Ese Education Pioneers

K-12 ESE Overview for General Ed Teachers Significant Individuals and their Contributions

• Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet – 1800s – Gallaudet taught children who were deaf to communicate by spelling and gesturing with their fingers. He helped open the first school for the deaf. Later, his son started the first college for students who were deaf, Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Click on the link below for more information on this pioneer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hopkins_Gallaudet

• Samuel Gridley Howe – 1800s – He believed that children with disabilities could learn and should have an education, not just custodial care. Click on the link below for more information on this pioneer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gridley_Howe •

Dorothea Dix – 1800s – She founded hospitals for persons with mental illness, schools for persons with minimal cerebral dysfunctions, and for persons who were blind. She advocated a role for the national government in the care of disadvantaged persons with mental illness. Click on the link below for more information on this pioneer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Dix

• Louis Braille – 1800s – He demonstrated that children who are blind could learn through an alternative system. Although using raised dots as a form of communication was not his original idea, he simplified the concept and published the first book in braille in 1827. It was many years before braille was widely used. Click on the link below for more information on this pioneer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Braille

• Alexander Graham Bell – 1800s – Bell's idea was that children who cannot hear can learn to speak and can use any hearing they have if it is amplified. Click on the link below for more information on this pioneer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell

• Alfred Binet – 1800s – Binet's research showed that intelligence can be measured and improved with education. Binet, working with Theodore Simon, developed the...