Chapter VI: Part 6

Dr Watson, the first principal of the Old Kent Road "Asylum," taught by articulation and lip-reading, reading and writing, explaining by signs to some extent, but using pictures much more, according to Addison, and composing a book of these for the use of his pupils. From Addison (_Deaf Mutism_, pp. 248 ff.) we learn what developments followed. In Vienna, Prague and Berlin, schools had been founded in rapid succession before the 19th century dawned, and in 1810 the Edinburgh institution opened its doors. Nine years later the Glasgow school was established and, under the able guidance of Mr Duncan Anderson (after several other headmasters had been tried) from 1831, taught pupils whose grasp of English was equal to that of the very best educated deaf in England to-day, as has been proved by conversation with the survivors. Mr Anderson's great aim was to teach his pupils language, and we might look almost in vain for a teacher in England to succeed as well with a whole class in the beginning of the 20th century as he did in the middle of the 19th. He wrote a dictionary, used pictures and signs to explain English, and apparently paid little or no attention to most of the numerous subjects attempted to-day in schools for the deaf, which, while excellent in themselves, generally exclude what is far more important from the curriculum.

Addison further mentions Mr Baker of Doncaster, a contemporary of Anderson, as having compiled many lesson books for deaf children which came to be used in ordinary schools also, and Mr Scott of Exeter as having, together with Baker, "exercised a profound influence on the course of deaf-mute education in this country." "Written language," explained by signs where necessary, was the watchword of these teachers.

Moritz Hill is credited with being principally responsible for having evolved the German, or "pure," oral method out of the experimental stage to that at which it has arrived at the present day. Arnold of Riehen is also honourably mentioned.

The great "oral revival" now swept all before it. The German method was enthusiastically welcomed in all parts of Europe, and at the Milan conference in 1880 was almost unanimously adopted by teachers from all countries. Those in high places countenanced it; educational authorities awoke to the fact that the deaf needed special teaching, and came to the conclusion that the "pure" oral method was the panacea that would restore all the deaf to a complete equality with the hearing in any conversation upon any subject that might be broached; many governments suddenly took the deaf under the shelter of their own ample wings, and the "bottomless pocket of the ratepayer," instead of the purse of the charitable, became in many cases the fount of supply for what has been a costly and by no means entirely satisfactory experiment in the history of their education. The "pure" oral method has had a long and unique trial in England in circumstances which other methods have never enjoyed.

Meanwhile in the United States Dr Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was elected in 1815 to go to Europe to inquire into the methods of educating the deaf in vogue there. This was at a meeting held in the house of a physician named Cogswell, in Hartford, Connecticut, and was the result of the latter's discovery that eighty-four persons in the state besides his own little girl were deaf. Henry Winter Syle, himself deaf, tells how "four months were spent in learning that the doors of the British schools were 'barred with gold, and opened but to golden keys,'" and how, disappointed in England, Gallaudet met with a ready response to his inquiries in Paris. With Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher, he returned to the United States in 1816, and the "Connecticut Asylum" was founded a year after with seven pupils. The name was changed to "The American Asylum" later, when it was enlarged. This was followed by the Pennsylvania, New York and Kentucky institutions, with the second of which the Peet family were connected. Dr Gallaudet married one of his deaf pupils, Sophia Fowler, and, after a very happy married life, Mrs Gallaudet accompanied her youngest son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, to the Columbia institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Washington, D.C., founded in 1857 by Congress and largely supported by Amos Kendall, and to the National Deaf Mute College, which was founded in 1864, was renamed the Gallaudet College, in honour of Dr T. H. Gallaudet, in 1893, and with the Kendall School (secondary), now forms the Columbia Institution. This college is supported by Congress.

The following account of the work done at the National Deaf-Mute
College at Washington is worth attention, as the results are unique,
and are often strangely ignored.

Here is a statement of the course for the B.A. degree:--

First year: Algebra, grammar, punctuation, history of England,
composition, Latin grammar, Caesar.

Second year: Algebra (from quadratics), geometry, composition, Caesar
(Gallic War), Cicero (Orations), Allen and Greenough's _Latin
Grammar_, Myer's _General History_, Goodwin's _Greek Grammar_
(optional), Xenophon's _Anabasis_ (optional).

Third year: Olney's or Loomis's _Plane and Spherical Trigonometry_,
Loomis's _Analytical Geometry_ (optional), Orton's _Zoology_, Gray's
_Botany_, Remsen's _Chemistry_, laboratory practice, Virgil's
_Aeneid_, Homer's _Iliad_ (optional), Meiklejohn's _History of English
Literature and Language_ (two books), Maertz's _English Literature_,
Hadley's _History_, original composition.

Fourth year: Loomis's _Calculus_ (optional), Dana's _Mechanics_,
Gage's _Natural Philosophy_, Young's _Astronomy_, laboratory practice,
qualitative analysis, Steel's Hygienic _Physiology_, Edgren's _French
Grammar_, Super's _French Reader, Demosthenes on the Crown_
(optional), Hart's _Composition and Rhetoric_, original composition,
Hill's-Jevon's _Elementary Logic_.

