PERSIDANGAN MILAN 1880

Milan 1880. No other event in the history of deaf education had a

greater impact on the lives and education of deaf people. This
single event almost destroyed sign language.
What Happened in 1880?
In 1880, there was an international conference of deaf educators,
the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf. At
this conference, held September 6-11, 1880, a declaration was
made that oral education was better than manual (sign) education.
A resolution was passed banning sign language. The only
countries opposed to the ban were the United States (represented
by Edward Miner Gallaudet, Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, Issac Peet,
James Denison, and Charles Stoddard) and Britain. The sign
supporters tried, but failed, to get their voices heard. Here are the
first of 8 resolutions passed by the convention:
1. The Convention, considering the incontestable superiority of
articulation over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society and
giving him a fuller knowledge of language, declares that the oral
method should be preferred to that of signs in the education and
instruction of deaf-mutes.
2. The Convention, considering that the simultaneous use of
articulation and signs has the disadvantage of injuring articulation
and lip-reading and the precision of ideas, declares that the pure
oral method should be preferred
The other resolutions dealt with instruction of impoverished deaf
students, how to instruct deaf students orally, the need for
instructional books for deaf oral teachers, the long-term benefits of
oral instruction, the optimal ages for oral instruction and length of
instruction, and phasing out of manually instructed students. A
photocopy of the Milan resolutions is in the book Deaf Heritage.

How Could This Happen?

It was a foregone conclusion. The outcome was basically "fixed"
because the conference was planned and organized by a
committee that was against sign language. This committee selected
the attending representatives more than half were known oralists
from France and Italy. Although other topics were supposed to be
discussed, the conference focused on the methods of instruction,
and representatives talked about the method of instruction used in
their schools - either speech or combined speech and sign.
Immediately after these presentations, the resolutions were made.
What Was the Immediate Effect?
The repurcussions to Milan were immediate:

Deaf teachers lost their jobs

The fledgling National Association of the Deaf attracted more

supporters as deaf people fought to save their language and
culture

The president of Gallaudet College (now University) decided

to retain sign language on the Gallaudet campus. This
monumental decision may have been largely responsible for
sign language's survival.

What Was the Long-Term Impact?

Milan 1880 is of such significance in deaf history that it has been
commemorated in artworks, such as the artwork of artist Mary
Thornley, who has done a painting showing hearing "hunters"
seeking to shoot down ASL.
In October 1993, Gallaudet University held a conference, "Post
Milan ASL and English literacy." The conference proceedings
included an esay, "Reflections upon Milan with an eye to the
future," by Katherine Jankowski.
In retrospect, one could say that in the years since, sign language
and oralism have learned to co-exist peacefully. There will never be
another Milan 1880.

The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf was

(despite the name) the first
international conference of deaf educators held in Milan, Italy in
1880. It is commonly known as "The Milan Conference". After
deliberations from September 6 to 11, 1880, the conference
declared that oral education was superior to manual education and
passed a resolution banning the use of sign language in school.
After its passage in 1880, schools in European countries and the
United States switched to using speech therapy without sign
language as a method of education for the deaf.

Alexander Graham Bell and Edward Miner Gallaudet, both prominent

U.S. figures in deaf education, had been debating the effectiveness of
oral-only education versus an education that utilizes sign language as a
means of visual communication, culminating in the Milan Conference in
1880 that passed eight resolutions on deaf education.
The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf (which,
despite its name, was actually the first) was an international meeting of
deaf educators from at least seven countries. There were five delegates
from America and approximately 164 delegates total in attendance. The
Congress was planned and organized by a committee created by the
Pereire Society, a group that was against sign language. More than half
of the people invited were known oralists; therefore, the Congress was
biased and most, if not all, of the resolutions that were voted on by the
delegates gave results in favor of the oral method. Many of the
resolutions were worded in ways that supported the oral method, such
as "Considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs in
restoring the deaf-mute to society, and in giving him a more perfect
knowledge of language,/Declares /That the Oral method ought to be
preferred that of signs for the education and instruction of the deaf and
dumb".[1]
The Milan Conference was organized by the Pereire Society, an
organization formed by the family of Jacob Rodrigues Pereira of France
and financed by their numerous railroad and bank holdings (including
Socit Gnrale du Crdit Mobilier). The Pereire Society was a strong

supporter of oralism. They organized the Milan conference with the

intent to ban sign language. They secured this outcome by carefully
selecting who was invited, inviting the delegates to see the oralist
success in a local school, and by encouraging negative reactions to
those giving speeches supporting sign language and cheering those
supporting oralism.
Delegates[edit]
The Milan Conference was attended by 164 delegates of various
countries. Out of these 164 delegates only one, James Denison, was
deaf. The conference president was Abbe Giulio Tarra.
Nationality Number of Delegates
Italian

