The Deaf Part 28

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN THE SCHOOLS

The industrial training given in the American schools for the deaf forms a very important feature of the work--in many respects it may be said to be the most important. In many of the schools industrial instruction was recognized almost from the very start, and in a number it commenced practically with the beginning of the work of education.[564] It is now provided in all the inst.i.tutions, in nearly all the day schools, and in over half of the denominational and private schools. Many of the inst.i.tutions have large, well-equipped shop and trade departments, with skilled and capable instructors. Nearly every pupil at a suitable age is put at some industry, and encouragement and special opportunity are often given to those who show a particular bent or apt.i.tude. The value of this industrial preparation of the schools in the after lives of the deaf has already been referred to.[565]

The following table will show the number and percentage of the pupils in the several kinds of schools in industrial departments, according to the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1911-1912.[566]

NUMBER OF PUPILS IN INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENTS IN SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF

-----------------------------------+--------+-----------+---------- | TOTAL |NUMBER IN | KIND OF SCHOOL | NUMBER |INDUSTRIAL | PER CENT | |DEPARTMENTS| -----------------------------------+--------+-----------+---------- Inst.i.tutions | 11,244 | 6,203 | 55.2 Day Schools | 1,928 | 662 | 34.3 Denominational and Private Schools | 518 | 196 | 37.8 +--------+-----------+---------- Total | 13,690 | 7,061 | 51.8

In all the schools there are 403 industrial instructors, 373 being in inst.i.tutions.[567]

The industries taught in the schools, as given in the _Annals_,[568] are as follows:

Art, baking, barbering, basket-making, blacksmithing, bookbinding, bookkeeping, bricklaying, broom-making, building trades, cabinet-making, calcimining, carpentry, chalk-engraving, cementing, chair-making, china-painting, construction work, cooking, clay-modeling, coopery, dairying, domestic science, drawing, dress-making, electricity, embroidery, engineering, fancy work, farming, floriculture, gardening, glazing, harness-making, house decoration, half-tone engraving, housework, horticulture, ironing, knife work, knitting, lace-making, laundering, leather work, manual training, mattress-making, millinery, needlework, nursing, painting, paper-hanging, photography, plastering, plate-engraving, plumbing, pottery, poultry-farming, printing, pyrography, raffia, rug-weaving, sewing, shoemaking, shop work, sign-painting, sloyd, stone-laying, stencil work, tailoring, tin-work, tray work, typewriting, Venetian iron-work, weaving, wood-carving, wood-engraving, wood-turning, wood-working, working in iron, and the use of tools.

The number and kinds of particular industries taught in the different schools vary not a little. In a few as many as a score are offered, while in others only three or four are given. The average seems to be about six or eight. The most usual industries afforded are art, cabinet-making, carpentry, cooking, domestic science, drawing, dress-making, farming, gardening, laundering, painting, printing, sewing, shoemaking, sign-painting, tailoring, wood-working, and the use of tools. The most common of all are carpentry, sewing, printing, farming, shoemaking, and painting. In most of the inst.i.tutions papers are printed to afford practical instruction in printing, as well as to give local news of interest. These papers are published weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. A number of the schools, especially those in agricultural states, also have small experimental farms in connection with their industrial work, and dairy farming and truck gardening are often given particular attention.[569]

FOOTNOTES:

[546] In America the one-hand alphabet is used practically altogether, which is also the case with most of the countries of Europe. In England the double-hand is employed mainly. Finger-spelling, as well as sign-making, is very old with the human race. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans are said to have made use of a system of finger notation. In the Middle Ages monks in their enforced silence often resorted to a finger alphabet. Dalgarno, one of the early English writers on the deaf, had an alphabet in which the letters were represented by parts of the hand. See J. C. Gordon, "Practical Hints to Parents concerning the Preliminary Training of Young Deaf Children", 1886, p. 34ff.; W. R. Cullingworth, "A Brief Review of the Manual Alphabet for the Deaf", 1902.

[547] For a description of the sign language, see J. S. Long, "The Sign Language: a Manual of Signs", 1910. See also _American Journal of Science_, viii., 1824, p. 348; _Annals_, i., 1847, pp. 55, 79; v., 1852, pp. 83, 149; vii., 1855, p. 197; xvi., 1871, p. 221; xviii., 1873, p. 1; x.x.xii., 1887, p. 141; lvii., 1911, p. 46; Proceedings of American Instructors, ii., 1851, p. 193; iv., 1857, p. 133; vii., 1870, p. 133; xii., 1890, pp. 100, 171; Report of New York Inst.i.tution, 1838, p. 14; 1840, p. 17; American School, 1856, p. 18; California School, 1875, p.