Fifth year: Arnold's _Manual of English Literature_, Maertz's _English
Literature_, original composition, Guizot's _History of Civilization_,
Sheldon's _German Grammar_, Joynes's _German Reader_, LeConte's
_Geology_, Guyot's _Earth and Man_, Hill's _Elements of Psychology_,
Haven's _Moral Philosophy_, Butler's _Analogy_, Bascom's _Elements of
Beauty_, Perry's _Political Economy_, Gallaudet's _International Law_.

Even in 1893 we were told that of the graduates of the college
"fifty-seven have been engaged in teaching, four have entered the
ministry; three have become editors and publishers of newspapers;
three others have taken positions connected with journalism; fifteen
have entered the civil service of the government,--one of these, who
had risen rapidly to a high and responsible position, resigned to
enter upon the practice of law in patent cases, in Cincinnati and
Chicago, and has been admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of the
United States; one is the official botanist of a state, who has
correspondents in several countries of Europe who have repeatedly
purchased his collections, and he has written papers upon seed tests
and related subjects which have been published and circulated by the
agricultural department; one, while filling a position as instructor
in a western institution, has rendered important service to the coast
survey as a microscopist, and one is engaged as an engraver in the
chief office of the survey; of three who became draughtsmen in
architects' offices, one is in successful practice as an architect on
his own account, which is also true of another, who completed his
preparation by a course of study in Europe; one has been repeatedly
elected recorder of deeds in a southern city, and two others are
recorders' clerks in the west; one was elected and still sits as a
city councilman; another has been elected city treasurer and is at
present cashier of a national bank; one has become eminent as a
practical chemist and assayer; two are members of the faculty of the
college, and two others are rendering valuable service as instructors
therein; some have gone into mercantile and other offices; some have
undertaken business on their own account; while not a few have chosen
agricultural and mechanical pursuits, in which the advantages of
thorough mental training will give them a superiority over those not
so well educated. Of those alluded to as having engaged in teaching,
one has been the principal of a flourishing institution in
Pennsylvania; one is now in his second year as principal of the Ohio
institution; one has been at the head of a day school in Cincinnati,
and later of the Colorado institution; a third has had charge of the
Oregon institution; a fourth is at the head of a day school in St
Louis; three others have respectively founded and are now at the head
of schools in New Mexico, North Dakota, and Evansville, Indiana, and
others have done pioneer work in establishing schools in Florida and
in Utah."

Later years would unfold a similar tale of subsequent students; in
1907 there were 134 in the college and 59 in the Kendall School.

There is a normal department attached to the college, to which are
admitted six hearing young men and women for one year who are
recommended as being anxious to study methods of teaching the deaf and
likely to profit thereby. Their course of study for 1898-1899 included
careful training in the oral method, instruction in Bell's _Visible
Speech_, instruction in the anatomy of the vocal organs, lectures on
sound, observation of methods, oral and manual, in Kendall School,
lectures on various subjects connected with the deaf and their
education, lectures on pedagogy, lessons in the language of signs,
practical work with classes in Kendall School under the direction of
the teachers, correction of essays of the introductory class, &c. But
the greatest advantage of the year's course is that the half-dozen
hearing students live in the college, have their meals with the
hundred deaf, and mix with them all day long--if they wish it--in
social intercourse and recreation. We are very far indeed from saying
that one such year is sufficient to make a hearing man a qualified
teacher of the deaf, but the arrangement is based on the right
principle, and it sets his feet on the right path to learn how to
teach--so far as this art can be learned. The recent regulation of the
board of education in England, prohibiting hearing pupil teachers in
schools for the deaf, is deplorable, retrograde and inimical to the
best interests of the deaf. It shows a complete ignorance of their
needs. The younger a teacher begins to mix with that class the better
he will teach them.

In 1886 a royal commission investigated the condition and education of the deaf in Great Britain, and in 1889 issued its report. Some of the recommendations most worthy of notice were that deaf children from seven to sixteen years of age should be compelled to attend a day school or institution, part, or the whole, of the expense being borne by the local school authority; that technical instruction should be given, and that all the children should be taught to speak and lip-read on the "pure" oral method unless physically or mentally disqualified, those who had partial hearing or remains of speech being entirely educated by that method. To the last mentioned recommendation--concerning the method to be adopted--two of the commissioners took exception, and another stated his recognition of some advantage in the manual method.

