School for the blind

“ In the classroom, too, the spirit is the same, the blind child remembering things for the one who sees, and the seeing child using his eyes for the one who is blind. The special teacher trains the memory of her pupils to the highest possible degree, impressing upon them that their minds are vast storehouses in which to keep all sorts of knowledge tucked away for future use, and that it is disastrous to blind children to forget. In mental arithmetic, they usually lead the class. Their presence in the school is of the greatest help to the others with whom they work in class. ”

“ However, I can't help thinking that the rendering of such institutions independent of any gain from the labour of the pupils would go far towards improvement.
Much might be done in schools to prevent the blind from being isolated, by giving them an interest in the subjects of the day. For instance, in the Bristol School, a newspaper is read to them.
The older pupils should have opportunities for discussion not only with each other, but with visitors and friends. For instance, there might be an inexpensive entertainment once a week, or at some such stated time, for the purpose. ”

“ The hand of the sightless worker is steadier, and his courage greater, because of the years of struggle and constant effort of which his sighted competitors can form no conception.
And so those in charge of the education of the blind, whether in residential schools or public school classes, have a herculean task before them, but if their hearts are in the work, if they are alive to their wonderful opportunity for service, and if they have faith in the ability of their pupils, the future success of these handicapped young people is practically assured. ”

“ The unwillingness of parents to send their children away to boarding school at so early an age is one of the strongest arguments in favor of the special classes in public schools. But it is not possible to have such classes in the small cities and towns, and very often the home conditions are often unsuitable for the proper development of a blind child, and so, in every state, a residential school is an absolute necessity. ”

“ Anderson says that one prominent feature in institutions for the blind is, the desire to carry forward the pupil at any sacrifice, to accomplish such pieces of work as may call forth the mere surprise of the passing visitor. If this is bad in an asylum where it is very little practised, it is far worse in a school. The time of a pupil ought to be considered most sacred, and as much as possible appropriated to the acquirement of that which he will be able to perform and find a ready sale for, on his leaving the school. ”

“ When blind and seeing children are trained side by side, from the kindergarten, through the grades into high school, and on to college, perhaps, the barriers dissolve, the blind boy and the seeing boy are comrades—they have played together, worked together, and together they have planned their future. The seeing boy knows the blind boy will succeed because he has seen him victorious in many a mental skirmish. Just this May, right here in the University at Berkeley, a blind student graduated fourth in a class of more than one thousand seeing students. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In July 1896 Queen’s Scholarship examinations were held at the Royal Normal College, for the first time, for blind students, and the institution recognized by the Education Department as a training college for blind school-teachers.
From the first day a pupil enters school until he finishes his course of training, care must be taken to implant business habits. Blind children are allowed to be idle and helpless at home; they do not learn to appreciate the value of time, and in after years this is one of the most difficult Educational needs.lessons to inculcate. ”

“ In every country there ought to be at least one normal school where teachers for the blind may be trained. A simple way of effecting this would be for the Government to allow to one establishment, which should first be ascertained to be a superior one in its management and results, such an annual grant of money as should enable it to retain several young men as assistant-teachers, who would be ready to supply vacancies, and to take charge of newly-established institutions. ”

“ The school for the blind is entirely separate from that of the deaf and dumb, and is equipped with all the appliances of a modern special school of this character. It makes a specialty of musical instruction and industrial training, such as broom-making, hammock weaving, bead work and sewing. ”

“ Children are indentured out when good homes can be found for them.
The School for the Education of the Blind is a State institution, and admits none from outside the State. The fine building occupies a commanding situation on hills not far from the river, and is admirably built, the rooms spacious and airy, and the whole establishment is well ordered. There are only 79 scholars, and the few colored are accommodated by themselves in a separate building, in accordance with an Act of the Legislature in 1884 for the education of colored blind children. ”

“ Having outlined the aim and purpose of the residential school, and shown it to be a necessary factor in the education of the blind in every state, I wish to call attention to some of the advantages to be derived from coeducation of blind and seeing children. ”

“ There is, however, one thing to be urged in excuse of this practice in blind schools, viz., that the funds of most of them are not equal to their expenses, without the aid of the sale of the pupils' work. I believe that every such school, in order to be efficient, ought not to derive benefit from the work of the pupils; as when this is the case, the learners are often hurried over the different steps of their trade without due care being taken that they should each be able to take such steps securely when entirely unassisted. ”

“ The School for the Indigent Blind, St. George's Fields, Southwark, had also opened departments for instructing and employing the adult blind, but we have no sheaf of old letters to give the history of this further development. ”

“ Their success in overcoming difficulties is a stimulus to the pride and an incentive to the ambition of the seeing child. The presence of the blind children is a constant reminder to them of their superior physical advantages, and they are ashamed to have them outstrip them, as they so often do, in intellectual work. And so the presence of the blind child is sure to result in untold good, not only to the child so handicapped, but to the entire school, removing as it must, the belief, [Pg 21] now, alas, so general, that when eyesight is lost, all is lost. ”

