For Imperfect Homeschooling Mamas

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Thomas Gallaudet was a sickly little boy who grew into a sickly man. One day in his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut, he noticed one lonely little girl standing alone while other children played nearby. Among the other children was Thomas’ little brother, Teddy. Remembering what it was like to feel different and left out, Thomas asked his brother to tell him about the little girl. Teddy said that the little girl was deaf. Her name was Alice Cogswell. She was the daughter of a local doctor.

Thomas went to Alice and wrote the word H-A-T in the dirt. He laid his hat on the ground. Over and over, he pointed, first to the hat and then to the word. After an hour of patient pointing, Alice understood. Excitedly, she put the hat on her head and pointed to H-A-T on the ground. She gave Thomas the stick and pointed to her shoulders. She wanted to find out the word for herself. Thomas wrote A-L-I-C-E in the dirt.

Thomas told Alice’s father what had happened. Dr. Cogswell and his wife were overjoyed. They had known that Europeans were teaching the deaf successfully, but there were no similar opportunities for their daughter in America. They had not wanted to send her so far away. Dr. Cogswell ordered books from Europe for Thomas to use to continue teaching his daughter.

Soon Dr. Cogswell gathered wealthy residents of Hartford to his home. He invited Thomas Gallaudet to tell them about Alice’s progress under his teaching. Dr. Cogswell raised money to send Thomas to Europe to learn how to teach deaf men, women, and children. Gallaudet was a devout believer in Jesus. He not only wanted to teach them how to communicate. He wanted to teach them God’s Word.

Gallaudet went to Europe to learn. He arranged for Laurent Clerc, a young deaf Frenchman, to come to America to help him begin a school for the deaf. The school opened in 1817, three years after the end of the War of 1812 and five years after Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” President James Monroe visited the school the year after its founding, giving his hearty approval to what they were doing to help deaf Americans. Today it is the American School for the Deaf. Last year it celebrated its 200th anniversary.

Thomas Gallaudet learned to help others in spite of his personal limitations. Most mamas feel limited. Most feel inadequate to give their children everything they need. Those feelings can zap a homeschooling mama’s joys. Don’t let them zap yours.

And He has said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is perfected in weakness.”
Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses,
with persecutions, with difficulties,
for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak,
then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Thank you to our daughter Mary Evelyn McCurdy for teaching me about Thomas Gallaudet in her play, Sign of Love, and in her lesson, “America’s First School for the Deaf” in Our Star-Spangled Story.

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