Oral History: Sister Rose Xavier Garrity
Dublin Core
Title
Oral History: Sister Rose Xavier Garrity
Subject
Sister Rose Xavier Garrity
Description
An oral history of Sister Rose Xavier Garrity, a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill from 1921 until 1987. The interview was conducted by Sister Virginia Pascaretta on May 18, 1982.
Sister Rose Xavier Garrity - born Catherine Cecilia Garrity on November 24, 1895 - entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in June of 1921. She received a bachelor's degree in history and English from Duquesne University in 1937 and a master's degree in the same subjects from Duquesne in 1945. She also studied special education in teaching the deaf at Xavier University. She taught at DePaul Institute for the Deaf from 1925-1981. Sister Rose Xavier was the Scoutmaster for the Boy Scout Troop at DePaul. Her nephew was U.S. Senator Eugene Scanlon. Sister Rose Xavier died on February 9, 1987.
Creator
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Publisher
Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
Date
1982/05/18
Rights
All rights belong to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Format
Audio cassette tape
Type
Oral history
Identifier
OH-24
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Sister Virginia Pascaretta
Interviewee
Sister Rose Xavier Garrity
Location
DePaul Institute
Transcription
OH 24-1 Sr.Rose X Garrity
This is an interview for the Oral History program for the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in Greensburg, Pennysylvania. The interviewee is Sister Rose Xavier Garrity. The interviewer is Sister Virginia Pascaretta. The interview is taking place at DePaul Institute and deals with the history of the Institute. The date is May eighteenth, nineteen eighty-two.
SVP: Sr. Rose Xavier, before we get into the history of the school, tell me briefly about yourself, your entrance into the Sisters of Charity, and your introduction to your work at DePaul.
SRX: Well, I wanted to be a Sister for quite a while. The night that I made the final decision was in March of nineteen twenty-one during a novena to St. Francis Xavier at St. Benedict's Church in the Hill District where we were teaching Sunday School. That night I set the date. It was to be on the Feast of the Sacred Heart that coming June, which was really less than three months away. I wanted the Sisters of Charity alright, but was also attracted to the Franciscans. I knew in my heart it was only peripherally. My confessor was a Capuchin, and he would always say: "I know you, I know you well, and I know you belong at Mt. Alvernia. That sort of gave me a well, I
suffered from it, trying to get that off my mind. Finally, one day I called Sister Teresa Vincent Mahoney at Sacred Heart Convent.
SVP: Sister Teresa Vincent was a friend of yours before you entered?
SRX: Yes, we had gone to the same school. She was just a couple of years ahead of me. I called Sr. Teresa Vincent at Sacred Heart and made an appointment for that night. She didn't do a single thing. I got no help from her. In thinking it over, I don' t blame her. I don't know what to tell anyone else when they are wavering like that. She telephoned me the next day and asked me to come to see her. I went, and I left there happier than I had been for quite some time. First of all, Sister Teresa Vincent and Sister Jane Elizabeth Smith took me out to Seton Hill to petition. So, I kept the date of entrance...the Feast of the Sacred Heart in nineteen twenty-one. When we arrived on the date of petitioning , there was no-one around on the main floor, so we went on up to the Chapel. They were having Benediction or Holy Hour, and they were singing: "O Sacred Heart." Later, when we went on the date of entrance, we must have arrived at just about the same time because they were singing the same hymn. As we entered the Chapel, they came to the words " O Sacred Heart, lead all exiled children home." So, I was at home at last and was settled.
SVP: What year was it when you were introduced to DePaul Institute then?