“ When preventive medicine and preventive social service are joined in the effort to help mankind, there must result a saving of our most precious physical possession, and an addition to human joy. The National Committee for the Prevention of Blindness and Conservation of Vision, with headquarters at 130 East Twenty-second street, New York City, carries on a ceaseless campaign of enlightenment by means of pamphlets, lectures, charts, lantern slides and posters, and the work of this society is directed by Mr Edward M. Van Cleve, Superintendent of the School for the Blind in New York City. ”

“ On January 2, 1917, the Los Angeles class started with eight pupils enrolled, and on June 30 of this year the number had increased to seventeen, with the prospect of more at the opening of the fall term. Teachers for special classes are generally chosen from the regular school department, their work being usually directed by a blind supervisor. In pursuance of my work as home teacher I found a number of children for whom there was no room in the State School at Berkeley, and before the special class was organized I taught these children in their homes or at the library. ”

“ The blind, it seems, are the worst sufferers, as they are in a minority, are often considered only a department or class in an institution designed primarily for the deaf, and consequently receive less attention than they should. [267] However, this arrangement has not been adopted as a deliberate policy on the part of the state: rather, it was begun when the school was young, pupils of both classes few, and one plant was thought adequate ”

“ The Methodist Episcopal Mission has initiated work among the blind, and it has a promising school of blind girls, who are already preparing text-books in Braille with a view to the opening of other schools for the blind. The Presbyterians have also started a class for blind boys, but it is more difficult to know what to teach them as a means of livelihood than it is in the case of girls. ”

“ It is claimed by some that a blind child gains more independence if kept at home and educated in a school with the seeing. This theory is not verified by practical experience. At home its blindness makes the child an exception, and often it takes little or no part in the active duties of everyday life. Again, in a class of seeing children the blind member is treated as an exception. ”

“ Such legislation has brought into the schools not only the truant and the incorrigible, who under former conditions either left early or were expelled, but also many children who have no aptitude for book learning, and many of inferior mental qualities who do not profit by ordinary classroom procedure. Still more, they have brought into the school the crippled, tubercular, deaf, epileptic, and blind, as well as the sick, needy, and physically unfit. ”

“ With conservation of vision classes, classes in hygiene, with school nurses and clinics, with medical inspection of schools, and with the public aroused as never before to its responsibility towards its boys and girls, we should have less need for oculists and schools for the blind, and fewer persons should be obliged to go through life deprived of the light, which was God's first gift to the world. ”

“ The school at Berkeley has included business methods in its course of study, and this is an excellent thing, because the day is not far distant when the ability of the blind to fill positions as typewriters, stenographers, telephone and dictaphone operators, and salesmen, will be recognized. And when this time comes, let us hope that our young people may be ready and eager to prove their worth in these lines of endeavor. If the students are made to feel that they are blazing a trail, and making it less difficult for others to follow, their ultimate success is assured. ”

“ In such a school, a deft-fingered intelligent blind boy could learn electric wiring, pipe fitting, screw fitting, bolt nutting, assembling of chandeliers and telephone parts, trained as a plumber's helper, and taught to read gas and electric meters, by passing the fingers over the dial—in short, a variety of trades and occupations could be pursued with profit to the school and to the students. ”

“ There is a Denmark.preparatory school for blind children under 10 years of age, and an asylum for blind females, most of whom are former pupils of the royal school. An association for promoting the self-dependence of the blind assists not only former pupils of the school but every blind man or woman willing and able to work. ”

“ Long before it has reached school age, the blind child should be permitted to romp with other children, to take bumps and bruises as part of the game, and should be encouraged to run, jump rope, and join in all harmless sports, thus acquiring that freedom of movement, muscular co-ordination, and fearless bearing, so necessary if he is to cope successfully with the difficulties awaiting him. ”

“ To free men from the bondage of authority in religion and philosophy, to substitute for superstitious terror a faith in human reason and virtue, to transform regret for a lost Paradise to quenchless belief in the perfectibility of the race, was the prominent teaching of their school. ”

“ From all I can learn from others, and from the little I have seen myself, I believe there is one great evil at the root of the system of education in blind schools, which is, that each institution wishes to take rank as the first in importance, and is therefore more bent on making such an appearance before the public as will secure its own reputation, than upon practically benefiting the pupils, so far as lies in its power. ”

“ A certain element of school-girlishness may be accounted for, either by the pieces being partly of considerably earlier date, or by the youthful freshness of feeling which, in spite of thought and study and disappointment, and struggles with herself and her surroundings, she yet retained in a surprising degree. ”

“ No wise or right-thinkmg person would wish religious instruction omitted from the school course, but how is religious instruction to be defined? The great majority of ministers of religion would understand by it such a course of instruction as that which in Mathilde Blind's case, and that of thousands besides, was dissipated by the first contact with free unbiassed inquiry. It is easy to say that this would not have happened if the Bible had been taught her rationally ”