In the face of adversary, however, the deaf community has shown their collective support

toward the future of education of the deaf. Before the Milan Congress, the overtake of oralist

teachers was impacting deaf schools already. In response to the Paris Institute for the Deaf being

run by a board of directors who decided to change the teaching philosophy to those of an oralist

method, after the Abbé Roch-Ambroise Sicard died in 1822, a group of Deaf gentlemen started

to host Banquets. These banquets represented a brotherhood between them and even shared this

with hearing outsiders - they were truly a birth of the Deaf movement, where people formed an

organizational structure that still lasts to this day.

The first banquet was to celebrate Abbe de l'Epee's birthday, a leader in education for the

Deaf in Paris. "The first decision of this committee was to celebrate the 122nd anniversary of the

birthdate of de l'Epee from then on. Two weeks later, the first of these famous banquets took

place"(Mottez, p. 31). These banquets were in attendance by only Deaf educated men (and at

least one international educated deaf man), thus separating themselves from the uneducated Deaf
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 11

population. "There were teachers, painters, engravers, various civil servants, printers, and simple

laborers, who, rejected from our society by cruel nature found the means through their

intelligence to rejoin society and to win positions which allow them to live

honorably…"(Mottez, p.31). An important aspect of these banquets were the attendance of

hearing reporters. Inviting journalists was made a habit. They were blown away by the beauty of

their sign language, wishing that they themselves were fluent in it. According to the banquet

attendees, the journalists were "a wretch deprived of the language of mimicry, a pariah in this

society having to resort to a pencil to converse with the evening's heros (Mottez, p.33).

The formation of the Deaf-Mute banquets after a change to the Paris Institute parallels with

events that would happen in the future. Such as, the formation of the National Association of the

Deaf when their American Deaf schools were being overtaken by oralist teachings as well.

According to the National Association of the Deaf (NAD)'s website, a timeline page

helps to understand how long the fight for equality for Deaf and hard of hearing people has been.

NAD was founded one month before the Milan Congress in August 1880 to discuss the needs of

Deaf people after the decision made at the Congress. They fiercely defended sign language and

wrote about the challenges surrounding oralism (Van Cleve, 1989, p. 128). The website also

states that there was one predecessor to NAD, the New England Gallaudet Association of the

Deaf, founded in 1850. Exactly 30 years later, the first national convention of Deaf-Mutes took

place in Ohio and the first President was elected (nad.org, 2017).

In conclusion, the history of education for the deaf has been a long and hard journey. This

journey's history still impacts how deaf children are taught today. Deaf children who are being

taught how to speak and lip-read without any access to sign language are facing centuries old

battle. This battle stems from the thinking that any defect is a result of an ideology that states
Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 12

some people are inherently superior to others - something that impacts all global minorities. One

of the biggest events that impacted education for the deaf was the Milan Congress of 1880.

Despite those who supported access to signed language for deaf children, a proclamation of

solely an Oral method of education was passed. However, though the deaf community was faced

with oppression, they stood together and organized. If the deaf community continues to stay

strong, it is my hope that access to sign language in education for the deaf can become a

requirement for all deaf students.

Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 13

References

Baynton, D.C., (1996). Savages and Deaf Mutes: Species and Race. Forbidden Signs: American

Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language. Chicago: The University of Chicago

Press.

Clarke Institution for Deaf-Mutes., (1893). Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the Clark Institution

for Deaf-Mutes at Northampton, Massachusetts for the Year Ending August 31, 1893.

Northampton, Mass.: Press of Gazette Printing Co.

Lane, H., (1999). "The Failure of Deaf Education" and "The Oppression of American Sign

Language" in The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community. San Diego,

CA: DawnSignPress.

Mottez, Bernard (1999). "The Deaf-Mute Banquets and the Birth of the Deaf Movement." In Van

Cleve, J.V. (Ed.), Deaf History Unveiled: Interpretations from the New Scholarship. (pp.

27-38). Washington, D.C: Gallaudet University Press.

NAD History. (2017, January 15). Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://www.nad.org/about-

us/nad-history/

Report Of The Proceedings Of The International Congress On The Education Of The Deaf. (2nd:

1880: Milan, Italy). Gallaudet University Archives. Retrieved from

https://archive.org/details/gu_reportproce1880iced.

The Abbe Charles Michel de l'Eppe. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from

https://giving.gallaudet.edu/hof/pastinductees/the-abbe-charles-michel-de-lepee

Van Cleve, J. V., & Crouch, B. A. (1989). A Place of Their Own : Creating the Deaf Community

in America. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.

Oralism and the Milan Congress of 1880 14

Welcome to Clarke: Our History. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from

http://www.clarkeschools.org/about/welcome

Winefield, R. (1987). Never the Twain Shall Meet: Bell, Gallaudet, and the Communications

Debate. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.