Excerpt from The Deaf-Blind: A Monograph

I am firm in my conviction that the schools for the deaf, and their instructors, are better prepared for teaching the deaf-blind than are the schools for the blind. The very first need of the untaught deaf-blind is power of communication with others, - call it lan guage, if you wish. Instilling this is the first instinct of the teacher of the deaf, and is the daily work of such a teacher. The teacher of the blind does not need this. The pupils come to her fully possessed of this ability, and this broad distinction should turn thescale. Of course, very many pupils have been taught in our blind schools, and taught thoroughly well, but I still think that my rule holds good as a general proposition Certainly there are instructors of the blind who have never had any experience in teaching the deaf-blind who would make as great a success in that work as anybody Such men as Allen, Hall, Fraser, Fuller, and others, would make a thorough success of the work, and the Perkins Institution for the Blind has crowned itself with glory as the pioneer of the world in it. But the exceptional character of certain individuals or certain schools does not estab lish a rule and furthermore, there is a hidden sym pathy between the deaf, and between them and the deaf-blind, that is of great value to the happiness of the latter. Repeated observation of the deaf-blind originally taught in blind schools, or under the auspi ces of such schools, who have afterward been brought into extensive intercourse with the educated deaf, has proved this contention beyond question.

I would strongly urge it on the principals of blind schools, that should any of them have a pupil, already blind, lose hearing, they open correspondence with the head of the deaf school in their State, regarding the further teaching of such a pupil. Or, if preferred, take immediate steps to substitute a comprehension of language addressed manually for the pupil's pre vious method of receiving thought. The actual work to be done is so slight, comparatively, that no time should be lost in proceeding with the work required.

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