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 EDUCATION

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EDUCATION

rus of Boston, Abbe Sicard writes: "The extreme desire to procure for the unfortunate deaf-mutes of the coun- try in which you dwell, and fulfill so well the mission of the Holy Apostles, the happiness of knowing our holy religion, leads me to a sacrifice which would ex- ceed human strength. I send to the United States the best taught of my pupils, a deaf-mute whom my art has restored to society and religion. He goes fully resolved to live and be faithful to the principles of the Catholic religion which I have taught him." Not- withstanding the kind solicitude of his beloved master, Laurent C'lerc, like so many other deaf-mutes de- prived of constant religious instruction, in his sur- roundings weakened in the Faith and apostatized. The kindness of Abbe Sicard only served to lay the foundation of a Protestant propaganda which, ever since the opening of the Hartford Scliool founded by Dr. Gallaudet, has controlled the education of the deaf in America. This Hartford School, then known as the American Asylum, was opened 15 April, 1S17, under the superintendency of the Rev. Dr. Gallaudet, whose two sons, the Rev. T. Gallaudet and E. M. Gallaudet, have been active in the cause of deaf-mute education. The latter was the founder of the Columbia Institu- tion for the Deaf and Dumb at Washington, D. C, which was opened 13 June, 1857. Later on, in 1S64, it developed into a school for the higher education of the deaf under the name of the National Deaf-Mute College. Connected with the college is a normal de- partment for the training of teachers for the deaf. A course of studies leading up to entrance into the Na- tional Deaf-llute College may be found in the '' Ameri- can Annals of the Deaf" for November, 1907. As re- gards higher education and normal-school practice, opportunities are also afforded by the Catholic deaf- mute schools in the State of New York.

When the Abbe de I'Epee originated the method of signs, many of his contemporaries, such as the Abb6 Deschamps, refused to be associated with the new- school, and between him and Samuel Heinicke of Leipzig, the great upholder of the speech method, there was carried on a spirited controversy, which has continued ever since, among the educators of the deaf. Professor E. A. Fay, in the "American Annals of the Deaf", gives the following classification and definition of the methods used in the schools for the deaf: —

" (1) The Manual Method: — Signs, the manual alpha- bet, and writing are the chief means used in the in- struction of the pupils, and the principal objects aimed at are mental development, and facility in the com- prehension and use of written language. The degree of relative importance given to these three means varies in different schools: but it is a difference only in degree, and the end aimed at is the same in all.

"(2) The Manual Alphabet Method: — The manual alphalipt method anil writing are the chief means used in the instruction of the pupils, and the principal ob- jects aimed at are mental development, and facility in the comprehension and use of written language. Speech and speech-reading are taught to all of the piipils in one of the schools (the Western New York Institution) recorded as following this method.

" (3) The Oral Method: — Speech and speech-reading, together with writing, are made the chief means of in- struction, and facility in speech and speech-reading, as well as mental dcveiopmont and written language, is aimed at. There is a dilTorence in different schools in the extent to which the use of natural .signs is allowed in the early part of the course, and also in the promi- nence given to writing as an auxiliary to speech and speech-reading in the course of instruction; but they are differences only in degree, and the end aimed at is the same in all.

" (4) The Auricular Metlio<l: — The hearing of somi- deaf pupils is utilized and developed to the greatest possible extent, and, with or without the aid of artifi- cial appliances, their education is carried on chiefly

through the use of speech and hearing, together with writing. The aim of the method is to graduate its pupils as hard-of-hearing speaking people instead of deaf-mutes.

" (5) The Combined System: — Speech and speech- reading are regarded as very important, but mental development and the acquisition of language are re- garded as still more important. It is believed that, in many cases, mental development and the acquisition of language can be best promoted by the manual or the manual-alphabet method, and so far as circumstances permit, such method is chosen for each pupil as seems best adapted for his individual case. Speech and speech-reading are taught where the measure of suc- cess seems likely to justify the labor expended, and, in most of the schools, some of the pupils are taught wholly or chiefly by the oral method or by the auricu- lar method."

Some educators of the deaf employ the method of visible speech, which is a species of phonetic writing symbolizing the movements of the vocal organs in the production of speech. There is also a phonetic man- ual in which the several positions of the hand not only represent various speech sounds, but also indicate concisely the way in which the represented sound is physiologically or mechanically produced (see Lyon, "Phonetic Manual", Rochester. New York, 1891). Whipple, in his "Phonetic Manual", endeavours to depict the positions taken by the visible organs, the teeth, lips, tongue, and palate, in the production of sound.

It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the merits of the various methods in use. A teacher of the deaf cannot lose sight of the fact that in the term deaf, or deaf-mute, there are included at least four sub- classes, namely, the semi-mutes, who have lost their hearing after they had acquired more or less perfectly the use of language; the semi-deaf, who retain some power of hearing, but yet cannot attend with profit schools for hearing children ; the congenitally deaf, pos- sessing some ability to perceive sound; and the totally deaf from birth, who are unable to perceive soimd. A teacher of hearing children may take for granted, if the class is properly graded, that all his pupils are on the same plane; but a teacher of the deaf, whose pupils may be only four in number, may have before him, even in the lowest grade, as many different kinds of deaf children as there are pupils in the class. These he must instruct and educate. Considering that the deaf child is very much handicapped, and that the period of its school-days are limited, it is reasonable to suppose that a good teacher will take advantage of every latent power possessed by the child for educa- tional development. In " i'.ord, the teacher will suit the method to the child and not endeavour to adapt the child to the method. It would certainly be a mistake to use the purely oral method for all deaf-mutes with- out discrimination and witliout considering the ca- pacity, eyesight, etc. of the pupil.

Aids to Edic.vtion of the Deaf. — For the purpose of diffusing knowledge relative to the education of the deaf, there has been established, through the licnefac- tions of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the ^'olta Bu- reau, Washington, D. C. Here are collected items of interest in the educational work for the deaf. Under John Ilitz, its first superintendent, it received interna- tional devcloimient. In this way it has been po.ssible to compile and diffuse international statistical infor- mation concerning institutions and work for the <leaf throughout the world. Its pulilications are distrib- uted gratuitously or by exchange. ,\niong the pub- lications of the Volta Bureau is an historical aceount of all the schools for the deaf in the TTnited States, in three volumes, edited by Dr. E. \. Fay. As an incen- tive to the educational work for the deaf, and as a means of collating the opinions of those interested, there arc about thirty-two periodical publications in