Would you believe that the first outstanding deaf teacher in America was a Frenchman? His name was Laurent Clerc. He became a friend of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and together they founded America's first school for the deaf.

    Laurent Clerc was born in a small village near Lyons, France, on December 26, 1785. When he was one year old, he fell into a fire, losing both his hearing and his sense of smell.

    At 12, Laurent entered the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris where he did well in his studies. After he graduated, the school asked him to stay on as an assistant teacher.

    Meanwhile, in America, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was studying to be a minister. He was very concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for the deaf. Therefore, in 1815, Gallaudet sailed to London, England to seek ideas on how to teach deaf people. While he was there, he met a French educator of the deaf who invited him to go to Paris to spend three months learning at the Royal Institution for the Deaf, the school where Laurent Clerc was teaching. Gallaudet accepted the offer. The two worked and studied well together. When the time came for Gallaudet to return, he asked Clerc to come with him. Clerc accepted on one condition: that he would stay in America only a short time.

    The two men set sail on June 18, 1816. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean took 52 days; however, Clerc and Gallaudet put the time to good use. Clerc studied English, and Gallaudet studied sign language. They discussed the school for the deaf which they planned to open. On the long trip, they had many conversations about education and deafness. The year after they arrived, they founded a school for the deaf in Harford, Connecticut.

At the school, Clerc led a busy life. He taught signs to Principal Gallaudet; he taught the pupils; and he taught hearing men who came to the school to study deaf education.

    In 1819, Clerc married Eliza Crocker Boardman, one of his pupils. They had six children. He retired from teaching in 1858. Although he had intended to return to France, he never did. He died on July 18, 1869 in the United States.

       Dick lived in England. One day in January he said to his wife, “I'm going to fly to New York next week because I've got some work there.” “Where are you going to stay there?” his wife asked. “I don't know yet.” Dick answered. “Please send me your address from there in a telegram (电报),” his wife said. “All right,” Dick answered.

       He flew to New York on January 31st and found a nice hotel in the center of the city. He put his things in his room and then he sent his wife a telegram. He put the address of his hotel in it.

       In the evening he didn't have any work, so he went to a cinema. He came out at nine o'clock and said, “Now I'm going back to my hotel and have a nice dinner.”

       He found a taxi (出租车) and the driver said, “Where do you want to go?” But Dick didn't remember the name and address of his hotel.

       “Which hotel are my things in?” he said, “And what am I going to do tonight?” But the driver of the taxi did not know. So Dick got out and went into a post office. There he sent his wife another telegram, and in it he wrote, “Please send me my address at this post office.”

    An Irish priest (牧师) loved going fishing. It was his favourite hobby. However, the weather was so bad this year that he didn't have a chance to go fishing.

    It was very strange that the weather was good every Sunday. But Sunday was the day when he had to go to work. The coming Sunday was good again according to the weather report, so he called another priest and told him that he lost his voice and was in bed with the fever. He asked him to take over his work.

    The priest drove fifty miles to a river so that no one would find him. An angel in Heaven was keeping watch and saw what the priest was doing. He reported it to God. He thought God would do something about it.

    With the first throw of us line, a huge fish bit down the fish food. For over an hour the priest was busy running up and down the river bank to fight the fish. In the end, he landed the large size fish. It was a world record — a Salmon (鲑鱼).

    The angel did not know what was happening and asked God, “Why did you let him catch that huge fish? I thought you were going to teach him a lesson." God replied, "I did. Who do you think he's going to tell?"

    A teacher asks his students to write about their dreams. One boy writes seven pages. He wants his own farm and a large house on it. But his teacher tells him, "You are daydreaming. Do it again." Several days later the boy hands in the same article, saying, "I don't want to give up my dream even if you fail me." Years later, he makes his dream come true. One day, the same teacher takes some students to the boy's farm for camping. Seeing the big farm, the teacher feels sorry, "I once told you not to daydream. Luckily, you never gave up."