Deaf Education at Dundurn Castle

Deaf Education at Dundurn Castle. . , Dundurn Castle played a significant role in preserving the early foundations of Deaf education in Ontario., Prior to the 1850s, deaf children were kept home to work in the fields or the family home as they had no opportunity for formal education. In 1858, an Irish-born hearing man and educator, John Barrett McGann, stopped a brick in-hand boy chasing a girl on a Toronto street. Discovering the lad was deaf led McGann to open the Upper Canada Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind in Toronto., In 1864, McGann relocated the institution to Hamilton where he found better financial support. The Deaf students of the Hamilton Institution had developed skills in painting, carpentry, and glazing and contributed labour in preparing Dundurn Castle as their eventual residence. In 1867, 81 Deaf and 10 blind pupils moved into the mansion which McGann rented for $600 per year., On November 19, 1868, the Ontario Legislature recognized McGann's persistent advocacy. The Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb opened its doors on October 20, 1870 in Belleville, where it has since operated under its present-day name, the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf. , Hamilton and Toronto in American Sign Language , An American Sign Language (ASL) name-sign is a unique sign given to an individual member of the Deaf community. The ASL signs for Hamilton and Toronto likely come from the name signs of two educators, a father and son, who played a prominent role in establishing education for deaf children in the nineteenth century. These signs would be honorific, reflecting the esteem the Deaf community in Ontario had for their work.