David Hirsch (educator)

German-born educator David Hirsch (1813 to 1895) devoted his career to teaching deaf children to speak and write using the oralist method, at a time when sign-based instruction was the norm. Born in Muntz, Rhenish Prussia, he trained at institutes in Crefeld and Cologne, then directed a school for the deaf in Aachen before moving to Rotterdam in 1847. There in 1853 he founded the Rotterdamsche Inrichting voor Doofstommen-onderwijs, the first school in the Netherlands built around oralist instruction for deaf pupils, and he led it for more than three decades until poor health forced his retirement in 1887. His work was recognized with the Order of the Netherlands Lion and honored in France as an Officier de l'Academie.