As a result of the report of the royal commission a bill was passed in 1893 making it compulsory for all deaf children to be educated. This was to be done by the local education authority, either by providing day classes or an institution for them, or by sending them to an already existing institution, parents having the choice, within reasonable limits, of the school to which the child should go. School-board classes came into existence in almost every large town where there was no institution, and sometimes where one existed. Those who uphold the day-school system advance the arguments that the pupils are not, under it, cut off from the influence of home life as they are in institutions; that such influences are of great advantage; that this system permits the deaf to mix freely with their hearing brethren, &c. The objections, however, to this arrangement outweigh its possible advantages. The latter, indeed, amount to little; for home influences in many cases, especially in the poorer parts of the large cities, are not the best, and communication with the hearing children who attend some of the day schools may not be an unmixed blessing, nor is freedom to run wild on the streets between school hours. But it may be urged further that it is difficult, except in very large towns, to obtain a sufficient number of deaf children attending a day school to classify them according to their status, while it is more than one teacher can do to give sufficient attention to several children, each at a different stage of instruction from any other. Moreover, the deaf need more than mere school work; they need training in morals and manners, and receive much less of it from their parents than their hearing brothers and sisters. This can only be given in an institution wherein they board and lodge as well as attend classes. The existing institutions were from 1893 placed, by the act of that date, either partly or wholly under the control of the school board. They were put under the inspection of the government, and as long as they fulfilled the requirements of the inspectors as regards education, manual and physical training, outdoor recreation and suitable class-room and dormitory accommodation, they might remain in the hands of a committee who collected, or otherwise provided, one-third of the total expenditure, and received two-thirds from public sources. Or else, the institution might be surrendered entirely to the management of the public school authority, and then the whole of the expenditure was to be borne by that body. Extra government grants of five guineas per pupil are now given for class work and manual or technical training. Such is the state of things at the present day, except, of course, that the school board has given place to the county council as local authority.

Some teachers have asked for the children to be sent to school at the
age of five instead of seven. This savours of another confession that
the "pure" oral method had not done what was expected of it at first.
First, the demand was for the method itself; then came requests for
more teachers, so that, the classes being smaller, each pupil should
receive more attention; this meant more money, and so this was asked
for; then day schools would remedy the failure by giving the pupils
opportunities of talking with the public in general; then we were told
the teachers were unskilful; finally, more time is needed. And yet the
_language_ of the pupils is no better to-day than it was in 1881, even
though they were at school only four or five years then as opposed to
nine or ten now.

Foreign schools.

To Addison's _Report on a Visit to some Continental Schools for the
Deaf_ (1904-1905) we are indebted for the following information. The
new school at Frankfort-on-Maine, accommodating forty or fifty
children at a cost of L40 to L50 per head, is modelled on the plan of
a family home. The main objects are to obtain good speech and
lip-reading and to use these colloquially; the work is very thorough
and the teaching very skilful. At Munich those of the hundred pupils
who have some hearing are separated from the others and taught by ear
as well as eye. At Vienna (Royal Institution) a small proportion of
the pupils are day scholars, as they are at Munich, and the teaching
is, of course, carried on by the oral method, as it is all over
Germany. Here, however, the teachers "think it impossible to educate
fully all deaf-mutes by the oral method only." In the Jews' Home at
Vienna the semi-deaf are taught by the acoustic method, and are not
allowed to see the teacher's lips at all. At Dresden, a large school
of 240 pupils, the director favours smaller institutions than his own,
considers the oral method possible for all but the "weak-minded deaf,"
and divides his pupils into A, B and C divisions, according to
intellect. In the first division good speech is obtained. Saxony
boasts a home for deaf homeless women, grants premiums for deaf
apprentices, and trains its teachers of the deaf in the institution
itself--a good record and plan. In the royal institution at Berlin
Addison saw good lip-reading and thorough work, though the deaf in the
city--as in most of the schools--signed. The men in Berlin "like the
adult deaf generally, were all in favour of a combination of methods,
and condemned the pure oral theory as impracticable." At Hamburg,
again, "hand signs" were used at least for Sunday service. Schleswig
has two schools. Pupils are admitted first to the residential
institution, where they are instructed for a year, and are then
divided into A, B and C classes, "according to intellect." The lowest
class (C) remain at this institution for the rest of the eight years,
and a "certain amount of signing" is allowed in their instruction. A
and B classes are boarded out in the town and attend classes at a day
school specially built for them, being taught orally exclusively.

In Denmark Addison saw what impressed him most. All the children of
school age go to Fredericia and remain for a year in the boarding
institution. They are then examined and the semi-deaf--29% of the
whole--are sent to Nyborg. The rest--all the totally deaf--remain
another year at Fredericia and are then divided into the A, B and C
divisions before mentioned, and on the same criterion--intellect.
Those in C--the lowest class, 28% of the totally deaf--are sent to
Copenhagen, where they are taught by the manual method, no oral work
being attempted. Those in B class, numbering 19% of the deaf, remain
in the residential institution in Fredericia and are taught orally,
while the best pupils--A class--are boarded out in the town and attend
a special day school. These form 26% of the deaf, and those with whom
they live encourage them to speak when out of as well as when in
school. The buildings and equipment generally are excellent. "Hand
signs" are used at Nyborg, indicating the position of the vocal organs
when speaking, and, as might be expected, the "lip"-reading is 90%
more correct when these symbols--infinitely more visible than most of
the movements of the vocal organs and face when speaking--are used at
the same time. The idea of these hand signs, by the way, corresponds
to that of Graham Bell's _Visible Speech_, in which a written symbol
is used to indicate the position of the vocal organs when uttering
each sound; it is a kind of phonetic writing which is to a slight
extent illustrative at the same time. We find natural signs of the
utmost value when teaching articulation, to describe the position of
the vocal organs. We give these details from Mr Addison's notes
because it is to Germany that so many look for guidance to-day, and it
is the home of the so-called "pure" oral method; while the system of
classification in Denmark into the four schools which are controlled
by one authority, struck him very favourably and so is given rather
fully.

