Editing Alexander Graham Bell (section)

==Work with deaf people==
[[File:Bell at the Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf, Boston, from the Library of Congress. 00837v.jpg|thumb|Bell, top right, providing [[Pedagogy|pedagogical instruction]] to teachers at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, 1871; throughout his life, he referred to himself as "a teacher of the deaf"]]

Bell's father was invited by [[Sarah Fuller (educator)|Sarah Fuller]], principal of the Boston School for Deaf Mutes (later to become the public [[Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing|Horace Mann School for the Deaf]]){{sfn|Bruce|1990|p=74}} to introduce the Visible Speech System by providing training for Fuller's instructors, but he declined the post in favour of his son. Travelling to [[Boston]] in April 1871, Bell proved successful in training the school's instructors.{{sfn|Town|1988|p=12}} He was asked to repeat the programme at the [[American School for the Deaf|American Asylum for Deaf-mutes]] in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], and the [[Clarke School for the Deaf]] in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]].

Returning home to Brantford after six months abroad, Bell continued his experiments with his "harmonic telegraph".<ref>{{cite book |title=Alexander Graham Bell |type=(booklet) |location=Halifax, Nova Scotia |publisher=Maritime Telegraph & Telephone Limited |date=1979 |page=8 |ref={{sfnRef|''Alexander Graham Bell''|1979}} }}</ref>{{refn|In later years, Bell described the invention of the telephone and linked it to his "dreaming place".|group=N}} The basic concept behind his device was that messages could be sent through a single wire if each was transmitted at a different pitch, but work on both the transmitter and receiver was needed.{{sfn|Groundwater|2005|p=39}}

Unsure of his future, he contemplated returning to London to complete his studies, but decided to return to Boston as a teacher.{{sfn|Petrie|1975|p=14}} His father helped him set up his private practice by contacting [[Gardiner Greene Hubbard]], the president of the Clarke School for the Deaf for a recommendation. Teaching his father's system, in October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his "School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech" in Boston, which attracted a large number of deaf pupils, with his first class numbering 30 students.{{sfn|Petrie|1975|p=15}}{{sfn|Town|1988|pp=12–13}} While he was working as a private tutor, one of his pupils was [[Helen Keller]], who came to him as a young child unable to see, hear, or speak. She later said that Bell dedicated his life to the penetration of that "inhuman silence which separates and estranges".{{sfn|Petrie|1975|p=17}} In 1893, Keller performed the sod-breaking ceremony for the construction of Bell's new [[Volta Bureau]], dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf".<ref name="Schoenherr2005">{{cite web |last=Schoenherr |first=Steven E. |url=http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/graphophone.html |website=Recording Technology History |title=Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone |publisher=Audio Engineering Society |date=February 10, 2000 |access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Alexander Graham Bell |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |first=David |last=Hochfelder |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Graham-Bell |date=July 31, 2015 |access-date=September 18, 2015}}</ref>

Throughout his life, Bell sought to assimilate the deaf and hard of hearing with the hearing world. He encouraged speech therapy and lip-reading over sign language. He outlined this in an 1898 paper<ref>{{Cite web|title=Image 1 of Pamphlet by Alexander Graham Bell, 1898|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/magbell.37600801/|access-date=2021-06-11|website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.}}</ref> detailing his belief that, with resources and effort, the deaf could be taught to [[Lip reading|read lips]] and speak (known as [[oralism]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/edu/essay.html?id=59#:~:text=Bell%20used%20his%20fame%20and,favor%20of%20speaking%20and%20lipreading.|website=Disabilitymuseum.org|title=Alexander Graham Bell and His Role in Oral Education}}</ref> enabling their integration with wider society.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Don |first2=Jan |last2=Branson |url=https://archive.org/details/damnedfortheirdi00bran_0 |url-access=registration |title=Damned For Their Difference: The Cultural Construction Of Deaf People as Disabled: A Sociological History |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Gallaudet University Press |date=2002 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/damnedfortheirdi00bran_0/page/30 30]–31, 152–153 |isbn=978-1-56368-121-9 }}</ref> Members of the [[Deaf culture|Deaf community]] have criticized Bell for supporting ideas that could cause the closure of dozens of deaf schools, and what some consider [[eugenicist]] ideas.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jay |first=Michelle |date=2020-01-02 |title=Alexander Graham Bell - Helpful or Harmful? {{!}} Start ASL |url=https://www.startasl.com/alexander-graham-bell/ |access-date=2022-03-11 |language=en-US}}</ref> Bell did not support a ban on deaf people marrying each other, an idea articulated by the [[National Association of the Deaf (United States)]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugenics and Deaf People in 20th Century America |url=https://medium.com/sun-shine/trigger-warning-allusion-to-the-holocaust-552353668 |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=Medium |date=May 11, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> but in his memoir ''Memoir upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race'', he observed that if deaf people tended to marry other deaf people, this could result in the emergence of a "deaf race".<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Deaf Variety Of The Human Race |url=https://www.gallaudet.edu/history-through-deaf-eyes/online-exhibition/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/ |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=Gallaudet University |language=en-US}}</ref> Ultimately, in 1880, the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf passed a resolution mandating the teaching of oral communication and banning signing in schools.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Report of the proceedings of the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf, held at Milan, September 6th-11th, 1880|date=January 1, 1880|author=InternationalCongressontheDeaf|author-mask=International Congress on the Deaf|publisher=W. H. Allen & Co.|url=https://gaislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/rarebooks%3A56/datastream/PDF/view}}</ref>