SRX: I was still a Novice...about a fourth year one. Our Novitiate was five years long. Mother Rose Genevieve Rodgers sent for me that Summer. It was an unusual thing, of course, for a Novice to be called to the Mother Superior' s office. I felt a little uneasy about that. Mother Rose Genevieve wasn' t the easiest person to approach, at least I thought so at the time. She started out by saying: "Oh, you know that Sister Teresa what's her name." I replied, " Sister Teresa Mary, Mother." Then I was frightened for sure, because Sr. Teresa Mary had lived with me that year and she left the Community in a very unconventional way at the end of the Summer. But, why was I connected with her? And Mother said: "No, no, another Sister Teresa. It dawned on me then and I said: Oh, Sr. Teresa Vincent, Mother?" Yes, she said. They need a teacher up at
DePaul. We don' t like to send our teachers there, but she said they need someone, and she mentioned your name. Do you think you ' d like it? I don' t know, Mother, if it's anything like teaching Sunday School. I did what DePaul was. " Well then, you' ll go to DePaul this year." I didn' t tell anyone, except Sister M. Fiorita McGrory, because we had lived together a year before that. We kept it a big secret until a few weeks later when the Mission List was being read in Cecilian Hall. Sister Florita's name was on that list right after mine. That was a big surprise to both ofus.
SVP: Then you arrived at DePaul Institute the late Summer? SRX: That late Summer, yes.
SVP: What special event was happening at that time?
SRX: First of all, it was first called the Pittsburgh School For the Deaf. It wasn' t called DePaul Institute until December thirty first, nineteen ten when it was incorporated. . I'd just like to tell a little about the attempts that were made before it opened. There were several attempts before that time, in fact beginning as early as eighteen seventy-four, to open such a school in the diocese.
For several good reasons, that didn' t materialize. We have this information from a letter written by Monsignor A.A. Lambing to Sister Marie Antonio McLinden in nineteen eleven, nineteen twelve. He was, of course, born in eighteen forty-two. The Pittsburgh Diocese didn' t come into being until the next year, and he was always considered to be the great historian in the diocese.
In that letter, he tells that as a young priest, in eighteen seventy-three, he was stationed at the Orphanage on Tannehill Street. There were two or three little deaf girls there who were children of a poor mother, a widow. Naturally, he was interested in them, but he had no idea what to do for them. He frequently spoke to Bishop Domenec about the matter, about the deaf in general in the diocese and in the state. The Bishop thought of opening a department in the school there and having a couple of Sisters of Mercy trained.to teach them. The financial panic of eighteen seventy-three was just coming up at that time and it was impossible for anything to be done. The next year he was transferred to the Point, but he didn't forget the children. He said that he consulted a Catholic Directory and discovered that there was a school, a Catholic School for the deaf in New York near Fordham University. He contacted the Heads, the Administration there, and found all the information he could about it.
SVP: Did he send the children away to that school? SRX: Yes, he did.
SVP: And that was near Fordham?
SRX: Yes, near Fordham University. He obtained a free pass for the children, in fact, he had them admitted, free of charge. He had a pass from (William Shaw) for the children, the mother and himself. He visited them twice while they were there. He sent the mother to pay a last visit to them before she died. By the time he was transferred to Wilkinsburg, Bishop Phelan was head of the Diocese. In that letter, Monsignor Lambing stated that the Bishop sent two Sisters of Mercy to St. Mary's School for the Deaf in Buffalo to be trained. One of the Sisters died, and he didn' t know what became of the other one. He didn' t hear anymore about it, and the venture came to an end. By nineteen hundred Four, Right Reverend Bishop Canevin was installed as Bishop of Pittsburgh. When he heard of the great numbers of Catholic deaf children who were
being brought every week from the state school in Edgewood for Sunday Mass to St. Joseph's Church in Wilkinsburg, he shared the concern of Monsignor Lambing about the possibility of the children losing their faith.
SVP: That was St. James Church in Wilkinsburg? SRX: St. James Church in Wilkinsburg now.
SVP: Why did he choose the Sisters of Charity?
SRX: Well, Bishop Canevin immediately attacked the problem. He searched through the histories in the Constitutions of the different Communities within the diocese, and he saw that St. Vincent de Paul included all types of afflictions within the missionary scope of his spiritual daughters. Accordingly then, he appealed to Mother Ignatia Flinn at Seton Hill for Sisters to go away to be trained.
