Harry Best

“ In our discussion it is with deafness that we are primarily concerned. Deafness and dumbness are, physically, two essentially different things. There is no anatomical connection between the organs of hearing and those of speech; and the structure and functioning of each are such as to preclude any direct pathological relation. The number of the so-called deaf and dumb, moreover, who are really dumb is very small—so small actually as to be negligible. Almost all who are spoken of as deaf and dumb have organs of speech that are quite intact, and are, indeed, constructively perfect. ”

“ Notwithstanding the impairment of his health, his different labors were continued, not the least of which was his office as chaplain of the Connecticut Asylum for the Insane. To Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet America owes a rare debt. Without him the work for the deaf would have been taken up eventually by other hands, but he brought to his task a disregard for obstacles, a splendid idealism, a fine conception of duty, a complete forgetfulness of self, a singular beauty of character, and a great human love that could have existed in but few other men. ”

“ The former "winds his weary way" through life in ignorance and obscurity, often an object of charity, and almost a burden to himself; but the latter, gladdened by the genial rays of knowledge and fitted for the discharge of duty, becomes a blessing to his friends and to society, acts well his part as a member of the great human family, enjoys the present, and looks forward to the future with cheerfulness and hope. ”

“ In the home there can be no great assurance of study and supervision; and the growing deaf child, not being able to appreciate the forces that surround him as the hearing child does, may the more easily fall under unwholesome influences. In the institution there can be suitable discipline, regular attendance, enlightened general oversight, and co-ordination of all that is concerned in the child's proper development. ”

“ It is not a question whether they are entitled to an education as much as normal children. So far as there is any real issue, it is one of classification for purposes of administration. The question seems to be whether the institutions that care for the above mentioned classes can best be administered under the department of charities that has charge of public institutions, or the department of education that usually has to do with institutions that furnish education only in the limited technical sense, where pupils attend school a few hours a day, but are not boarded at the institutions. ”

“ Of the last, comprising, according to the census, [42] nine-twentieths, or 44.4 per cent, of the congenitally deaf, there is not much that we can say. For a great part of it there no doubt exists in the parent, or perhaps in a more remote ancestor, some abnormal strain, physical or mental, in the nature of disease or other defect. But in respect to such deafness we have too little in the way of statistical data to help us arrive at any real determination; and for it as a whole we shall have to wait till we have greater knowledge of eugenics and the laws of heredity. ”

“ In many day schools there are comparatively few pupils, and in most of these we cannot expect to find the carefully graded classes, with a place for every pupil according to his needs, bright or dull, quick to learn or slow. A pupil [199] in a day school, if not neglected to some extent, may be required to do work for which he is quite unfitted, being either beyond it or incapable of it. The backward child will here be the worst sufferer, for if there are but few classes, he can get little of the special attention he needs ”

“ The special day school may be co-ordinated with, or made a part of, the state's educational system, standing on a level with its other schools. Deaf children here come to feel their place in the normal world, while [196] people in general become more ready to regard them in a proper manner. These children at the same time are not made strangers to their own family circles and communities; and certain ones, by a school nearer home and consequently more acceptable to their parents, may be reached who would otherwise possibly never enter an institution. ”

“ Here life for the inmates is made too easy, and little can be known by them of the actual struggles of the world. The life is machine-like, and all is routine clockwork. By the discipline, which is necessary, much of the spontaneity of growing children is destroyed, and the surroundings are pervaded with the spirit of uniformity, "solidarity" and "dead levelism." On the other hand, the children fail to learn many important lessons in domestic economy which would be before them every day in the home; and they lose the attitude towards life, morally and socially, which is given by the home. ”

“ Nor yet again are we to concern ourselves principally with what is known as the "human interest" question, though we should be much disappointed if there were not found an abundance of human interest in what we shall have to consider. Rather, then, we are to regard the deaf as certain components of the state who demand classification and attention in its machinery of organization. Our attitude is thus that of the social economist, and the object of our treatment is a part or section of the community in its relation to the greater and more solidified body of society. ”

“ In the institution the children may be under intelligent supervision and direction their entire time, and they may be able to get, outside school hours, a part of the education which the hearing child so naturally acquires, for in an institution learning continues outside the classroom as well as within. The "picking up" of knowledge and bits of information, which the hearing child begins to make use of from the time he first hears human words, and the importance and value of which the general public cannot be expected to appreciate, is lost in the greatest measure to the deaf in the home. ”

“ Indeed, as our new view of charity is the making of men capable of standing alone, and economic units of gain in society, so the deaf should not be considered as a distinct or dependent class, when by the use of certain expressions this is done; and we should hold that if their work in the world has justified them, then no barriers should be raised which their fellows in society do not have to meet, and that their education should be offered to them without discrimination or stigma. ”

“ Yet it remains that by and through all this the deaf have been the gainers as no other people in the world have ever been, and their story is as no other's in the rise of a section of mankind towards the richness and fullness of living which are the fruits of humanized society.
Great indeed can be the rejoicing of the deaf, for they are those to whom the way has been hard and long, but who have come from the darkness into the light. ”

“ FOREWORD The aim of the present study is to ascertain as far as possible the standing of the deaf, or, as they are so often called, the "deaf and dumb," in society in America, and to examine the treatment that has been accorded to them—to present an account of an element of the population of whom little is generally known. In this effort regard is had not only to the interests of the deaf themselves, but also, with the growing concern in social problems, to the fixing of a status for them in the domain of the social sciences. ”

“ For the greater efficiency and success of the schools, the law as well as public sentiment can be called in aid. Deaf children everywhere should be prevailed upon or compelled to enter the schools, and should be required to remain as long as their best interests demand it. Education should be a matter, forced if need be, for every [321] deaf child, for terrible as ignorance always is, in the deaf it is the most dreadful of all.
In America private assistance to schools for the deaf has not been great, and very few schools have been beneficiaries from resources other than the state's. ”

“ Hence we are told, in a word, that no matter how strong and valid are the theoretical objections to an institution, yet so far as the practical issues are concerned, in the preparation of the deaf for the world, and in what really counts for their development and progress, the institution, for many at least, occupies a position of demonstrated usefulness, recognition of which cannot rightly be withheld. ”

“ Education has ever been the master passion of Americans, and in its wide sweep the deaf too have been gathered in, and have been borne to the place where all the state had to offer as instruction was laid before them. ”

“ At the same time not to be forgotten, in the narration of the extension of the means of education to the deaf of the country, is the real debt to private action. It was private initiative that often brought the schools into being, and it was private solicitude that often won their final endorsement and adoption by the state. In not a few places there were citizens found who were willing to give of their substance to forward the new work. ”

“ In one further direction the law can be invoked very materially in aid of the deaf, and just where very little has been attempted. In every state there should be enactments, backed up by vigorous public opinion and the co-operation of all citizens, providing severe punishment for those who go about begging alms on the pretense that they are deaf and dumb. For such creatures the law should have no mercy. The deaf themselves demand that such impostors be put out of business, for a real and cruel injury is done to them. ”

“ Institutional care for educational purposes is necessary for a portion of the deaf and blind children ... but it is recognized that in large cities public schools can be provided for many deaf and blind children.
By some it is believed that in time the day school will supplant the large institution, so far at least as large cities are concerned, and that the deaf, and the blind as well, will not be differentiated from the pupils in the regular schools. Separate apartments and special teachers will be provided for them, but in all public school systems these classes will be actual factors. ”