87

French

British

55

American

Swedish

Belgian

German

The nationality of the remaining delegates is unknown. The five U.S.

delegates present were James Denison, Edward Miner
Gallaudet, Reverend Thomas Gallaudet, Isaac Lewis Peet and Charles
A Stoddard.
Conference[edit]
The Conference was held in the Regio Institutio Tenico di Santa Martha,
Milan. It was held from 6 September to 11 September 1880. The aim of
the conference was to ban sign language from deaf education. During
the conference there were 12 speakers who gave their opinions on the
issues connected with deaf education. Nine of the twelve speakers gave

an oralist view and three (the Gallaudet brothers, and Richard Elliot, a
teacher from England) supported the use of sign language.
The eight resolutions[edit]
1. The Convention, considering the incontestable superiority of
articulation over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society and giving
him a fuller knowledge of language, declares that the oral method should
be preferred to that of signs in education and the instruction of deafmutes.
Passed 160 to 4
2. The Convention, considering that the simultaneous use of articulation
and signs has the disadvantage of injuring articulation and lip-reading
and the precision of ideas, declares that the pure oral method should be
preferred.
Passed 150 to 16
3. Considering that a great number of the deaf and dumb are not
receiving the benefit of instruction, and that this condition is owing to the
impotence of families and of institutions, recommends
that governments should take the necessary steps that all the deaf and
dumb may be educated.
Passed unanimously.
4. Considering that the teaching of the speaking deaf by the Pure Oral
method should resemble as much as possible that of those who hear
and speak, declares
a) That the most natural and effectual means by which the speaking
deaf may acquire the knowledge of language is the "intuitive" method,
viz., that which consists in setting forth, first by speech, and then by
writing the objects and the facts which are placed before the eyes of the
pupils.
b) That in the first, or maternal, period the deaf-mute ought to be led to
the observation of grammatical forms by means of examples and of
practical exercises, and that in the second period he ought to be

assisted to deduce from these examples the grammatical rules,

expressed with the utmost simplicity and clearness.
c) That books, written with words and in forms of language known to the
pupil, can be put into his hands at any time.
Motion carried.
5. Considering the want of books sufficiently elementary to help the
gradual and progressive development of language, recommends that
the teachers of the Oral system should apply themselves to the
publication of special works on the subject.
Motion carried.
6. Considering the results obtained by the numerous inquiries made
concerning the deaf and dumb of every age and every condition long
after they had quit school, who, when interrogated upon various
subjects, have answered correctly, with sufficient clearness of
articulation, and read the lips of their questioners with the greatest
facility, declares:
a) That the deaf and dumb taught by the Pure Oral method do not forget
after leaving school the knowledge which they have acquired there, but
develop it still further by conversation and reading, when have been
made so easy for them.
b) That in their conversation with speaking persons they make use
exclusively of speech.
c) That speech and lip-reading so far from being lost, are developed by
practice.
Motion carried.
7. Considering that the education of the deaf and dumb by speech has
peculiar requirements; considering also that the experienced of teachers
of deaf-mutes is almost unanimous, declares
a) That the most favourable age for admitting a deaf child into school is
from eight to ten years.

b) That the school term ought to be seven years at least; but eight years
would be preferable.
c) That no teacher can effectually teach a class of more than ten
children on the Pure Oral method.
Motion carried.
8. Considering that the application of the Pure Oral method in institutions
where it is not yet in active operation, should be to avoid the certainty of
failure prudent, gradual, progressive, recommends
a) That the pupils newly received into the schools should form a class by
themselves, where instruction could be given by speech.
b) That these pupils should be absolutely separated from others too far
advanced to be instructed by speech, and whose education will be
completed by signs.
c) That each year a new speaking class be established, until all the old
pupils taught by signs have completed their education.
Motion carried.
Opposition[edit]
Delegates from the United States and Britain were the only ones who
opposed the use of oralism as a sole method of instruction, but were
unsuccessful in their efforts at the congress. Edward Miner Gallaudet
and Reverend Thomas Gallaudet were among the protesters who fought
against the oralist method. Since failing to overturn the Milan resolutions,
Gallaudet ensured that the United States would not be completely
converted to oralism-only, which included allowing high school students
in institutes for the deaf to use sign language and maintaining Gallaudet
College (now Gallaudet University) as a university that permits full usage
of sign language.
The National Association of the Deaf was also formed in the United
States in response to the Milan Conference and was dedicated toward
preserving American Sign Language.
First repudiation 100 years later in Hamburg[edit]