SVP: How did they prepare themselves?
SRX: First of all, the Sisters were: Sister Marie Antonio McLinden, Sister Gertrude Litzinger and Sister Martha Walsh. They were sent to the Sisters of St. Joseph in New York.
SVP: Was that St. Mary' s School for the Deaf?
SRX: Yes, that ' s right. The Bishop's thought was to establish a Catholic School for the hearing impaired children with Religious specially trained to teach them and to provide Sunday School for the missions for the hearing impaired adults.
SVP: What you're saying then is that the goals for the opening of this work were really twofold? SRX: Yes.
SVP: Both for the children' s education, and Catholic education for the adults.
SRX: The three Sisters appointed for the New York adventure left then, when they finished in Randolph at the end of the year. The following May, they began observation in most of the schools for the hearing impaired in the East.
SVP: Did they go to Boston, to the Randolph School for the Deaf first? SRX: Yes, that's where they were sent.
SVP: Then, they went to St. Mary' s and the other places to observe later? SRX: Yes
SRX: Their fust stop was the Fox School for the Deaf in North Hampton, Massachusetts, where Dr. Carolyn L. Yale was the Principal. Dr. Yale had been at the Clark School almost from the beginning in eighteen sixty-seven. It was she who had developed the vowel and consonant charts to teach speech, used almost exclusively in so many schools for the deaf at the time. From North Hampton, the Sisters went to the Hartford School in Connecticut, founded in eighteen seventeen. That is the oldest school for the deaf in the United States. The next stops found them at the Lexington Ave. School, Fanwood(?) School, Fordham School, which is now St. Joseph's School in Westchester. While they were at the Mt. School in Philadelphia, the Sisters met
Mother Mary Ann Burke from St. Mary's School for the Deaf. A life long bond of friendship between the St. Mary's and Pittsburgh School developed. Mother Mary Ann Burke offered a permanent scholarship at Buffalo to train teachers for the new school in Pittsburgh.
SVP: When they came back from their observations, how did they continue their teacher training?
SRX During the Summer that followed their return to Greensburg, a six weeks course in education methods and practices in teaching the deaf was given at Seton Hill by Sr. Rose Gertrude of the Sisters of Mercy in Hartford, Conn., and Mrs. Albert Graskendalls of Green School in Washington. There were courses given later at DePaul by Miss Clinton from the School for the Deaf in Billings, the Principal of the West Virginia School at Romney (if correct), and Sisters of St. Joseph from the state school in Buffalo came to DePaul.
SRX: Something else I wanted to say was: Sr. Marie Antonio, before they went to Philadelphia from New York, they went to Lackawanna to visit Our Lady of Victory Shrine and Father Baker gave Sister a pocket size statue of Our Lady of Victory and a litany. His parting words to her were: "Say this everyday and your work will bear fruit for the glory of God." Sister said the litany faithfully through the years and she inculcated devotion to Our Lady of Victory in the Sisters and in the children. The children repeated the invocation after their grace before and after meals and after any Hail Marys or prayers they would say at any other time. Among the treasures that were placed in the cornerstone of Our Lady of Victory Hall when it was built in nineteen forty-nine were the pocket-sized statue and the old well-thumbed litany.
SVP: When the School finally opened, can you tell me who the Sisters were and in what capacity they worked there?
SRX: During the preparation of the teachers, Bishop Canevan rented a three room brick house surrounded by a large lawn and it's the old Lappe Mansion in the Troy Area of Pittsburgh.
SVP: What Street was it on?
SRX: It was at 1613 Lowry Street. On August twenty-second, nineteen hundred eight Sister Mary Cecilia Brown came as the Sister Servant and Sister Mary Michael O' Shea as the house keeper. Sister Marie Antonio McLinden and Sister Martha Walsh, the teachers moved to prepare for the opening of the Pittsburgh School for the Deaf.
