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 EDUCATION

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EDUCATION

need exists, it must include, moreover, the awakening for the first time into activity and usefulness of some faculty which, but for the awakening, might remain forever dormant. As regards intellectual develop- ment, the deaf individual is the most handicapped of the afflicted class. The term " deaf and dumb ", so fre- quently applied to that class of individuals who neither hear nor speak, is becoming obsolete among the educa- tors of the deaf, as it implies a radical defect in both the auditory and the vocal organism. Persons who are born deaf, or who lose their hearing at a very early age, are unable to speak, although their vocal organs may be unimpaired. They become dumb because, being deprived of hearing, they are unable to imitate the sounds which constitute speech. To correct the error involved in the term dumb, it is customary to speak of human beings who do not hear and speak as deaf-mutes, a term which implies that they are silent, but not necessarily incapable of speaking. Brute ani- mals that are deaf, are deaf and dumb; the little child, before it has learned to speak, is mute, but not dumb. There are found individuals who can hear, but cannot speak. To such may be applied the term dumb, inas- much as they are either destitute of the power of speech or are unwilling to speak and are lackmg in in- telligence. Such children are generally found to be more or less idiotic. On account of the great progress made, especially during the last century, in the educa- tion of deaf-mutes, by which a large percentage are taught to speak, the term 7nide is also omitted when speaking of matters pertaining to that class formerly designated as "deaf and dumb". Institutions for them are named preferably "Schools for the Deaf", and in the literature of the subject they are spoken of simply as the " deaf ", e. g. " The Annals of the Deaf ", etc. Here it is well to remark, that there is a strong and growing objection among the deaf and their edu- cators to calling their institutions asylums — a term which classifies them with unfortunates needing relief and protection, like the insane. In fact, Webster, under the word " Asylum ", classes the deaf and dumb with the insane. Efforts are consequently being made to place such institutions under the control of educa- tional rather than of charity boards.

History. — That there were deaf persons in the re- mote past is evident from the fact that the causes of deafness, such as disease, were as prevalent then as now. Before the Christian Era, their condition was deplorable. By many they were considered as under the curse of heaven; they were called monsters and even put to death as soon as their deafness was satis- factorily ascertained. Lucretius voices the received opinion that they could not be educated: —

To instruct the deaf, no art can ever reach. No care improve them, and no wisdom teach. Greek and Roman poets and philosophers classified them with defectives, and the Justinian Code abridged their civil rights. In the family they were considered a disgrace, or were looked upon as a useless burden and kept in isolation. It is a bright page in the New Testament which narrates the kindness of our Divine Lord, who, doing good to all, did not forget the deaf and dumb. After His example, the Church has ex- tended its charity to this afflicted class, and has led the way in opening up for them other channels of thought in place of the hearing faculty. The state- ment met with in literature connected with the educa- tion of the deaf, that the real history of deaf-mute instruction must be consirlered as dating from the Reformation, is the old fallacy of post hue ergo propter lior. The fact is, that not a few of the more famous educators of the deaf received their first lessons from tliDsc who preceded the Reformation or were not in- fluenced by its errors, but undertook the instruction of dcaf-tnutos for tlu^ sole purpose of imparting religious instruction. XdCatholie theologian maintained that the adult deaf and dumb from birth are beyond the

pale of salvation, because "Faith cometh by hearing" (Rom., X, 17). The assertion is often made, without references being given, that St. Augustine held such an opinion. Although the great doctor may have held the opinion of his time, that the deaf could not be edu- cated, he certainly did not exclude them from the pos- sibility of salvation any more than he excluded pagans to whom the Gospel had not yet been preached.

That the deaf are very much handicapped, even in our time, as regards religious instruction, so necessary for the preservation of faith and morals, must be ad- mitted. Many deaf-mutes born of Catholic parents have lost the Faith, owing to a lack of Catholic educa- tional facilities. Moreover, they are deprived of the usual Sunday instructions and sermons. There are in the LTnited States few priests engaged in ministering to their spiritual welfare, and such as have taken up this apostolate are not at leisure to devote their whole en- ergy to the work. On the other hand, Protestant ministers travel through the length and breadth of the land and in their monthly itineraries assemble the deaf for religious services. There can be no doubt that from the dawn of Christianity the deaf enlisted the sympathy and zeal of many priests and mission- aries who, by various ingenious devices suited to the occasion, taught them the essential truths of faith; but history has left meagre records of their good work. According to Venerable Bede, St. John of Beverley (721) caused a deaf and dumb youth to speak by making the sign of the cross over him; and ISede himself, in his "De Loquela per gestum digitorum", describes a manual alphabet. Rudolph Agricola, the distinguished humanist (1443-1485), states that he saw a deaf and dumb man who was able to converse with others by writing (De inventione dialectica. III, xvi). Ponce de Leon (1520-1584), a Spanish Bene- dictine monk, undertook the education of several deaf- mutes, as is related in the accounts of his work discov- ered among the archives at Oiia. He relates that he taught pupils who were deaf and dumb from birth to speak, to read, to write, and to keep accounts, to re- peat prayers and to confess orally. He first taught his pupils to write the names of objects and then to articulate. A contemporary writer, Francesco Val- les, says that Ponce de Leon's method proved that, although wc learn first to speak and then to write, the reverse order answers the same purpose for the deaf. It is highly probable that he was led to undertake the instruction of the deaf and dumb by the principle an- nounced by Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), a friend of St. Charles Borromeo, that "writing is associated with speech, and speech with thought, but written characters may be connected together without the in tervention of sounds. The deaf can hear by reading, and speak by writing." About fifty years later, Juan Pablo Bonet, a Spanish priest, published a treatise en- titled, " Reihiccion dp las Letras y arte para Enseiiar a hablarlos.Mu.lns" (.Mailrid, lt>20"). Hemadeuseofa manual alphaliet, invented a system of visible signs representing to the sight the sounds of words, and gave a description of the position of the vocal organs in the pronunciation of each letter. His work contains many valuable suggestions useful to modern teachers of articulation and lip-reading.

St. Francis de Sales, having on his missionary jour- neys met a deaf-mute, took him into his service and succeeded in establishing coinmimicati<in with him by signs, and prepared him for confession and Holy Com- munion. The celebrated Jesuit n;itvn'alist and phy- sician, Lana Terzi (1631-1687), in his ' I'lodromo dell' Arte Maestra", considers the education of the deaf, which, according to him, consists in their "first learn- ing to perceive the dispositions of the organs of speech in the formation of sounds, and then imitating them; and recognizing speech in others by lip-reading. To that end they .'should hrst utter each sound separately, read it on the lips of another, then join them in words;