SuitabookMy Heart Glow
Emily Arnold McCully
- Reading
- Read it as an introduction to a historical person and movement, then pause over whose words are documented and whose dialogue is reconstructed or left uncertain.
- Themes
- Communication and access: Alice cannot hear or speak, and Gallaudet teaches her letters, words and reading before studying other approaches to teaching deaf children. The book presents communication and educational access as central historical concerns.
- Historical change through collaboration: Gallaudet travels to Europe, brings Laurent Clerc to Connecticut, and together they found what is now the American School for the Deaf. The narrative connects individual teaching efforts with the creation of an institution, without enough detail here to assess the wider historical framing.
- Letters, distance and emotion: Excerpts from Alice’s letters to Gallaudet portray her navigating language and the distance between them. The letters are presented as emotionally affecting, while the precise circumstances and ending remain unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Pay particular attention to grief and loss.