Forging Deaf Education in Nineteenth-Century France: Biographical Sketches of Bébian, Sicard, Massieu, and Clerc

Auguste Bébian

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND WORKS of Auguste Bébian Former Assistant Director of the Royal Deaf Institute of Paris By Ferdinand Berthier President of the Central Society of the Deaf, Dean of Instructors of the Royal Deaf Institute of Paris, Member of the Historical Institute, etc. PARIS 1839 3 Some men spend their modest, hardworking lives sequestered in their studies, their dedication and determination waiting for just the right moment when, after years of being ignored and unappreciated, they finally receive the recognition that is rightly theirs. The man whose life I am about to bring to light is such an individual; his monumental works are a testimony to a superior mind and an unfailing devotion that was often tested by injustice and persecution. He is among the few benefactors to humanity who deserve to be recognized by contemporaries and future generations alike. Bébian (Roch-Ambroise-Auguste) was born into one of the most prominent families of Pointe-à-Pitre on the island of Guadeloupe on August 4, 1789. He was the firstborn son of a merchant who remarried in 1800.The boy was sent to France two years later (1802), where he was presented for baptism by the Abbé Sicard, the famous deaf educator, and where he boarded with the Abbé Jauffret,who has since become the director of the imperial school for the deaf in Saint Petersburg. As a student of science and letters, the young Bébian soon demonstrated two qualities rarely found together, a brilliant imagination and the patient determination to overcome all obstacles. At the Lycée Charlemagne in Paris in 1806 and 1807, he made excellent scores in the general competitions at year’s end. One day he found that his entire collection of prized books, kept under lock and key,had been destroyed by fire.The culprit was not identi fied,but years after Bébian had left school,one of his former classmates came forward and confessed to the crime, which had haunted him ever since. He was one of Bébian’s rivals, the most unfortunate of all the students who vied for honors because, although closest in talent to Bébian, he always finished second best. Bébian, true to character, renewed their friendship and subsequently took him into his confidence. 4 Forging Deaf Education Upon leaving school, Bébian spent the next three years living with his godfather, the Abbé Sicard. Soon his true calling of teaching the deaf became clear, a calling that would lead him to take on significant challenges. He attended classes, participated in exercises, and studied conscientiously alongside his newfound friends. One of them in particular attracted his attention, one of the most accomplished of the Abbé Sicard’s students, the nonhearing and nonspeaking Laurent Clerc, who was destined to become a teacher at the Paris school and ultimately an educator at the Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, in the United States. It was a friendship that would become even stronger as the years passed. Although he remained unschooled in its principles, soon after his arrival at the Royal Deaf Institute, Bébian began to intuit the language used by his nonhearing friends.His astuteness allowed him to discern the inadequacies of the system, its defects, its arbitrariness, and its incongruities . For his part, he was relentless in seeking to overhaul it completely, and he promised the young Clerc both honor and success if he had the courage to follow him. But Clerc feared being accused of heresy if he defied the school’s teachings, however innocently; Clerc’s profound respect for the tradition of the methodical signs established by the saintly Abbé de l’Épée and the Abbé Sicard was such that Bébian soon realized he would have to go it alone and take matters into his own hands. The term methodical warrants attention at this point.Without casting aspersions on the aptness of the term itself, I shall simply point out that in my opinion the Abbé de l’Épée, our first and founding teacher, made the egregious error of seeking to subject the language of mimicry to the laws of conventional language rather than allowing the natural flow of thought to determine its own course. This is the sole shortcoming, it is fair to say, that can be justly associated with the unrivaled genius that the Abbé de...