The work of deaf educators in the oralist schools, who were mostly women, was to prepare the deaf children for life in the hearing world, which required them to learn English, speech, and lipreading.[17] All students that were sent to the oral schools were forced to use the oral method, and oralist schools restricted the deaf students' use of American Sign Language (ASL) in class and in public. Students in pure oral programs were not allowed to sign in class and were also forbidden to sign in dormitories. Students caught signing were punished, but students continued to learn sign from each other anyway.[21][22] One type of punishment used on deaf students was to force them to wear white gloves that were tied together to prevent them from using signs.[21] Those who were not successful under the oral method after several years were transferred to manual classes and considered "oral failures" who would never know anything or be able to make it in the world.[22] Some consider this the "Dark Age of Oralism".[22]