SVP: What happened to Sr. Gertrude Litzinger?
SRX: Sr. Gertrude never went on. She was elected as a Councilor at Seton Hill later on. The school opened on September seventh, nineteen hundred eight. Daniel Cusick, a boy from Coraopolis was the first pupil. Interestingly enough, he had been at St. Mary's School for the Deaf in the Preparatory Department.
SVP: How many other children came at that time?
SRX: The end of the fust week closed with an emollment of three. One of them was Mrs. Laura Matthews from the West End. She is the great grandmother of a little boy who is in the school now...a nephew of Sister Rosalie O' Hara.
The next month, Father Thomas Coakley had just completed his studies at the North American College in Rome and Bishop Canevan told him that he had a job waiting for him. When Father Coakley asked him what it consisted of, he said: "a five hundred dollar debt." On October sixteenth, nineteen hundred eight, the Bishop presented Father Coakley to the Sisters as Superintendent for the Pittsburgh School for the Deaf. Bishop Canevan had promised that the
frrst School Mass would be celebrated when the enrollment reached ten, to match the ten commandments, he said. The tenth pupil came in November and the Bishop was notified. The Bishop then said: " Well, I thought I had said twelve in honor of the twelve apostles. That was his answer, but he notified Father Coakley immediately and the young Superintendent celebrated the frrst Mass on December sixteenth, nineteen hundred eight. Monsignor Lambing presented the Missal and Ciborium, and the Seton Hill Sisters of Charity, the Chalice. Some other benefactor donated the Monstrance and a pair of seven brass candle sticks. After that time, Mass was offered by Father Coakley in the School Chapel once a week. At other times, the Sisters and the students attended the nearby Holy Name Church. They received every possible attention from Father Mullen, the Pastor, and the two Assistants, Father Killmeyer and Father Angel. In February of nineteen ten, the Assistants were appointed to offer Mass at the School. Father Coakley always came after that every year on May twenty-fifth, the day of his Ordination, with the exception of nineteen thirty-six when he was three thousand miles away. On that day, his Mass was offered in the church where Abbey De LaPae was buried. Abbey De LaPae had founded the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris and had trained the first American teachers for the deaf.
As the first Christmas of the pioneers was drawing near in nineteen hundred eight, Mrs. Catherine Maloney who became a life-long benefactor of the School promised to send a turkey with all the trimmings. Christmas day came, but no turkey had come. Several days later, it was learned that the turkey had been delivered to the Ladies of Charity of the Good Shepherd Home on Lowry Street. Mrs. Maloney saw to it that another turkey and trimmings would arrive in time for the New Year' s dinner.
Besides her monetary contributions , Mrs. Maloney also gave an outdoor statue of St. Catherine of Siena, designed by Scullari and dedicated by Father Coakley on July seventh, nineteen thirty six. Incidenta lly, the new School Chapel, dedicated twenty five years later was named St.
Catherine Siena in memory of the mother of its benefactor, Mr. Kelly.
Later in the school year of nineteen hundred nine as the enrollment increased, Sister Emmanuel Drake arrived as the frrst teacher in training. Sister Margaret Cecilia Brennan was the children' s Supervisor. On the anniversary of Father Coakley's first Mass, five children received their First Holy Communion in the School Chapel. Five children were confrrmed in St. Paul' s Cathedral on May thirtieth, 1909. The closing exercises took place on June twenty-first, 1909. Sr. Marie Antonia gave a vivid account of that event. She said: "We pushed the dining room tables together to make a stage. The children used the parlor windows from the porch for entrance and exits. The program consisted of songs, drills, tableaus and speeches."
