Printing in Schools
From the beginning of Deaf education, residential Deaf schools have incorporated vocational training as part of their curriculum. Printing was a vital component of this education. Schools like the American School for the Deaf, at Hartford, Connecticut, and the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in New York City, offered some students training and experience in printing, first in typesetting by hand and later using linotype machines.
Social attitudes and legal practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries guided enrollment and shaped curriculum at Deaf residential schools. Deaf students of color did not have the same access to education as white students, particularly in the South where black Deaf students were denied admission or educated in separate facilities. Funding disparities between these segregated schools may have restricted training opportunities for Deaf students of color due to the lack of financial resources for printing machinery.
Social attitudes regarding gender roles also shaped students’ access to training in printing. While Deaf boys and young men were encouraged to pursue trades like carpentry, shoemaking, and printing, Deaf girls were directed to more domestic pursuits, like sewing and baking.
Vocational training was a major component of the curriculum in Deaf schools. An article from The Ohio Chronicle reported in 1932 that students received 12 hours of training each week, 40 weeks out of the year. Upon leaving school, most students had completed between 4-8 years of training. Work in school print shops was considered beneficial in several ways, including that it provided additional reading and writing opportunities for students and it prepared them to be self-supporting after they graduated.
For a list of sources used, see Works Consulted.