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Laurent Clerc was born on the day after Christmas in 1785, third of five children. He became deaf at one year old; family legend said it happened after Laurent fell into a fire. When he was twelve he entered the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris, directed by Abbé Roch Ambroise Sicard. The Royal Institution was a large residential school providing education for deaf children from all over France, and was free for the children of poor parents. Instruction was based on the French system of sign language. Clerc's first teacher was Jean Massieu, who was himself a graduate of the Institution. Clerc was a brilliant student, and in his twenties became an instructor of advanced classes. In 1815 Clerc went with Massieu and Abbé Sicard to London to exhibit the Institution's educational methods, which were a revelation to English-speaking audiences -- and in particular to a visiting American clergy