During the second year, the enrollment increased to twenty-six, and an adjoining house was rented for boys. In September of 1910, as the third year of the new school began, Sister Marie Michael Carroll came as Children's Supervisor. The next year brought Sister Rose Gertrude Reitzert. These two Sisters became the third and fourth members of the teaching staff and comprised the training staff of nineteen hundred eleven. Both Sisters spent the rest of their lives with their beloved deaf children. Sister Rose Gertrude died after a long illness in nineteen fifty seven and Sr. Marie Michael died in nineteen fifty-six.
The school had been undertaken without definite plans for its support. Most of the children had to be boarded and educated free of charge. Few could pay the small tuition fee suggested. In the
6
early days, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill provided not only personnel; but also money from Music lessons taught by Sisters: Mary James Brownlee, Dolores Cupps, Agnes Regina Nunnick, and Mary Cephas Storm. In January of 1909, the Ladies Aid Society had been organized.
Through membership fees, entertainments and donation days, they contributed largely for many years to the maintenance of teachers and pupils.
SVP: What about the Women' s Guild?
SRX: The Women's Guild also accomplished a great work during the four years of its existence. Mrs. Flannery was the President, Mrs. Salomney, the Secretary, and Mrs. Frank Larnining the Treasurer. The Guild contributions to the school totaled $48,000.00. The Ladies Aid Society and the Guild were sponsoring their parties, while their male counterparts were not looking on idly. Mr. James Flannery erected the apparatus for the playground, and after his death, his widow maintained it. Mr. Frank Lanahan donated the complete equipment for the manual training department in nineteen twelve. Boy, the expense of maintaining equipment even in nineteen thirty-six!
SVP: Was there not some early affiliation with the state in which the state provided funds? SRX: Yes after the legal requirements of state aid had been completed by the Incorporation of DePaul Institute in 1910 as I mentioned above. The Directors applied for an appropriation of
$2,000.00in order to place the Institution on the list. Before the bill passed and was signed in 1911 by the Governor, the number of students had increased. Through the efforts of a Mr. John
F. Casey, the appropriation was raised to $7,000.00 and signed by Governor. As the
excellent work done in the Institute won the admiration and approval of other state officials, the appropriation was steadily increased until in May of nineteen twenty-one it had reached a sum of
$45,000.00. That was lost that year by an adverse decision by the Supreme Court and a number of other Pennsylvania declaring the appropriation a violation of the Constitution of the State.
The Supreme Court, in its decision, placed DePaul Institute and a number of other.Institutions managed by Catholics as sectarian and not entitled to an appropriation from the public treasury. · And so the next year, Bishop Hugh Boyle, Bishop of the Diocese began the annual diocesan collection.
SVP: I was just going to ask you about the need for larger space, and when that move took place from Lowry Street to Brookline?
SRX: By the end of the year 1909, the Pittsburgh School for the Deaf, as it was then called, had outgrown its temporary home on Lowry Streeet. In October, Bishop Canevan and Father Coakley accompanied by Mr. George Schneider who was the father of our Sr. Rose Marie Schneider, inspected the thirty-five acre Gilfillin Farm in Brookline, and they decided to purchase it. Six acres were set apart as a future site for the School for the Deaf. The high altitude and the beauty of the surrounding South Hills, made it a desirable site at the time, and still is. The location was just a twenty minute streetcar ride from the Downtown business section of Pittsburgh, close enough to permit the future school to enjoy all the educational advantages of the city, while far enough away to escape its noise and dust. On that plot, a three story building was erected and a Charter granted December thirty-first, nineteen ten, incorporating it for the city
under the name DePaul Institute for the Deaf. SVP: Do you want to tell us about the move now?
SRX: During Easter Vacation of nineteen eleven, while the students were at their homes, the Sisters bid farewell to Troy Hill bearing with them happy and grateful memories of three blessed and fruitful years. With the aid of the tractors of the Pittsburgh Railway Company, and wagons supplied by Mr. Donald Donovan of the Consolidated Ice Company, the transfer of furniture was begun on Thursday, April twentieth, nineteen eleven with difficulty amid torrents of rain. The move was considered completed on Friday, April twenty-first just as far as the Fire Engine House on Brookline Blvd., where part of the water soaked furnishings were stored until fairer weather arrived to move the treasured cargo down the long, muddy hill to the new building at the head of Castlegate Avenue.