In France most of the schools are supported by charity, and the only
three government institutions are those at Paris for boys, with 263
pupils lately, at Bordeaux for girls, having 225 inmates, and at
Chambery with 86 boys and 38 girls. In the great majority the method
of instruction is professedly pure oral. "But," said Henri Gaillard
(_Report, World's Congress of the Deaf_, Missouri, 1904), "this is
only in appearance. In reality all of the schools use the combined
method; only they are not willing to admit it, because the oral method
is the official method, imposed by the inspectors of the minister of
the interior."

In Italy, again, we are told that the teachers sign in most of the
schools, which are professedly pure oral.

In Sweden, schools for the deaf have ceased to depend, as they did up
to 1891, upon private benevolence. The system is generally the
combined, and in schools where the oral method is adopted the pupils
are divided into A, B and C divisions, as in Denmark and Dresden, in
the two latter divisions of which signs are allowed. In Norway the
method is the oral.

_Methods of Teaching._--There have always been two principal methods of teaching the deaf, and all education at the present time is carried on by means of one or other or both of these. Where there is sufficient hearing to be utilized, instruction is sometimes given thereby as well, though this auricular method does not seem to make much headway, and experience is not in favour of believing that the sense of hearing, where a little exists, can be "cultivated" to any marked degree. It is really impossible to draw hard and fast lines between these means of instruction. One merges into another, and this other into the next; and no two teachers will, or can, adopt exactly the same lines. It is not desirable that they should, for much must be left to individuality. Orders, rules, methods, should not be absolute laws. Observe them generally, but dispense with them as circumstances, the pupil and opportunity may require. Strong individuality, sympathy, enthusiasm, long intercourse with the deaf, are needed in the teacher, and it is surely obvious that every teacher should have a full command of all the primary means of instruction to begin with, and not of one only.

The Manual Alphabet. (Two-handed.)]

Where deafness is absolute, or practically so, we have to seek for means that will appeal to the eye instead of the ear. Of these, we have the sign language, writing and printing, pictures, manual alphabets and lip-reading. We have to choose which of these is to be used, if not all, and which must be rejected, if any. Moreover, we have to decide how much or how little one or another is to be adopted if we employ more than one. Hence it is obvious that there may be many different systems and subdivisions of systems. But the two main methods are the _manual_, which generally depends upon all the above-mentioned means of appealing to the eye except lip-reading, and the _oral_, which adopts what the manual method rejects, uses writing and printing and perhaps pictures, but excludes finger-spelling and (theoretically) signs. To these two we must add a third means of instruction--the _combined system_--which rejects no means of teaching, but uses all in most cases. The dual method need hardly be called a separate method or system, for it implies simply the use of the manual method for some pupils and of the oral for others. Nor need we call the mother's (= intuitive or natural) a separate method in the sense in which we are using the word here, for it is rather a mode of procedure which can be applied manually or orally indifferently. The same may be said of the grammatical "method"; also of the "word method," which is really the "mother's." The "eclectic method" is practically the combined system, or something between that and the dual method, and hardly needs separate classification.

Let us notice the manual method, the oral method, and the combined system, considering with the last the "dual method."

Manual.

The chief elements of the manual method are finger-spelling, reading and writing and signing. These are used, that is to say, as means of teaching English and imparting ideas. Signs are used to awaken the child's thoughts, finger-spelling and writing are used to express these thoughts in the vernacular. The latter are used to express English, the former to explain English.

We give two manual alphabets, the one-handed being used in America, on the continent of Europe with some variations and additions, in Ireland, and also to some extent in England; the two-handed in Great Britain, Ireland and Australia. A speed of 130 words a minute can be attained when spelling on the fingers. Words are quite readable at this speed.

Although reading and writing are common to both methods, the manual and oral, as a matter of fact they seem to be used considerably more in the former than in the latter.

Oral.

In the oral method articulation and lip-reading are chiefly relied upon; reading and writing are also adopted. The phonetic values of the letters are taught, not the names of the letters; for instance, the _sound_ of the letter a in "hat" is taught instead of the _name_ of the letter (long A), though of course the latter is taught where such is the proper pronunciation, as in "hate."

