The Deaf Part 30

DONATIONS OF MONEY TO SCHOOLS

In our final chapter on the provision for the schools for the deaf we are to consider how far they have been a.s.sisted by private munificence.

We have already seen that certain of the schools in the East--those we have called "semi-public inst.i.tutions"--were started by private societies and were supported entirely by private funds till the state came to their aid, though in no instance was this dependence on private means of long duration. We have also seen that in a number of states private schools were first started, in a brief time to be taken over by the state, and thus received a modic.u.m of private aid. In addition, there have been from time to time donations from private sources to one school or another.

As to the entire amount of these private donations to the schools, it is of course impossible to say. The full receipts of the various schools cannot be known, and our reckonings must necessarily be incomplete.[595]

However, the data which we have are quite sufficient to enable us to discern in what measure schools for the deaf have been a.s.sisted by means other than public, and in what proportion the distribution has taken place; and our calculations, based on the best information to be obtained, may not be altogether without value.[596]

We find, then, that to a considerable number of the schools, apparently the majority, there have been gifts large or small from private sources.

In most of these cases, however, the gifts have been slight, and have almost always come when the schools were being started, usually ceasing soon after their establishment or their taking over by the state. Nearly all the donations of any importance have been to schools in the East, the greater part also coming in their early days and when still in private hands.

At present in the great number of the schools such gifts are not bestowed. In perhaps a dozen schools--practically all in the East--they are still received in greater or lesser degree; and come in three forms: 1. as membership fees in some half dozen schools; 2. as certain annual donations, varying in amount, in about the same number; and 3. as an occasional legacy or similar gift to some school or other.[597]

In respect to the funds already received, we find that the great preponderance have fallen in four states, namely, Connecticut, Ma.s.sachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. In five others there have been gifts of what may be called measurable size: District of Columbia, California, Colorado, Illinois, and Vermont. In the remaining states private benefactions have been few: where they have occurred they have been small and infrequent.

In a score of schools or more there seem to have been gifts of a few thousand dollars--hardly over ten or fifteen thousand, and in most much less.[598] In some sixteen, donations appear to have been received of more appreciable size--twenty-five thousand dollars and upwards. In about half of these the gifts seem to have been from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand, in one or two cases possibly more: the California, Colorado, Columbia, New England (Ma.s.sachusetts), Sarah Fuller (Ma.s.sachusetts), Pennsylvania Home, and Austine (Vermont).[599]

To six schools donations seem to have reached a sum between seventy-five or one hundred thousand dollars and twice that amount. Four of these are in New York: the New York Inst.i.tution, the Inst.i.tution for Improved Instruction, St. Joseph's and Le Couteulx St. Mary's; one in Pennsylvania, the Western Pennsylvania; and one in Illinois, the Ephpheta. In three schools the quarter million mark has been pa.s.sed: the American in Connecticut, and the Clarke in Ma.s.sachusetts, both with receipts well beyond this figure; and the Pennsylvania Inst.i.tution, which has probably been the largest recipient of all.

Total private gifts to schools for the deaf in the United States would probably foot up to little under two and a quarter million dollars, and perhaps to two and a half millions, though these figures cannot be fully substantiated.

GIFTS FOR PUPILS IN THE SCHOOLS

There have been gifts for the pupils in the schools as well as for the schools themselves. These have been of various kinds: clothing, books, pictures, magazines, newspapers, Christmas presents, prizes, etc., as well as money gifts in a few cases. In many instances reduced transportation has been allowed on railroads, and there have been a number of benefactions of like character. We have already referred to the funds left to certain of the schools in trust for deaf-blind pupils.[600]

PRESENT TENDENCIES OF PRIVATE BENEFACTIONS

Private benefaction, as we see, has not played any great part in providing the means of education for the deaf in the United States. In a few schools private gifts have been of appreciable aid in the work, but on the whole they have not been of considerable moment, and in the great majority of schools they have been practically negligible. To judge from past experience, it would not seem likely that in the future many of the schools will to any great extent be beneficiaries from private means, or that they will thus be enabled to extend their plants or to make innovations as yet unattempted, though of course such a thing is possible.

