Editing Laurent Clerc (section)

==Biography==
Laurent Clerc was born December 26, 1785, in [[La Balme-les-Grottes]], [[Isère]], a village on the northeastern edge of Lyon to Joseph-François Clerc and Marie-Élisabeth Candy in the small village of La Balme, where his father was the mayor. Clerc's home was a typical ''[[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]]'' household. When he was one year old, Clerc fell from a chair into a fire, suffering a severe burn and obtained a permanent scar on the right side of his cheek. Clerc's family believed his deafness and inability to smell were caused by this accident, but Clerc later wrote that he was not certain of this and might have been born deaf and without the ability to smell. The facial scar later provided the basis for his name sign, performed with the manual alphabet for "U" (thumb out), with the pads of the two fingers stroked twice downward on the right cheek. 
	 	
Clerc attended [[Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris]] when he was just 12 years old and soon became a teacher there. While there, he was taught by [[Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard|Abbe Sicard]] and [[Jean Massieu]] who was deaf. In 1815 he traveled with Sicard and Massieu to England to give a lecture and happened upon [[Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet]] who was traveling in search of means for instructing deaf children. Gallaudet was invited to visit the school in Paris. Then in 1816, after a few months with Clerc at the school, Gaulladet invited Clerc to accompany him to the [[United States]]. During the trip across the ocean, Clerc learned English from Gallaudet, and Gallaudet learned sign language from Clerc.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Pioneers in Special Education – Laurent Clerc | publisher=[[Journal of Special Education]] |date= Spring 1983 |volume=17 |issue=1}}</ref> After arriving in America they worked together to establish the first permanent school for the deaf in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], which is now known as the [[American School for the Deaf]].

Clerc married one of the first pupils – Eliza Crocker Boardman.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

Laurent Clerc died at the age of 83 at his home in Hartford.  The 1869 obituary in the New York Times says, Clerc came to Hartford in 1816 and became a teacher in 1817, then served more than 50 years "in the cause of deaf-mute instruction" and "his abilities, zeal, and graces of character made him always respected and loved."<ref name="nytobit">{{cite news |title=Obituary; Laurent Clerc, the Instructor of Deaf Mutes. |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |date=July 19, 1869 }}</ref>