24. See also "The Deaf: by their Fruits," by the New York Inst.i.tution, 1912.

[548] Against the arguments to abolish the sign language, it is claimed that signs are free, and are as natural to the deaf as spoken words to the hearing; that with certain of the deaf, especially the congenitally deaf, they are all but indispensable; that they cause mental stimulation as cannot otherwise be done; that the acquisition of speech requires a great amount of time, which is often needed for other things; that the voices of many of the deaf are disagreeable and attract notice; that communication readily and with pleasure among the deaf by speech and speech-reading cannot be accomplished to any wide extent; that only with the gifted few, and not with the general body of the deaf, can such proficiency in the use of speech and speech-reading be attained as to cause them to be "restored to society", in that they can with ease and with any considerable degree of satisfaction carry on intercourse with the hearing; and that, finally, the great majority of the deaf vigorously demand the retention of the sign language.

[549] The New York Inst.i.tution, by a resolution adopted at the first meeting of its board of directors in 1818, decided for the employment of articulation teaching, which policy was continued for some ten years.

Report, 1908, p. 30; E. H. Currier, "History of Articulation Teaching in the New York Inst.i.tution", 1894 (Proceedings of American a.s.sociation to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, iv., sec. 12); _American Journal of Education_, iii., 1828, p. 397.

[550] In addition, there have always been sporadic instances of private instruction in speech, as by one's family or friends.

[551] It is also claimed that it was by accident that the sign method came into vogue in America, Gallaudet in his trip to Europe having found the London and Edinburgh schools closed to him, and having for this reason been compelled to turn to France, where the sign method was in use.

[552] It is interesting to note that after Mann and Howe had made their report, the American School at Hartford and the New York Inst.i.tution sent special representatives to Europe to investigate, these advising little change on the whole. See Report of American School, 1845, p. 25; New York Inst.i.tution, 1844, p. 62; 1851, p. 83.

[553] See "Life and Works of Horace Mann", 1891, iii., p. 245; "Life and Journals of Samuel G. Howe", 1909, p. 169; Report of Board of Charities of Ma.s.sachusetts, 1867, p. lxxii.; 1868, p. lx.; Report of Special Joint Committee of the Legislature on Education of Deaf-Mutes, Ma.s.sachusetts, 1867; _North American Review_, lix., 1844, p. 329; civ., 1867, p. 528; American Review, iii., 1846, p. 497; _Common School Journal_ (Boston), vi., 1844, p. 65; Nation, iv., 1867, pp. 249, 339; Report of New York Inst.i.tution for Improved Instruction, 1868, p. 5; 1870, p. 10; American School, 1849, p. 33; 1866, p. 18; 1867, p. 29; 1868, p. 16; Clarke School, 1875, p. 5; Addresses at 25th Anniversary of Clarke School, 1892; Report of Committee of School for Deaf-Mutes (Horace Mann), 1873, p. 3; 1891, p. 8; _Annals_, xxi., 1876, p. 178; _Lend a Hand_, xiii., 1894, p. 346; _International Review_, xi., 1881, p. 503; G. G. Hubbard, "Education of Deaf Mutes", 1867, and "Rise of Oral Method" (in collected writings, 1898); A. G. Bell, "The Mystic Oral School: Argument in its Favor", 1897, and "Fallacies concerning the Deaf", 1883; Boston Parents'

Education a.s.sociation, "Offering in behalf of the Deaf", 1903; Fred Deland, "Dumb No Longer: the Romance of the Telephone", 1903; _Educational Review_, xii., 1896, p. 236; _Century Magazine_, x.x.xi., 1897, p. 331; _American Educational Review_, x.x.xi., 1910, pp. 219, 281, 415; Proceedings of American a.s.sociation to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, i., 1891, p. 89; _Volta Review_, xiv., 1912, p. 579 (Proceedings of same); Evidence before Royal Commission on the Deaf, etc., 1892, i., p. 6; ii., p. 3; iii., p. 208.

[554] In many of the day school laws the use of the oral method is required, which is also partly the case in several state inst.i.tutions.

[555] These statistics are taken from the Special Reports of the Census Office, 1906, p. 86, and the January issues of the _Annals_. See also _Volta Review_, xv., 1913, p. 90; Proceedings of American a.s.sociation to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (Condition of Articulation Teaching in American Inst.i.tutions), ii., 1892; Report of Committee of Horace Mann School, Ma.s.sachusetts, 1891, p. 8ff.; 1895 (Proceedings of 25th Anniversary).

[556] The greatest usefulness of this speech is often found in one's own family circle, or with immediate friends.

[557] Jan., 1914, lix., p. 41.