This condition, however, is not to be entirely deplored. Many of the schools, it is true, could receive large money benefactions to most desirable ends, and in many cases the work of the schools for the best results is hampered for lack of sufficient funds. Yet the schools may feel that they are in reality but agencies of the state in carrying out one of its great functions, and as such should have no need to call upon or depend upon means other than the state's. Whether or not in the course of time there may be an increased incentive for private gifts, it would seem that the schools should be ent.i.tled to look with full confidence to the attention and care of the state, since it is but contributing to the education of its citizens.

FOOTNOTES:

[595] In the case of some of the schools, figures of a financial nature are not to be had, and in many little record has been kept, especially when gifts have been small.

[596] In our discussion, few estimates have been made, and these have been conservative. It should be stated that only a part of the figures given are "official", and for the rest the writer alone is responsible.

No reference is made to schools that are not now in existence, nor is any money value set on the land which has been donated to some of the schools.

[597] Now and then a gift has been in the form of a scholarship, usually of $5,000. Some of the schools aided by fees are the Pennsylvania Inst.i.tution, Western Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Oral, New York Inst.i.tution for Improved Instruction, and Le Couteulx St. Mary's (New York). Some that receive annual donations varying in amount are the New England (Ma.s.sachusetts), Sarah Fuller (Ma.s.sachusetts), Pennsylvania Home, New York Inst.i.tution for Improved Instruction, St. Joseph's (New York), and Le Couteulx St. Mary's (New York). It should be remarked that the three last named inst.i.tutions are affiliated to an extent with certain religious bodies, receiving a.s.sistance from this source also.

The smaller denominational schools receive similar aid irregularly.

[598] Some of the schools that seem to have received gifts of from five to fifteen thousand dollars, or thereabouts, are the Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Central New York, Pennsylvania Oral, Tennessee, and the day schools of Milwaukee. Some of those that have received gifts somewhat smaller are the Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Horace Mann (Ma.s.sachusetts), Western New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and the day schools of Chicago. More trivial or more uncertain amounts have been received in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maine, New Mexico, Albany (New York), Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and the day schools of a few cities.

[599] Gifts to semi-public inst.i.tutions as the Mystic, Connecticut, and Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, have also probably been made, though we do not know of what size; and also to some of the denominational and private schools. The McCowen Homes of Illinois have received some gifts, especially at their beginning.

[600] The American School at Hartford has a fund of $2,000 to be used for the publication of books for the deaf.

CHAPTER XXIII

CONCLUSIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE WORK FOR THE DEAF IN AMERICA

We have now examined the position of the deaf in society in America and the course and the extent of the treatment accorded them. It only remains for us to inquire if this treatment is well-considered, and how far it is commensurate with the real, actual needs of the deaf, and at the same time consonant with the larger interests of society.

The question of paramount concern to society is in respect to the possibilities of the prevention of deafness. As yet it would seem that only a minor degree of attention had been directed to this consideration, though it is likely that in the future much more serious study and thought will be given to it. The problem is for the greater part in the hands of medical science, and for much of it we shall probably have to wait for solution in the laboratory; while no small aid can be rendered by general measures for the protection of health.

Already there can be little doubt that there is less deafness from certain diseases than in the past, though the statistics that we have on the question are not as definite as could be wished. The matter is really a part of the long battle against disease, and as human skill takes one position after another, it may be that many of those diseases bringing deafness will be forced to yield, and that such deafness will thus cease in great part to be an affliction upon human flesh.

Eugenics also will be looked to for help, and it may in time bring to light much that is now hidden from our ken. As yet our knowledge of the causes of deafness from birth is very imperfect. A small part may be ascribed to consanguineous marriages, and a larger part to the marriages of those whose families are affected with deafness, these perhaps not being wholly distinct, and together comprising a little over half of congenital deafness. Marriages of relatives, even though not of frequent occurrence so far as deafness is affected, have a relation to it which is not to be ignored. Intermarriages of the deaf themselves are not found for the most part to result in deaf offspring; while the likelihood of such is not always greater when both parents are deaf than when one is deaf and the other hearing. The one distinct fact of which we seem altogether certain in this matter is that when there is in the parent congenital deafness, or especially when there are deaf relatives concerned, the chances are vastly increased of deaf offspring. These are the danger signals, and not to be pa.s.sed without heed. As to that form of deafness occurring when consanguinity and antecedent deafness are not involved, we are in greater ignorance. For most of it, however, we may believe that there is inherited some strain or influence predisposing to deafness; and that in the discovery and application of eugenic principles a greater or less portion will be eliminated.

