Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/362

 EDUCATION


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EDUCATION

in most of the institutions for the blind in the United States. As to the comparative merits of tlie two sys- tems, it is claimed that the Braille notation is inferior in completeness and clearness of expression. The no- tation of music requires not less than 140 signs. The New York system, extending to four or five points horizontally, yields 120 single and 20 compound signs, while the Braille system admits of but 63 single signs

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Example of Tactile Musical Notation'

and requires a uniform space for each. Ambiguity is the consequence of this inadequate number of signs, the same sign being made to represent two different things of the same species, as, for example, a whole note and a sixteenth, a half-note and a thirty-second. Indwstrial Training. — From the very beginning of systematic education of the blind down to the last de- cade, industrial training has always occupied a decid- edly prominent place in the curriculum. Too often, particularly in the earlier days, the essential work of education was subordinated to conditions created and demands made by the industries. Instead of being used as a means of education, the teaching of trades was made the chief aim and end. The success of cer- tain pupils in careers from which they seemed neces- sarily excluded naturally gave rise to somewhat extravagant hopes of the possibilities of industrial edu- cation. Hence, perhaps, arose the prevalent notion and expect at ion that schools for the blind should gradviate young men and women so equipped that each antl all would be self-supporting and able to earn as much, or nearly as much, as persons of equal nat- ural ability with the sense of sight. The fact, how- ever, is that only a small proportion of the blind in Europe and .\merica arc wholly self-supporting. Ac- cording to the I'nited States Census of 1900, of 62,456 ijlind persons, ten years of age and upwards, only 12,506, or about 20 per cent, were reported as regu- larly engaged in remunerative occupations. The per- centage of the general population so employed was upwards of r>0. As most institutions for the blind.

particularly in the United States, are open to all blind children of average intelligence, the heterogeneous character of the membership of such schools must lower the standard of efficiency. Another factor which has too often been lost sight of is that blindness is a disabling infirmity. Education is much slower and more difficult with only four senses than with five; it woidd, therefore, be unreasonaljle to expect better results of the schools for the blind than are ex- pected of the public schools for nonnal children, in which schools neither trades nor music are taught. The teaching of skilled trades, it must also be remem- bered, properly belongs to a stage of education later than the primary, and it should not be allowed to trespass upon the legitimate work of the schools. As soon as atlults are admitted to the school with minors, the industrial feature tends to become dominant and unavoidal>ly imparts an element of commercialism to the school. Both adults and younger pupils become disposed to lay more stress on shop work than on mental exercises and discipline. In consequence, the finished pupils lack those general qualifications which are necessary to begin business in the trades they have learned, and still more to successfully com- pete against sight and machinery. The long, trying, and costly experience of the leading schools in the United States has, moreover, proved that the teaching of trades or industries during the school period confers no lasting good upon the pupils and is void of even such results as the sense of self-reliance and desire to become self-supporting which, it was believed, were being promoted. For these reasons the industrial experiment is gradually being abandoned in order to save the institutions for that strictly educational work for which they were estabUshed. If trades, then, are to be taught the blind, and industries to be carried on by them, the technical training should, as in the case of seeing pupils, be taken up only after the completion of the primary or secondary course of studies and in a location altogether removed from the school proper.

Manual Training. — Instead of the teaching of the ordinary trades, which, owing to the radical change in industrial conditions, can no longer be carried on by the blind at a financial profit, a system of regular and thorough training of the hands, the senses, and the muscles has been generally introduced in the leading American institutions for the blind. The various forms of solid work, of work in clay, paper, and card- board, as well as sewing, cooking, weaving, basketry, simple wood-carving, etc., are the processes of manual training most commonly employed in the general ed- ucation of the blind.

Physical Training. — Educators of both blind and seeing pupils are in entire accord as to the great im- portance of physical training. The blind, for obvious reasons, are peculiarly in need of healthful, systematic exercise. Observation and statistics show that their health and strength are far below the normal stam lai'd. Hence, lief ore there is any hope of obtaining satisfac- tory educational results, all physical and ]iliysi(ilogical defects, such as deformities in the muscular system, unsightly movements, natural timidity, awkwardness in walking, etc., must be corrected as far as possible. In view of these facts, physical training forms an in- tegral part of the regular curriculum of the schools for the blind.

Libraries for the Blind. — It is almost impossible for those who enjoy the use of sight to realize what a boon reading is for those who live in perpetual darkness. Outside of their early education, for those who have been bles.'^ed with it, there is nothing in the life of the blind so stimulating, so broadening, and so comforting as good books. In no countrj' have more efforts been made to supply the blind with books and to solve the problem of their circulation than in the United States. In no country has such a liberal government provision been made for the education of the blind through the