William van Praagh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Wolf Saloman van Praagh [1] 11 June 1845 |
| Died | 28 June 1907 (aged 62) London, United Kingdom |
| Burial place | Willesden Jewish Cemetery [2] |
| Spouse | Emily van Praagh (m. 1872) |
William van Praagh (11 June 1845 – 28 June 1907) was a British educator. He pioneered the Oralist method for the education of the deaf in England.
Wolf Saloman van Praagh was born into a Jewish family in Rotterdam in 1845. [4]
From 1859, [5] he studied under David Hirsch, director of the Rotterdam School for the Deaf and Dumb, who had introduced the oral system of teaching the deaf from Germany into Holland. [6] [1] In 1866, van Praagh was invited to manage the newly estalished Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home in London. [7] He took the name William upon settling in England. [4]
Van Praagh's "Pure Oral System" attracted the attention of Anne Thackeray [8] and other members of the press. [9] In 1871 he published the pamphlet Plan for the Establishment of Day-Schools for the Deaf and Dumb, which became a catalyst for the development of day schools for deaf students in England. [9] He was critical of residential schools for the deaf, emphasizing the importance of allowing deaf students to interact with non-deaf individuals outside of school hours. [6] [10]
In 1870, van Praagh became director of the Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, a nonsectarian institution founded by Juliana Baroness Mayer de Rothschild. Under his leadership, the association established the Normal School and Training College for Teachers in 1872. He remained the institution's director until his death, [11] training a generation of educators in the Oralist system. [9] Van Praagh also founded the National Union of Teachers upon the Pure Oral Method shortly after the passing of the Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act in 1893. [2]
Van Praagh died on 28 June 1907 following a sudden attack of angina pectoris after his annual public demonstration of the lip-reading system in Fitzroy Square. His last words were reportedly, "Gentlemen, I have finished." [6]
William van Praagh married Emily van Praagh, daughter of Morris van Praagh, in February 1872. [3] They together had four sons and two daughters. [6] His granddaughter was the ballet dancer Peggy van Praagh. [1]
Van Praagh was a member of the Committee of the Netherlands Benevolent Society, and a Past Master of the Athenaeum Lodge no. 1491. He was affiliated with the Bayswater Synagogue in Westminster. [12]
In recognition of his contributions to the education of the deaf, van Praagh was named an Officier d'Académie by the French Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts in 1884. [9]
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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. Oralism came into popular use in the United States around the late 1860s. In 1867, the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, was the first school to start teaching in this manner. Oralism and its contrast, manualism, manifest differently in deaf education and are a source of controversy for involved communities. Listening and Spoken Language, a technique for teaching deaf children that emphasizes the child's perception of auditory signals from hearing aids or cochlear implants, is how oralism continues on in the current day.
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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 interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. There are different language modalities used in educational setting where students get varied communication methods. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to support and advocate for deaf students.
Francis Maginn (1861–1918) was a Church of Ireland missionary who worked to improve living standards for the deaf community by promoting sign language and was one of the co-founders of the British Deaf Association.
The history of deaf education in the United States began in the early 1800s when the Cobbs School of Virginia, an oral school, was established by William Bolling and John Braidwood, and the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, a manual school, was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. When the Cobbs School closed in 1816, the manual method, which used American Sign Language, became commonplace in deaf schools for most of the remainder of the century. In the late 1800s, schools began to use the oral method, which only allowed the use of speech, as opposed to the manual method previously in place. Students caught using sign language in oral programs were often punished. The oral method was used for many years until sign language instruction gradually began to come back into deaf education.
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Laurie Magnus was an English author, journalist, and publisher.
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David Hirsch was a German educator of the deaf.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Jacobs, Joseph; Harris, Isidore (1906). "van Praagh, William". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . Vol. 12. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 401.
Jacobs, Joseph; Harris, Isidore (1906). "van Praagh, William". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . Vol. 12. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 401.