Though, so far as is discernible from the immediate prospect, we cannot look to an early disappearance of deafness from the race, there are indications at present that deafness is tending to become less. The probabilities are that the future will be able to report advance, and so far as the ultimate results are concerned, we have no reason to be other than hopeful.

In respect to what has been accomplished for the deaf since America has become concerned in them, we have a record that may well be a distinct cause of pride. The work for the deaf in America is hardly a hundred years old. Yet in that time there has transpired what, without violence being done to language, can be called a revolution. A century ago the deaf were practically outside the pale of human thought and activities.

They were in a measure believed to be without reason, and were little less than outcasts in society. To-day they have become active components of the state, possessed of education, on a level with their fellow-men nearly everywhere in the scale of human employment, capable of all the responsibilities of life, and standing in the full stature of citizenship.

Perhaps the first workers for the deaf had not placed their faith too high after all, when they declared that the deaf and dumb were to be restored to the ranks of their species. Perhaps, after all, the visions of these men have come true. Perhaps this that we call education has had something of the power they were trying to articulate. For it has come about that a part of society known as the deaf and dumb has been brought to a place of honor and worth and usefulness in the community in which they live.

However much of what was claimed has been achieved, it is certain that a great part has been realized. It has been by a slow, silent process, keeping time with the years, but none the less wonderful things have been wrought; and through it all the advance of the deaf has been constant and onward. It might be said with all truth that this whole progress has been simply the march of events. Education has ever been the master pa.s.sion of Americans, and in its wide sweep the deaf too have been gathered in, and have been borne to the place where all the state had to offer as instruction was laid before them. Yet it remains that by and through all this the deaf have been the gainers as no other people in the world have ever been, and their story is as no other's in the rise of a section of mankind towards the richness and fullness of living which are the fruits of humanized society.

Great indeed can be the rejoicing of the deaf, for they are those to whom the way has been hard and long, but who have come from the darkness into the light.

Yet the victory of the deaf is not complete. They have not reached the full position among men to which they are ent.i.tled. So long as people look upon them as an unnatural portion of the race, view them with suspicion or hold them as of peculiar temperament and habits, or otherwise consider them distinct from the rest of their kind, and by voice or in their own consciousness make use of terms or a.s.sociations that give fixedness to such a cla.s.sification or differentiation: just so long will the deaf be strangers in the land in which they dwell; and just so far will they be removed from the place in society which should be theirs, and which is accorded to all the rest of their fellow-men.

With regard to their economic position in the world, the deaf have, on the whole, fared well. Their own achievements have thrown out of court the charge that they are a burden upon society. It has been proved by themselves that they are not a dependent cla.s.s, or a cla.s.s that should exist to any degree on the bounty of the state. They are wage-earners to an extent that compares well with the rest of the population, and, economically, they form generally a self-sustaining part of society. For a certain number who are aged and infirm and are otherwise uncared for, special homes are to be desired--and with such the need is peculiarly strong. These, however, do not comprise a large part of the deaf; and with their exception there is practically no portion, at least of those with an education, that demands particular economic attention.

The community for the most part has been quite ready and willing to recognize the status of the deaf in this respect. Here the deaf are accepted on equal terms with the people collectively, and are in fact lost in the ma.s.s of the world's workers.

The state has perhaps displayed more reluctance to admit the deaf to the standing of its other citizens, largely no doubt due to the fact that in the sphere of law action is usually slow-moving, and responds less readily to newly recognized conditions. Though on the statute books there are found few examples of legislation directed to the deaf as if they were peculiarly in need of the state's attention, and though such are hardly more than reminders of the past legal att.i.tude, they are mostly an anachronism to-day, and should in great part be removed.

