The Education of Laura Bridgman: First Deaf and Blind Person to Learn Language

by Ernest Freeberg

Book Overview

In the mid-nineteenth century, Laura Bridgman, a young child from New Hampshire, became one of the most famous women in the world. Philosophers, theologians, and educators hailed her as a miracle, and a vast public followed the intimate details of her life with rapt attention. This girl, all but forgotten today, was the first deaf and blind person ever to learn language.

Laura's dark and silent life was transformed when she became the star...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674010051
• ISBN13: 9780674010055
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Solid and informative read.

Buy this book before it goes out of print. Get The Imprisoned Guest as well. You won't be disappointed if you have any intrest in this brilliant and spirited lady!

A fine, balanced treatment

Freeberg's dual biography of Laura Bridgman and Samuel Gridley Howe is far better reading than one would expect of a revised Ph.D. dissertation. Freeberg is clear in his exposition of philosophic and religious trends, and he is absolutely fair in his of treatment the old Calvinist orthodoxy and the evangelicalism of the Second Great Awakening. Having written a children's story about Laura Bridgman more than twenty-five years ago, I was already familiar with the outlines of this narrative, but I still learned much from Freeberg's study--as for instance, the connection between Unitarianism and phrenology and the robust evangelical reaction to Howe's tentative attempts to play God with Bridgman's soul.

A Really Good Book

It's just delightful when something like this comes around. It's a page turner that isn't a paperback mystery. In fact, people who have heard of Laura Bridgman in the first place pretty much know how the story comes out. Freeberg has a taut and clear style that gives the information bones and ligaments, and he has done thorough research. There are photos and copies of things in Laura's handwriting that I have never seen before, and I have been in the field of disability all my adult life. I've read just about everything on Laura Bridgman and the Perkins school.Freeberg did well in choosing to focus of Laura's education. The book would have been at least three times longer, and probably not as well organized had he tried to cover her entire life in one volume. By sticking just to the subject of her education, though, he shows use the brilliance of her teacher, Howe, who relied on instincts and experience, and made things up as he went along. And we see Laura's mind grow. In our day, the lay person is fairly familiar with the stages of human intellectual growth and development, and it is exciting to see how Laura is remediated for the things she missed because her communication skills were late in coming.Freeberg is also respectful and gracious to his topic. Laura is a wonderful person in her own right. She is not Helen Keller's shadow. Helen Keller is a once-an-epoch genius. Laura was a bright and friendly woman, and I thank Freeberg for reminding us of this.