Here is a chart which was lately in use:

_Articulation Sheets._

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ANALYSIS OF THE VOWEL SOUNDS. |
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| Long. | Middle. | Short. | Broad. |
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
|Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |
| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.|
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| fat(e) = feit | far = far | f)at = fat | fall = /fawl |
| | | | \fol |
| me = /mee | | | |
| \mi | | m)et = met | |
| pin(e) = pain | | p)in = pin | |
| no = nou | move = muv | n)ot = not | |
| tub(e) = tiub | bull = bul | t)ub = tub | |
+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Order in which the Vowel Sounds are to be taught.

/Diacritic / a
| Mark < wall
| | ||
2 < \ aw, o
|Phonetic \ wol
\ Spelling /

/Diacritic / a )o u )e e o i a u oe
| Mark | path hot blu(e) set see ton(e) pi(e) lat(e) mul(e) boy
| < || || || || || || || || || ||
1 < | a o u e i ou ai ei iu oi
| \ ee
|Phonetic \ path hot blu set si toun pai leit miul boi
\ Spelling /

/Diacritic / )a )u i
| Mark < hat hut hit
3 < | || || ||
| \ a u i
|Phonetic \ hat hut hit
\ Spelling /

The consonants are as follows, though the order of teaching them varies:--

p; f; s; h; sh; v = _f_; th (thin; moth); _th_ (then; smooth); l; r; t; k; b; d; g (go; egg); z = _s_; m; n; ch = tsh; j = dzh = g; ph = f; kc = k; cs = s; q = kw; x = ks; ng; w = oo; wh = hw; y = e.

The following mode of writing the sounds is now preferred by some as it renders the diacritic marks unnecessary:--

_Middle, Broad and Long Vowel Sounds._

ar or oo ee er oa igh ai ew oi ou
aw ea ir o-e i-e a-e u-e oy ow
au ur ay
a--

_Short Vowel Sounds._

a o oo e i u

_Consonants._

h p /ph\ t s th sh ch /k \ l r m n ng w
\f / \ck/
b v d z _th_ zh / j \ g
\dzh/

These charts are given as examples of those used, but they vary in different schools, as does the order of teaching the vowel and consonant sounds and the combinations. The exact order is not important. Words are made up by combining vowels and consonants as soon as the pupil can say each sound separately.

Here are extracts from the directions on articulation written by a principal to the teacher of the lowest class, which show the method of procedure:--

"(1) Produce the sound of a letter. Each pupil to reproduce, and write
it on the tablet.

(2) Point to the letter on the tablet, and make each pupil say it.

(3) The same with combinations of vowels and consonants.

(4) Instead of tablet, each pupil to use rough exercise-book.

(5) Write on tablet and make each pupil articulate from teacher's
writing.

(6) When a combination is made of which a word may be made make all
write it in their books, thus:--'te--tea,' 'sho--show,' 'ov--of,'
'nalz--nails,' &c.

(7) When one pupil produces a combination correctly make the others
lip-read it from him. In this way make them exercise each other.

(8) When they have a good many sounds and combinations written in
their books make them sit down and say them off their books as hearing
children do.

(9) Make them say the sounds off the cards, and form combinations on
the cards for them to say.

(10) Take each vowel separately and make each pupil use it before and
after each consonant.

(11) Take each consonant and put it before and after each vowel.

"The above will suggest other exercises to the teacher.

"Give breathing exercises. Incite emulation as to deep breathing and
slow expiration. Never force the voice. Make the pupil speak out, but
do not let him strain either the voice or vocal organs. Do not force
the tongue, lips, or any organ into position more than you can help.
Do all as gently as possible. Register their progress. 'A' (as in
'path'; 'father'). As 'A' is the basis of all the vowels, being most
like all, it is taken first. It is an open vowel. Do not make
grimaces, or exaggerate. If false sound be produced do not let the
pupil speak loudly; make him speak quietly. If nasal sound be produced
do not pinch the nose, but first take the back of the child's hand,
warmly breathe on it, or get a piece of glass, and let the child
breathe on it, or press the back of the tongue down. Show the child
that when you are saying 'a' your tongue lies flat or nearly so, and
you do not raise the back of the tongue. Prefix 'h' to 'a' and make
the pupil say 'ha' first, then 'a' alone.

"'P.' If the child does not imitate at the first the teacher should
take the back of the hand and let the child feel the puff of air as
'p' is formed on the lips.

"'P' is produced by the volume of air brought into the cavity of the
mouth being, checked by the perfect closure of the lips, which are
then opened, and the accumulated air is propelled. The outburst of
this propelled air creates the sound of 'p.' Take the pupil to see
porridge boiling. Pretend to smoke. 'P' is taken first because it has
no vibration and is the most simple. The consonants should first be
joined to each vowel separately, and to prevent the pupils making an
after-sound the letters should be said with a pause between, _viz._ 'A
. . p,' and as they become more familiar with them, lessen the pause
until it is pronounced properly:--'ap.'"