The courts have quite generally adopted the true view in regard to the deaf, and hardly anywhere now differentiate them. There is always one particular kind of provision which may be made for the deaf at law, and this is in the employment of interpreters on proper occasion. But even here the matter may be left to the ordinary rules of the court, as well as to the good sense and justice of the law-makers and the law-dispensers.

In most things, special attention of the law in relation to the deaf is not often required, and they should, in nearly all respects, be left in its eyes exactly as the rest of their fellow-citizens. When particular legislation is called for in respect to them, it is needed rather to meet some peculiar or unusual situation, which would probably arise most frequently in connection with some special abuse of the deaf, though such is really seldom likely to occur. Provision for young deaf children who are otherwise without protection may well be included in "children's codes," or in other statutes of similar kind. Useful legislation is also feasible in connection with departments for the deaf in state bureaus of labor, the procedure possible being already indicated; and it may be that a considerable field will be revealed, not only in a.s.sisting the deaf in securing employment but also in securing information as to their condition. Opportunity is open to the national government likewise in this regard, and valuable statistics and other information may be collected for the country generally.

In one further direction the law can be invoked very materially in aid of the deaf, and just where very little has been attempted. In every state there should be enactments, backed up by vigorous public opinion and the co-operation of all citizens, providing severe punishment for those who go about begging alms on the pretense that they are deaf and dumb. For such creatures the law should have no mercy. The deaf themselves demand that such impostors be put out of business, for a real and cruel injury is done to them. They ask this as a great boon, but it should be accorded them absolutely as a right.

The deaf do not want alms or pity. But in unnumbered ways can they receive good at the hands of their fellow-men. They need friends as do all others, and power is never lost to the right hand of fellowship. To be desired above all else is the gaining of the right att.i.tude on the part of the community. As one great need, there should be far more attention to the social and spiritual concerns of the deaf, even though they are often found scattered and far apart. There is much that can be done in many communities of a social nature for the deaf, and in manifold forms can life be made more abundant for them. Most important of all, there should be no longer in any place a neglect of the ministrations for the cure of souls, and it should be seen that all of the deaf are made to know the religion of the Man of Galilee, with its untold blessings and consolations.

In our present review of the work for the deaf in America, most of our attention has been directed to the provisions for their education. It may be said that to-day this work is as a rule of a high order, and that in many respects, considering the problems involved, it can compare well with the work of education in general. There is still more or less conflict as to methods, but this does not seem vital to the success of the schools, and their character has in general advanced.

In the beginning of instruction in some of the states we read of the struggles of the early schools, but eager hands came to push on the new work. This work was taken up with an enthusiasm and earnestness scarcely paralleled elsewhere in the history of education, or in any other of the great movements for the betterment of human kind. Strong and brave souls manned the new enterprise, and these early workers are well worthy of honor at our hands.

Oftentimes, at the first, private societies came forward as volunteers in the task of education, but the states early recognized their duty, and usually established schools as soon as they were deemed practicable, either taking over the existing private school or creating one of their own. After a time, as another stage in their development, the schools were made free by express provision, or have become so to all practical purpose. In time also all restrictions or limitations as to the admission of pupils have been in general swept away, and rules and regulations have come more and more to conform with those in the regular schools. Now education is offered to every deaf child, and to the poor and dest.i.tute the state provides all collateral necessaries as well, so that instruction may be denied to none.

At present much the larger part of the deaf are educated in inst.i.tutions. But alongside this plan there has grown, especially of late years, a day school system with the pupils living in their own homes, and the result is that in a number of states such schools have now been established. Their main field is recognized to be in large cities, and it is here that they are able to be of the greatest usefulness. It is still a mooted point, however, how far they have pa.s.sed the experimental stage, and it probably remains to be determined to what extent they really offer advantages to the deaf over the inst.i.tutions. As a part of this activity, and as an extension of the general public facilities for education to the entire community, we have also the question of evening schools for adult deaf. There seems to be a definite need for them in certain centers, and it may well be hoped that much greater attention will be given to the matter.