William Willard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] History
William Willard was born on November 11, 1809 in Rockingham, Vermont. He died on February 15, 1888 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He founded Indiana's school for the Deaf in Indianapolis, Indiana, which later became the Indiana School for the Deaf. He was one of the most important Deaf persons in the Deaf community.
William Willard grew up in Rockingham, Vermont, and he attended American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. During his schooling, he was a student of the famous Laurent Clerc, who was and is considered the "Father of Deaf Education" in America. After having graduated there, he taught at a school for the Deaf in Columbus, Ohio, which was called Ohio School for the Deaf. There, he met Eliza Young, who was also Deaf and a teacher, and married her. Eventually, the both of them travelled to Indianapolis, Indiana, and William proposed the establishment of a school for the Deaf.
He and Eliza travelled throughout the state of Indiana on horseback, recruiting potential Deaf students in order to form a school. October 1, 1843 was the first day of school, and William's school had twelve students. William and his wife, Eliza, both were teachers of this school. Eventually, Indiana passed a law that established the school as a state institution, and after William became Principal of the school, Indiana passed a law that officially declared Indiana School for the Deaf as the sixth state school for the Deaf to provide free education to all Deaf and hard of hearing students.
For more information on Indiana School for the Deaf, please refer to the Internal Links section.
[edit] See also
 |
This article is uncategorized.
Please help improve this article by adding it to one or more categories, so it may be associated with related articles (how?). Please remove this tag after categorizing. |