These directions, which are only brief examples of those given for one particular subject in one particular class, will give an idea of the mode of beginning to teach articulation and lip-reading.

Combined method.

The combined system, as before mentioned, makes use of both the manual and oral method, as well as the auricular, without any hard and fast rule as regards the amount of instruction to be given by means of each, but using more of one and less of another, or _vice versa_, according to the aptitude of the child. It thus follows the sensible, obvious plan of fitting the method to the child and not the unnatural one of forcing the child to try to fit the method.

The following is the way the same principal would teach language to beginners by the combined system:--

"The letters p, q, b and d of the Roman text are to be taught first.
The pupils are to do them 9 in. long on the blackboard or tablet
first; then trace them on the frames; then on slips of paper with pen
and ink, or in rough exercise-book with pen and ink.

"The whole of the Roman text is then to be taught in the same manner,
also the small and capital script.

"When the English alphabet has been mastered in the above four forms
the pupil may proceed to the printing and writing of his own name.
Then his teacher's and class-mates' names. Then the names of other
persons and the places, things and actions with which he has to do in
his daily life. Every direction the teacher has to give in school and
out of school should be expressed in speech, writing or
finger-spelling, or by any two or all three means. Repetition of such
directions by the pupil enables him to learn words before he has
finished the alphabet.

"All words to be spelled on one hand first; then two. When a few words
have been memorized, they should be written on slips of paper, then in
the exercise-books and dated. After this there should be further
repetition and exercising. The same course should be taken with
phrases and short sentences. Names of persons should be written on
cards and slips of paper and pinned to the chest. Names of things to
be affixed to them, or written on them. Names of apartments on cards
laid in the rooms. Where the object is not available use a picture, or
draw the outline and make pupil do the same. Never nod, or point, or
jerk the finger, or use any other gesture, without previously giving
the word, and when the latter is understood drop the gesture
altogether.

"Never allow a single mistake to pass uncorrected, and make pupils
always learn the corrections.

"Language should be a translation of life. It should proceed all day
long, out of school as well as in it. If spoken so much the better,
but finger-spelling is not a hindrance but a valuable help to its
acquisition.

"In most language lessons, especially those exemplifying a particular
form of sentence, the pupils should:

"(1) Correct each other's mistakes. Correct 'mistakes' designedly made
by the teacher.

"(2) Teacher rubs out a word here and there on the blackboard or
tablet; pupils to supply them.

"(3) Pupils to answer questions, giving the subject, predicate and
object of the sentence as required, e.g. 'A farmer ploughs the
ground.' 'Who ploughs the ground?' 'What does a farmer do?' 'What does
he plough?' Also additional and illustrative questions; e.g. 'Does the
ground plough the farmer?' 'Does a farmer plough the sea?' 'Does he
eat the ground?' &c.

"The pupils should learn meanings or synonyms of unfamiliar words
before such words are signed.

"(4) Teacher gives a word, and requires pupils to exemplify it in a
sentence, e.g. 'sows,' 'He sows the seed.'

"(5) Let them give as many sentences as they can think of in the same
form.

"Occurrences, incidents, objects, pictures, reading-books, newspaper
cuttings and correspondence should all be used."

The best system.

The "pure" oral method, as before noticed, came with a bound into popularity in the early seventies. Since then it has had everything in its favour, but the results have been by no means entirely satisfactory, and there is a marked tendency among advocates of this method to withdraw from the extreme position formerly held. Opinion has gradually veered round till they have come to seek for some sort of _via media_ that shall embrace the good points of both methods. Some now suggest the "dual method"--that those pupils who show no aptitude for oral training shall be taught exclusively by the manual method and the rest by the oral only. While this is a concession which is positively amazing when compared with the title of the booklet containing utterances of the Abbe Tarra, president of the Milan conference in 1880--"The _Pure_ Oral Method the _Best_ for _All_ Deaf Children"!--yet we believe that in no case should the instruction be given by the oral method alone, and that the best system is the "combined." That the combined system is detrimental to lip-reading has not much more than a fraction of truth in it, for if the command of language is better the pupils can supply the lacunae in their lip-reading from their better knowledge of English. It is found that they have constantly to guess words and letters from the context. Teach all by and through finger-spelling, reading, writing and signing where necessary to explain the English, and teach those in whose case it is worth it by articulation and lip-reading as well. Signs should be used less and less in class work, and English more and more exclusively as the pupil progresses--English in any and every form. A proportion of teachers should be themselves deaf, as in America. They are in perfect understanding and sympathy with their pupils, which is not always the case with hearing teachers. Statistics which we collected in London showed the following results of the education of 403 deaf pupils after they had left school:--

Manual. Combined. Oral.
Quite satisfactory result 65% 51% 20%
Moderate success 29% 41% 35%
Unsatisfactory result 5% 7% 44%

That the combined system should show to slightly less advantage than the exclusively manual method is what we might perhaps expect, for the time given to oral instruction means time taken from teaching language speedily, the manual method being, we believe, the best of all for this. But it may be worth while to lose a little in command of language for the sake of gaining another means of expressing that language. Hence we advocate the combined system, regarding speech as merely a means of expressing English, as writing and finger-spelling are, and a good sentence written or finger-spelled as being preferable to a poorer one which is spoken, no matter how distinct the speech may be. It is no answer to point to a few isolated cases where the oral method is considered to have succeeded, for one success does not counterbalance a failure if by another method you would have had two successes; and, moreover, these oral successes would have been still greater successes--we are taking language in any form as our criterion--had the teacher fully known and judiciously used the manual method as well as the oral.

