Deaf culture in the United States was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817 at the American School for the Deaf, when a deaf teacher from Paris, France, Laurent Clerc, was recruited by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to help found the new institution. Under the guidance and instruction of Clerc in language and ways of living, deaf American students began to evolve their own strategies for communication and for living, which became the kernel for the development of American Deaf culture. Clerc's influence on American Sign Language can still be seen today wherein the subject precedes the adjective, following French Sign Language grammatical rules.