[558] The choice of methods for pupils may often depend on their cla.s.sification, as noted before, into deaf-mutes, that is, those who have never been able to hear; semi-mutes, those who have been able to hear and speak, and retain their speech to some extent; and semi-deaf, those able to hear a little.

[559] For accounts of possible correspondence or extension courses for the deaf outside the schools, see Report of California Inst.i.tution, 1904, p. 18.

[560] From _Annals_, Jan., 1914, (lix., p. 23). For a few schools the figures refer to the number present on November 10, 1913. The total number on this date was 13,450. The _Volta Review_ for May, 1913 (xv., p. 99), gives the total number present on March 1, 1913, as 13,143. The Report of the United States Commissioner of Education gives the number for 1911-1912 as 13,690: in inst.i.tutions, 11,244; in day schools, 1,928, and in denominational and private schools, 518. The total number of volumes in the libraries of the inst.i.tutions was reported to be 132,461.

For tables respecting the schools, see Appendix B.

[561] Normal departments for the training of hearing teachers of the deaf are maintained at Gallaudet College and the Clarke School, the latter having a special fund, largely contributed by the American a.s.sociation to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. Several of the inst.i.tutions also have training cla.s.ses, and there are normal departments in connection with the Chicago and Milwaukee day schools. On the subject of pensions for teachers of the deaf, see _Annals_, xxix., 1884, p. 304; Proceedings of Convention of American Instructors, xviii., 1908, p. 146; Report of California School, 1912, p. 12.

[562] Report, 1912, ii., ch. xiii.

[563] It is hardly necessary to state that physical education is provided for in the schools for the deaf quite as fully as in the regular schools.

[564] The first school to give industrial training was the American School at Hartford, this being begun in 1822. See History, 1893, p. 15; Report of New Hampshire Board of Charities, 1908, p. 184.

[565] On this industrial training, see _Craftsman_, xiii., 1908, p. 400.

[566] ii., ch. xiii.

[567] _Annals_, Jan., 1914 (lix., p. 23).

[568] _Ibid._, p. 42.

[569] In some of the schools, as we find from the reports, the value of the products of the farms and gardens may amount to a tidy sum, as may also be the case with the trade schools.

CHAPTER XX

COST TO THE STATE FOR EDUCATION

VALUE OF THE PROPERTY USED FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF

The various provisions for the education of the deaf have now been examined. There is to be considered but one question further. This is, what is the cost of it all? In the present chapter we are to see if we may not obtain some figures representing this cost to the state. First we shall find what the plants, that is, the grounds and buildings in actual use, are worth in dollars and cents.

Taking the nearest available statistics, which are those for the year 1912-1913, we have the plants of the inst.i.tutions valued at $16,856,338,[570] or, in round numbers, nearly seventeen million dollars. In all the inst.i.tutions there were in this year 11,894 pupils, and we may thus calculate that there is property worth $1,414 for each pupil. We do not know the full value of the property used in the day schools and the denominational and private schools,[571] but this would no doubt increase by some two million dollars the value of the property employed in the instruction of the deaf. Hence we have something like nineteen million dollars as the amount invested in plants for the education of the deaf in the United States.

For new buildings, repairs, and general expenditures for lasting improvements, so far as is reported, there was expended on inst.i.tutions $848,068 for the year 1912-1913, which may represent the yearly cost of the upkeep of the inst.i.tutions.[572] For the other schools we have few figures, but they would add to this sum somewhat.

COST OF THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SCHOOLS

For the maintenance of the inst.i.tutions for the year 1912-1913 there was expended $3,297,440.[573] In forty-four, or about two-thirds, of the day schools for the year 1911-1912 there was expended $182,710, and on the basis of $120 as the average cost of the pupils in them, we have $225,720 as the full cost of the support of the day schools. For five of the private schools, the cost per pupil was $225, and a.s.suming that this will hold for all, we have $133,550 as the full cost of the support of such schools, a part of course coming from tuition fees. Then our total expenditures amount to $3,656,710,[574] or to over three and a half million dollars, which represents the annual cost of the education of the deaf in the United States.[575]

FORM OF PUBLIC APPROPRIATIONS

Save for certain endowment funds in a few inst.i.tutions,[576] and for limited donations in a small number of schools, all the means for the support of the schools for the deaf, other than the private ones, come from the public treasury. In some of the day schools there are munic.i.p.al subventions; in a few states the maintenance of certain pupils is paid for by the counties from which they come;[577] and in the case of the Columbia Inst.i.tution at Washington support is received from the national government.[578] With these exceptions, the entire maintenance of the schools is undertaken by the legislatures of the respective states.[579]