The _exclusive_ use of the oral method leads, generally speaking, to
comparative failure, for the following, among other, reasons:--(1) It
is a slow way of teaching English, the learning to speak the elements
of sound taking months at least, and seldom being fully mastered for
years. The "word method," by the way, starts at once with words
without taking their component phonetic elements separately; but it
has yet to be proved that any quicker progress is made by this means
of teaching speech than by the other. (2) Lip-reading is, to the deaf,
sign-reading with the disadvantage of being both microscopic and
partially hidden. The deaf hear nothing, they only partly _see_ tiny
movements of the vocal organs. Finger-spelling, writing, signing, are
incomparably more visible, while 130 words a minute can be attained by
finger-spelling, and read at that speed. (3) The signs--as they are to
the deaf--made by the vocal organs are entirely arbitrary, and have
not even a fraction of the redeeming feature of naturalness which
oralists demand in ordinary gestures. (4) Circumstances, such as
light, position of the speaker, &c., must be favourable for the
lip-reading to approach certainty. (5) Styles of speech vary, and it
is a constant experience that even pupils who comparatively easily
read their teacher's lips, to whose style of utterance they are
accustomed, fail to read other people's lips. (6) There is a great
similarity between certain sounds as seen on the lips, e.g. between
_t_ and _d_, _f_ and _v_, _p_ and _b_, _s_ and _z_, _k_ and _g_. Which
is meant has usually to be guessed from the context, and this requires
a certain amount of knowledge of language, which is the very thing
that is needed to be imparted. (7) The deliberate avoidance by the
teacher of the pupil's own language--signs--as an aid to teaching him
English. If a hearing boy does not understand the meaning of a French
word he looks it up in the dictionary and finds its English
equivalent. If the deaf boy does not understand a word in English, the
simplest, quickest, best way to explain it is, in most cases, to sign
it. (8) The distaste of the pupil for the method. This is common. (9)
The mechanical nature of the method. There is nothing to rouse his
interest nor to appeal to his imagination in it. (10) The temptation
to the teacher to use very simple phrases, owing to the difficulty the
pupil has in reading others from his lips. Consequently the pupil
comparatively seldom learns advanced language.

Other means of educating the deaf in addition to the oral should have
a fair trial in modern conditions for the same length of time that the
oral method has been in operation. To consider pupils taught manually
in oral schools fair criteria of what can be done by the manual method
or combined system, when those pupils have confessedly been relegated
to the manual class because of "dulness" (as in the case of the C
divisions in Denmark and Dresden), is obviously unfair. This division,
moreover, assumes that the "pure" oral method is the best for the
brightest pupils. The comparing of oral pupils privately taught by a
tutor to themselves with manual pupils from an institution crippled
and hampered by need of funds, where they had to take their chance in
a class of twelve, and the comparison of oral pupils of twelve years'
standing with combined system pupils of four years', are also
obviously unfair. Reference may be made on this subject to Heidsiek's
remarkable articles on the question of education, which appeared in
the _American Annals of the Deaf_ from April 1899 to January 1900.

The opinions of the deaf themselves as to the relative merits of the
methods of teaching also demand particular attention. The ignoring of
their expressed sentiments by those in authority is remarkable. In the
case of school children it might fairly be argued that they are too
young to know what is good for them, but with the adult deaf who have
had to learn the value of their education by bitter experience in the
battle of life it is otherwise. In Germany, the home of the "pure"
oral method, 800 deaf petitioned the emperor against that method. In
1903 no fewer than 2671 of the adult deaf of Great Britain and Ireland
who had passed through the schools signed a petition in favour of the
combined system. The figures are remarkable, for children under
sixteen were excluded, those who had not been educated in schools for
the deaf were excluded, and the education of the deaf has only lately
been made compulsory, while many thousands who live scattered about
the country in isolation probably never even heard of the petition,
and so could not sign it. In America an overwhelming majority favour
the combined system, and it is in America that by far the best results
of education are to be seen. At the World's Congress of the Deaf at St
Louis in 1904 the combined system was upheld, as it was at Liege. From
France, Germany, Norway and Sweden, Finland, Italy, Russia, everywhere
in fact where they are educated, the deaf crowd upon us with
expressions of their emphatic conviction, repeated again and again,
that the combined system is what meets their needs best and brings
most happiness into their lives. The majority of deaf in every known
country which is in favour of this means of education is so great that
we venture to say that in no other section of the community could
there be shown such an overwhelming preponderance of opinion on one
side of any question which affects its well-being. In the case of the
rare exceptions, the pupil has almost always been brought up in the
strictest ignorance of the manual method, which he has been sedulously
taught to regard as clumsy and objectionable.

