Page:Gallaudet and his school.djvu/15

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

continued on the voyage home and have kept it up since returning home. He has sufficient knowledge of English to teach these beginners and is learning more every day. Won't you look around at some of the work?

(They walk between desks and observe work, conversation is resumed from time to time.)

Cogs.—Are the French methods the same as those used in England?

Gal.—No, as I wrote you from London I was unable to secure any assistance in England but fortunately met Mr. Sicard in London, and he invited me to visit his school in Paris and offered me every facility for acquiring his methods.

Cogs.—Did you see any of the work in England?

Gal.—No. Braidwood who has a monopoly of the work there carefully guarded his secrets and allowed no one to see his work. I went to Edinburg, but met with no better success. I am told that the English use an alphabet made with both hands instead of a single hand alphabet and the signs which de l'Epee invented.

Cogs.—It seems a little strange to use French methods in teaching; it would seem more natural to use English ways.

Gal.—It is easy to apply the methods to English. The signs express ideas rather than words and there is no grammar to observe.

Woolbridge—Did you remain in Paris all the time during your stay abroad?

Gal.—Yes; the French were very cordial to me. I met many of the American colony there and occasionally was called upon to preach. At the Institution I remained a close student in order to

13