In the summer of 1967, American educators of the deaf observed two significant milestones. It was a year which commemorated establishment of the first school for the deaf 150 years before in Hartford, Connecticut, and which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the introduction of oral methods of teaching the deaf at the Clarke School for the Deaf and the Lexington School for the Deaf. Although great strides have been made in the education of deaf children in the United States, a variety of problems which have existed since 1817 still continue to plague the field and to resist the efforts of even the most committed and creative teachers.
If one could perceive, Janus-like, the past …