The following two weeks were spent getting classrooms in order as well as preparing the Chapel. The Chapel was small and unpretentious, but the donors of the stained glass windows found it elegant. They were Seton Hill students of nineteen ten and eleven. There were also other benefactors. The Chapel and house were blessed and the first Liturgy was celebrated by Right Reverend Regis Canevin on Saturday, May sixth, nineteen eleven. "I think Our Lord is pleased to be here," he said. On Monday, May 7, 1911 the faculty and pupils assembled and opened the second chapter of Bishop Canev1m's zealous efforts on behalf of the deaf in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Bishop Canev i,n would return to DePaul each year on June sixteenth, the feast of his patron saint to celebrate the feast day. He had oriental pine saplings around the property on both Dorchester Street and Castle Avenue. He liked to stand on the porch and he' d say to Sr. Marie Antonio: "These oriental sycamores we have planted will be fine trees some day." And today, they are.
Offices now fill the spaces where that first little Chapel stood. The buzz of the Xerox and other machines replace the profound quiet of the sacristy. Sister David Mary Leonard now sits with a child or talks with a parent in the conference room, which in 1911, completed the body of the first little Chapel. The main building, in addition to the Chapel, also contains classrooms, dormitories, dining rooms, kitchens, offices, laboratories, bathrooms, locker rooms and a clothes room for the children. The building was erected at a cost of over $39,000.00. Between July and October of 1911, a two-story building was added at the cost of $12,000.00 to serve as the recreational hall building and manual training shop. An increase in enrollment soon required additional space. In March of nineteen fourteen, a third floor dormitory was added to the recreational hall building and joined to the main building with an annex. In nineteen fifteen, tile replaced the wood in the first floor and in the students' dining room, later used for the girls recreational hall. The work was done by Scotts Howell Company at a cost of $2,000.00. In nineteen twenty, a new hard wood floor replaced the old floor in the boys' recreational hall. In September of 1920, another three-story dormitory building was begun and completed in February, nineteen twenty-one.
No effort was spared by Father Coakley to surround the children with the beautiful. Among the art collections which he donated were Chartrand' s original Cistercian Monk formerly in the Metropolitan and Carnegie Galleries, an original portrait of the Irish Poet Thomas More, which had been exhibited in the Dublin and Chicago Art Galleries, twenty-seven etchings of famous Cathedrals, forty copies of masterpieces and European posters: German, French, Italian and
Belgium-among them a charcoal of Cardinal Mercier Protecting the Vatican.
The etchings and the posters were sent by Father Coakley during his years in the First World
War·. DePaul became Father Coakley's album after the war. In nineteen thirty, he sent statuary
to DePaul which included exact replicas of six of the Della Robbias in terra cotta, the head of the god of Amon, a Spanish and a French Madonna, and three of Orentia's(if correct) models for the stone carvings of Columbus, St. Francis of Assisi, and Father Damian of Molokai which graces Sacred Heart Church. Even Father Coakley's precious chalice with the following inscription was given to DePaul: "The fragments of the Chalice and Ciborium belonging to Rev. Thomas Coakley, chaplain of the forty-seventh Infantry, fourth division AEF, destroyed by a German shell." The shell was shown on it, together with the piece of shrapnel imbedded in the Ciborium.
