Charles-Michel De L'Épée
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Charles-Michel de l'Épée (; 24 November 1712 – 23 December 1789) was an 18th-century French philanthropic educator who has become known as the "Father of the
Deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
". He founded Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the first public school for the deaf, in 1760.


Overview

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was born to a wealthy family in
Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
, the seat of political power in what was then the most powerful kingdom of Europe. He studied to be a
Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...
.L'Echo Magazine, le mensuel des sourds No. 794. Octobre 2012, p. 5 L'Épée then turned his attention toward charitable services for the poor, and, on one foray into the slums of Paris, he had a chance encounter with two young deaf sisters who communicated using a
sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...
.* Massieu, Jean; Laurent Clerc; and Roch Ambroise Cucurron Sicard. 181
''Recueil des définitions et réponses les plus remarquables de Massieu et Clerc, sourds-muets, aux diverses questions qui leur ont été faites dans les séances publiques de M. l'abbé Sicard à Londres''
Londres, imprimé pour Massieu et Clerc, par Cox and Baylis, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.
L'Épée decided to dedicate himself to the education and salvation of the deaf, and, in 1760, he founded a school. In line with emerging philosophical thought of the time, l'Épée came to believe that deaf people were capable of language and concluded that they should be able to receive the
sacrament A sacrament is a Christian rite which is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence, number and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol ...
s and thus avoid going to hell. He began to develop a system of instruction of the French language and religion. In the early 1760s, his shelter became the world's first free school for the deaf, open to the public. Though L'Épée's original interest was in
religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to t ...
, his public advocacy and development of a kind of " Signed French" enabled deaf people to legally defend themselves in court for the first time. L'Épée died at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, and his tomb is in the Church of Saint Roch in Paris. Two years after his death, the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
recognised him as a "Benefactor of Humanity" and declared that deaf people had rights according to the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human and civil rights document from the French Revolution; the French title can be translated in the modern era as "Decl ...
. In 1791, the
Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris (, ''National Institute for Deaf Youth of Paris'') is a school for the deaf founded by Charles-Michel de l'Épée, in stages, between 1750 and 1760 in Paris, France. After the death of Père Vanin in 1759, the Abbé de l'Épée was introduce ...
, which L'Épée had founded, began to receive government funding. It was later renamed the Institut St. Jacques and then renamed again to its present name: Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris. His methods of education have spread around the world, and l'Épée is seen today as one of the founding fathers of
deaf education Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness. This may involve, but does not always, individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings, and other ...
. After L'Épée's death, he was succeeded by Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard, who became the new head of the school.


The Instructional Method of Signs (''signes méthodiques'')

The Instructional Method of Signs is an educational method that emphasised using gestures or hand signs, based on the principle that "the education of deaf mutes must teach them through the eye of what other people acquire through the ear." He recognised that there was already a signing deaf community in Paris but saw their language (now known as
Old French Sign Language Old French Sign Language (, often abbreviated as VLSF) was the language of the deaf community in 18th-century Paris at the time of the establishment of the first deaf schools. The earliest records of the language are in the work of the Abbé d ...
) as primitive. Although he advised his (hearing) teachers to learn the signs (
lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
) for use in instructing their deaf students, he did not use their language in the classroom. Instead, he developed an idiosyncratic gestural system using some of this lexicon, combined with other invented signs to represent all the verb endings, articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs of the French language. In English, L'Épée's system has been known as "Methodical Signs" and "Old Signed French" but is perhaps better translated by the phrase ''systematised signs''. While L'Épée's system laid the philosophical groundwork for the later developments of Manually Coded Languages such as
Signed English Manually Coded English (MCE) is an umbrella term referring to a number of invented manual codes intended to visually represent the exact grammar and morphology of spoken English. Different codes of MCE vary in the levels of adherence to spoken ...
, it differed somewhat in execution. For example, the word ''croire'' ("believe") was signed using five separate signs—four with the meanings "know", "feel", "say", and "not see" and one that marked the word as a verb (Lane, 1980:122). The word ''indéchiffrable'' ("unintelligible") was also produced with a chain of five signs: interior-understand-possible-adjective-not. However, like Manually Coded Languages, L'Épée's system was cumbersome and unnatural to deaf signers. A deaf pupil of the school (and later teacher), Laurent Clerc, wrote that the deaf never used the ''signes méthodiques'' for communication outside the classroom, preferring their own community language (
French Sign Language French Sign Language (, LSF) is the sign language of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in France and in French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers. French Sign Language is related and part ...
). Although L'Épée reportedly had great success with this educational method, his successes were questioned by critics who thought his students were aping his gestures rather than understanding the meaning.


Educational legacy

What distinguished L'Épée from educators of the deaf before him, and ensured his place in history, is that he allowed his methods and classrooms to be available to the public and other educators. As a result of his openness as much as his successes, his methods would become so influential that their mark is still apparent in deaf education today. L'Épée also established teacher-training programmes for foreigners who would take his methods back to their countries and who established numerous deaf schools around the world. Laurent Clerc, a deaf pupil of the Paris school, went on to co-found the first school for the deaf in North America and brought with him the sign language that formed the basis of modern
American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...
(ASL), including the signs of the ASL alphabet. Some deaf schools in Germany and the UK that were contemporaries of the Abbé de l'Épée's Paris School used an oralist approach emphasising speech and
lip reading Lip reading, also known as speechreading, is a technique of understanding a limited range of speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face and tongue without sound. Estimates of the range of lip reading vary, with some figures as ...
, in contrast to his belief in manualism. Their methods were closely guarded secrets, and they saw Épée as a rival. The
oralism Oralism is the education of deaf students through oral language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech.Through Deaf Eyes. Diane Garey, Lawrence R. Hott. DVD, PBS (Direct), 2007. Oralism c ...
vs. manualism debate still rages to this day. Oralism is sometimes called the German method, and manualism the French method in reference to those times. The Paris school still exists, though it now uses
French Sign Language French Sign Language (, LSF) is the sign language of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in France and in French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers. French Sign Language is related and part ...
in class rather than Épée's methodical signs. Located in rue Saint-Jacques in Paris, it is one of four national deaf schools—the others being in
Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...
,
Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the southeastern ...
, and
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
.


Myths

Even now, L'Épée is commonly described as the inventor of
sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...
or as having "taught the deaf to sign". In fact, he was taught to sign by the deaf. L'Épée categorised and recorded French signs so they could be taught to others in order to be used in education, especially about the Christian faith.


Tribute

On 24 November 2018,
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commemorated his 306th birthday.


Published works

* * Published in English as ''The Proper Way to Educate the Deaf: A Modern Annotated Translation'', translated from the original French by Akbar Sikder, and from the Latin by Carole Burnett. Washington, DC. Gallaudet University Press, 2024. *He also began a ''Dictionnaire général des signes'', which was completed by his successor, Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard.


See also

* List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics


References


Further reading


''L'Abbé de l'Épée'' by Ferdinand Berthier
Project Gutenberg. * Lane, Harlan. ''When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf''. New York: Random House, 1984.
Catholic Encyclopedia article


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:L'Epee, Charles-Michel De 1712 births 1789 deaths 18th-century French Roman Catholic priests Burials at Saint-Roch, Paris Educators of the deaf French educational theorists French Sign Language Clergy from Versailles Roman Catholic activists