At the Fifteenth International Congress on the Education of the Deaf

(ICED) held in Hamburg, West Germany in 1980, the first major
precedent for the repudiation of the 1880 resolutions was set by a large
group of attendees who rejected the 1880 resolutions in practical-moral
terms by the method of informal consensus in deciding that the 1880
resolutions had no appropriate standing, originally, in 1880. As explained
by Richard G. Brill: "At the International Congress in Hamburg in 1980,
however, the Milan resolutions were challenged head-on in major
professional addresses at the opening of the congresses. It was
recognized and accepted that resolutions concerning methodology were
not appropriate at such international congresses because of the
unlikelihood that the delegates fully represented the practices and
philosophies of their home countries."[2][3] Rather than seek to directly
overturn the 1880s resolutions, the Congress put forward
"Recommendations" for informational purposes, including the following:
"Recommended that this International Congress on Education of the
Deaf, in convocation gathered at Hamburg, West Germany, in August
1980, affirms and declares that all deaf children have the right to flexible
communication in the mode or combination of modes which best meets
their individual needs."[4] Sharkey and Hikins deemed this
Recommendation, along with the others, as constituting overturning the
1880 Milan Congress's resolutions.[5]
In spite of the previous precedent set in 1980, in July 2010 in
Vancouver, Canada, the board of the 21st International Congress on the
Education of the Deaf (ICED) formally voted to reject all of the 1880
Milan resolutions.[6]

Thomas Braidwood (1715[1]1806) was born at Hillhead Farm,

Covington, Lanarkshire, Scotland, the fourth child of Thomas Braidwood
and Agnes Meek. Braidwood originally established himself as a writing
master instructing the children of the wealthy at his private residence in
the Canongate in Edinburgh. In 1760 he changed his vocation from
teaching hearing pupils to teaching the deaf and renamed his building
'Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb' which is recognised as
the first school of its kind in Britain. His first pupil was Charles Shirreff
(1749-1829), son of Alexander Shirreff, a wealthy wine merchant based
at the Port of Leith. Among Braidwood's pupils were John Goodricke, the
famed astronomer; Francis Mackenzie (Lord Seaforth) who became a
Member of Parliament and later the governor of Barbados; John Philp
Wood, who went on to become a famed author, genealogist, editor and
Over Deputy of the Scottish Excise Office; Jane Poole; Sarah
Dashwood; Ann Walcot; Thomas Arrowsmith, an artist, and John Creasy
who inspired the Rev. John Townsend to found the first ever public
school for the Deaf in England in 1792.
Braidwood had three daughters, Margaret (b. 4 Sept. 1755, Edinburgh),
Elizabeth (b. 1757, Edinburgh) and Isabella (b. 27 Jan 1758, Edinburgh).
His wife was Margaret (ne Pearson) whom he married on 1 October
1752. His daughters followed Thomas in becoming teachers of the deaf,
but Elizabeth married early to a Durham surgeon and went to live in
Durham. Very little is known about his daughter Margaret and there is no
mention or record of Margaret having moved south of the border with her
family in 1783.
In 1783 Thomas Braidwood moved with his family to Hackney on the
eastern outskirt of London and established the Braidwood Academy for
the Deaf and Dumb in Grove House, off Mare Street, Hackney. His early
use of a form of sign language, the combined system, was the
forerunner of British Sign Language, recognized as a language in its
own right in 2003. Braidwood's combined system is known among British
Deaf historians as the Braidwoodian Method. His kinsman Joseph
Watson joined him in 1784. Watson went on to become the first head
teacher of the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb which was
established in Bermondsey in November 1792. Watson was the teacher
of the first deaf barrister, John William Lowe. Thomas's grandson John

Braidwood ran a school for the deaf in America at Cobbs, Virginia, in

1812 but this was short-lived.
Thomas died at Hackney, London; his daughter Isabella continuing the
running of the school.
Thomas Braidwood was a distant cousin of Thomas Braidwood
Wilson 1792-1843, after whom the Town of Braidwood, NSW is named.