Laurent ClercBy: Ryan AbsteinHr. 4Laurent Clerc was born in Paris, France, in 1785. It all started when, at the age of one, he fell from a chair and lost his sense of hearing. This happened by hitting his head violently on the floor, leaving him with a scar on his face. Despite the scar on his head, he always had the belief that he was born deaf. He also had no sense of smell, due to the fall. When he was twelve years old, his uncle decided to take him to the School for the Deaf in Paris. As a student, Clerc settled in very well and achieved excellent grades. At this school, it was the first time he was introduced to sign language, and it was also the first time he met another deaf person, his name Jean Massiue. Laurent Clerc could not speak at all before coming to school, but there he was taught to do so. speak. When Laurent spoke some words, he mixed up some letters. After this would happen, his speech teacher would hit him. In the end Clerc decided to abandon the elocution course, never speak again and learn to sign. The day he left, he made a promise that he would never use his voice again. After everything that had happened at school, Clerc stayed at school and first taught other students as a tutor, then he wanted to become a teacher, and so he did. When Clerc arrived in America, he would become one of the most famous deaf men in our history. When Clerc arrived in the great city of New York in 1817, he brought Thomas Gallaudet. Clerc and Thomas both founded America's first school for the deaf, located in Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Clerc was the first deaf teacher in America, Clerc taught thirty-one students in the year the school opened, with Alice Cogswell being... center of paper... Federation of the Conference of the Deaf. He has held residencies at many schools for the deaf, teaching and creating long-lasting works of art. Among these are a 150-foot-long collage/mural he created for the Learning Center for Deaf Children in 1995 and a 30x10 mural in Gallaudet titled “The Five Panels: Deaf Experiences.” The mural is still on display and has been lauded for its importance to the deaf experience. In May 1989, prior to the international deaf culture festival at Gallaudet University, Deaf Way II, Baird was one of eight deaf artists who produced a poster for De'VIA (Deaf View Image Art). This was a concept for deaf art that was differentiated from art by or for deaf people. Rather, it was the art that contained a message about the lives of the deaf. Uses formal artistic elements with the intention of expressing the innate cultural or physical experience of the deaf.