Yet, the educational systems within which they act must also be held accountable for results. (2) In 1817, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and a deaf teacher, Laurent Clerc, opened the first American school for deaf students—the American School for the Deaf—with young Alice Cogswell as its first pupil. Ultimately the school grew into a national institution and the mother of many other schools. As Alice demonstrated, deaf and hard of hearing children can learn and achieve to high levels when they have full access to language and communication