Recently I received an invitation from Peace Corps volunteer Greg Beauchamp to visit a class of deaf students with their teacher, Mounir, at Greg's site in Mrirt. I hopped off a souk bus from Fez, and there was Greg. We hurried to the class, and I noticed that in the group of about a dozen deaf people, there were several young boys, about six or seven years of age. I saw an older deaf man, a mother with her young son, and about four or five boys who ranged from eleven to eighteen. There were also two young teenage girls. This was definitely not a typical class for deaf students, but in small villages with just one teacher, this is what you can find. In the 1800's, the first school for the deaf in America opened its doors in Hartford, CT, to a similar class: a young girl, aged eight, several boys of varying age, and a accomplished portrait painter, who was in his fifties. How interesting to see the similarities over the centuries!  Note the age spread among the students!
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