In December nineteen eight, Father Coakley prepared to fulfill Bishop Canev in's second purpose in founding the school: To reach through Sunday School and Worship, the adult deaf. He began his work for the adult deaf in the Church of the Epiphany in Pittsburgh. Mr. William Hays, brother of Sister Bernadette Hays, SC and Mr. Vince Dunn assisted Father Coakley in gathering twenty adults for the first instruction. Sr. Marie Antonio McLinden and Sister Martha Walsh from the Pittsburgh School for the Deaf went to the Epiphany Church every Sunday afternoon to teach Catechism, beginning December twentieth, nineteen eight, with only three months experience with little deaf children. Three months later, they will work with the adult deaf.
Within a year, sixty adults from all over Allegheny County were at Epiphany Church every Sunday. Then he got the Redemptorist Priests who were more experienced teachers of the deaf. They conducted retreats at Troy Hill, and at St. Philomena's Churches in Pittsburgh. They also gave retreats at DePaul. During Father Coakley's absence in WWI, Father Burger, one of the Redemptorists, took care of all the services for the deaf. Father Coakley even found a small group of deaf in and around Jeannette, whom he visited and instructed every two weeks.
Reverend Florian, OSB, Assistant at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Jeannette, took over, so he left then.
SVP: I wonder a little bit about Father Coakley. I know he was very interested in the School and in the education of the children. He made personal visits to several schools in Europe. Could you tell us just a little about that?
SRX: Father Coakley was convinced of the wisdom of conducting an entirely oral program for the instruction of the deaf. As an army chaplain overseas during WWI, he visited the great schools for the deaf in Rome, Bordeaux, and the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris, where he addressed the students in their own language. The following is an excerpt from a litter written under the date of February twentieth, nineteen-nineteen, in which he states his conviction that his own Pittsburgh School compared favorably with the schools he had observed in Europe.
Dear Sisters and Children at DePaul Institute,
"I was fortunate enough to make a flying trip to Rome during the last couple weeks.
Although it entailed a journey of more than two thousand miles. It was worth it. In spite of the bare week I had in Rome, with a million Avenues to attract me, I did manage to get to the school for the deaf there. It is out on the "Via Nomen" near the beautiful Church of St. Agnes. I spent
part of the morning there. I find that there are fifty-two such schools in Italy. The work is truly oral, not a sign being used officially in class by the teacher. The work is almost, though not qui1 as good as they do in Bordeaux and Paris. I saw a lengthy demonstration by third grade boys in lip reading and voice work which in its way was really remarkable. In that I did the talking witb them in Italian on subjects with which they were entirely unfamiliar, for instance, my m'ilitary costume, its significance, the insignia, the sleeve decoration, which they had never seen before and the symbolism of the colors. All this they wanted explained. They got it marvelously well. When they hesitated, the fault was mine, not theirs, the reason being that I talked too slowly and did not pronounce my vowels correctly, a thing that is not at all perceptible when one talks rapidly. When I cut loose and talked to them normally, as did the professors, it was as plain as noonday to them. So, now I've made speeches in French and Italian to deaf children. Taking it all in all, we have nothing to be ashamed of at DePaul. And from the shores of Europe, our owr work shows up first class."
When the school opened in nineteen eight, Bishop Canev; n , Father Coakley, and the Sisters hac in mind the deaf child, in keeping with his native ability, the kind of parochial schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. In general, this meant an elementary education. For the deaf child, it als1 meant the special techniques of communication development skills, of speaking, understanding speech and of comprehending and of writing speech skills which the Sisters had learned and
observed as the traditional methods used in American Schools for the deaf. In the case of the deaf child, vocational training was to be added in addition to the elementary school subjects alsc Bishop Canevin further requested that the children be taught every phase of domestic work....sewing and needle work for the girls, trade work for the boys. Beginning in 1909, Fathe Coakley secured teachers for Physical Education, and trade training for both girls and boys.
Carpentry, chair painting, shoe repairing, arts and crafts were offered for the boys, sewing, embroidery, needle work, lace making and millinery for the girls. Such education enabled the deaf children to find employment and be self-supporting after graduation. By 1920, high school education had been available to the parochial school child, and occupation usually followed upon graduation from the twelfth grade.
Research on the psychological approach to education had reached down to the elementary school level. As a result, new courses for the teachers were being offered in the universities. Father Coakley encouraged the Sisters to enroll in the special courses being held in the university, and in Summer sessions being conducted by leaders in the field of education of the deaf. Father Coakley also made strenuous efforts to obtain Dr. Carolyn Yale, Miss , and
their peers in leadership, for a year ofreorientation for the faculty of DePaul. This failing, the Summer of nineteen twenty-four, two Sisters attended the first vocal Summer session at the Clark School under the direction of Dr. Carolyn Yale. In nineteen twenty-five, at the second vocal Summer session, three Sisters attended at the North Carolina School under the direction o Miss (not audible). Delegates at both of these sessions included outstanding educators for the deaf from various countries around the globe. At a special faculty meeting, the entire DePaul staff benefitted from the evaluation of new procedures in the field of special education. The following Summer, at the invitation of Father Coakley, Miss (not audible)gave a special presentation at a Summer session to the entire staff.
The addition of the new Chapel wing in nineteen twenty-five made possible the rearra classes. In order to develop the potential of each deaf child, it was necessary, in each to plan for a fast moving group, one slow moving group and two or more average grm according to their ability to achieve similarly so far as academic implements were con Children in the fast moving groups were for the most part in the area of Junior High s they had reached the upper departments. Within the next three years, they would be a complete all nine grades. This group included the totally deaf child of superior ability hearing handicapped child who had had language meaning and use before losing their the hard of hearing child who may have entered without either speech or hearing, and with partial hearing who had been unable, even at the primary levels, to maintain him local school. It was planned that all of these variously afflicted children would compl ninth grade requirement and enter the regular High School, Public or Parochial at the level. There was a group of average deaf people that allowed for average (couldn ' t cl school years at DePaul. At the age when the faster moving group would be leaving D tenth grade at a Conventional school, these average Junior High groups would be mo the academic work in the advanced department at DePaul. They entered upon a progr operative sort, in conjunction between DePaul and the Public School System of Pittsb plan would be in operation until Conley Vocation School, in nineteen twenty-seven b s killed center for children over the age of eighteen. DePaul students would report to the choice of their trade in the afternoon. Their mornings would be spent at DePaul f< related subjects , for related theories and the other non-trade subjects. Both course m the associated techniques changed, at least partially, in order to meet the individual n Vocational School work. English, for example, was designated for a particularized V and the field of Mathematics became necessary for the introduction of Algebra and G and Trigonometry for Mechanic Students for Graphic Skills. Some of these boys we full time at the Vocation High Schools soon after graduation from DePaul. Others h jobs which seemed to be sufficient after they left DePaul. The girls attended Bellefiel and (couldn ' t get it) Dress Making, and other Vocational Schools. They also attendee Business Schools in Pittsburgh. The group at the lowest level of training also reporte Vocational High School for semi-school trade courses of their choice in the afternoon morning, they were at DePaul for Theory, related to their afternoon courses as well m subjects. Every educator of the serious handicapped is aware of the fact that the averc child could well afford academically to spend the final years of formal education in in study of English and all of its implications. At DePaul, the faculty did not minimize importance of the fact that for the deaf child, it is essential that he study special classe specially trained teachers to make a foundation for education by learning his native to without hearing. It was recognized as well, that for him, the vernacular would contin stumbling block. From the consideration of adjustment in personality improvement , School would be the right time to learn proper attitude. The philosophy has been that so important that he follow the frame from which he has spent a few years in life. Th important consideration was that he develop positive personality attitude characteristi to any life situation.
Original Format
Audio cassette tape
Duration
46:47
46:53
46:53
Bit Rate/Frequency
96kHz
Collection
Citation
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, “Oral History: Sister Rose Xavier Garrity,” Collections of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill Archives, accessed May 2, 2024, https://scsharchives.com/items/show/660.
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