_The Blind Deaf._

In the summary tables (p. 283) of the 1901 British census the following numbers are given of those suffering from other afflictions besides deafness:--

1. Blind and deaf and dumb 58
2. Blind and deaf 389
3. Blind, deaf and dumb and lunatic 5
4. Blind, deaf and lunatic 5
5. Deaf and dumb and lunatic 136
6. Deaf and lunatic 51
7. Blind, deaf and dumb and feeble-minded 5
8. Blind, deaf and feeble-minded 8
9. Deaf and dumb and feeble-minded 221
10. Deaf and feeble-minded 100

In addition to these, 2 are said to be blind, dumb and lunatic; 20 dumb and lunatic; 3 blind, dumb and feeble-minded, and 222 dumb and feeble-minded. These are certainly outside our province, which is the deaf. The "dumbness" in these four classes is aphasia, due to some brain defect.

Of those in the list, classes 7, 8, 9 and 10 are (we are strongly of opinion) incorrectly described, being, as we think, composed of those who are simply feeble-minded as well as, in classes 7 and 8, blind. Their so-called "deafness" is merely inability of the brain to notice what the ear does actually hear and to govern the vocal organs to produce articulate sound. Many of classes 9 and 10, however, may not be "feeble-minded" at all, but only rather dull pupils whom their teachers have failed to educate.

It is safe to say that in some instances in classes 3, 4, 5 and 6 the persons were only assumed to be deaf. Again, cases of deaf people who to all appearance could not fairly be called insane but who may have had violent temper or some slight eccentricity being relegated to an asylum have come to our notice. A good teacher might accomplish much with some of these described as lunatic in classes 5 and 6. Finally, classes 3 and 4 may have become lunatic owing to the loneliness and brooding inseparable to a great extent from such terrible afflictions as blindness and deafness combined. Probably the isolation became intolerable, and if only they had had some one who understood them to educate them their reason might have been saved.

We are most concerned with the first two classes, and in considering them have to take individual cases separately, as there is no regular institution for them in Great Britain.

Mr W. H. Illingworth, head master of the Blind School at Old Trafford, Manchester, tells how David Maclean, a blind and deaf boy, was taught, in the 1903 report of the conference of teachers of the deaf. The boy lost both sight and hearing, but not before six years of age, which was an advantage, and could still speak or whisper to some extent when admitted to school. His teacher began with kindergarten and attempts at proper voice-production. He gave the sound of "ah" and made David feel his larynx. Then he tickled the boy under his arms, and when he laughed made him feel his own larynx, so that the boy should notice the similarity of the vibration. Then, acting on the theory that brain-waves are to some extent transmittable, Mr Illingworth procured a hearing boy as companion, and, ordering him to keep his mind fixed on the work and to place one hand on David's shoulder, made him repeat what was articulated. The blind-deaf boy's right hand was placed on Mr Illingworth's larynx and the left on the companion's lips. Thus the pupil felt the sound and the companion's imitation of it, and soon reproduced it himself. From this syllables and words were formed by degrees. The pupil knew the forms of some letters of the alphabet in the Roman type before he lost sight and hearing, and the connexion between them and the Braille characters and manual alphabet was the next step achieved. This, and all the steps, were aided to a great extent by the hearing and seeing boy companion's sympathetic influence and concentration of mind, in Mr Illingworth's opinion. After this stage his progress was comparatively quick and easy; he read from easy books in Braille, and people spelled to him in the ordinary way by forming the letters with their right hand on his left.

From Mr B. H. Payne of Swansea comes the following account of how four blind-deaf pupils were taught:--

"We have received four pupils who were deaf-mute and blind, one of
them being also without the sense of smell. One was born deaf, the
others having lost hearing in childhood. There was no essential
difference between the methods employed in their education and those
of 'sighted' deaf children. Free-arm writing of ordinary script was
taught on the blackboard, the teacher guiding the pupil's hand, or
another pupil guiding it over the teacher's pencilling. The script
alphabet was cut on a slate, and the pupil's pencil made to run in the
grooves. The one-hand alphabet, used with the left hand, was employed
to distinguish the letters so written. The script alphabet was also
formed in wire for him. The object was to enable the pupil when he had
gained language to write to friends and others who were unacquainted
with Braille, but the latter notation was taught to enable the pupil
to profit by the literature provided for the blind. Both one- and
two-hand alphabets were taught, the teacher forming the letters with
one of his own hands upon the pupil's hand. The name of the object
presented to the pupil was spelled and written repeatedly until he had
memorized it. Qualities were taught by comparison, and actions by
performance. The words 'Come with me' were spelled before he was
guided to any place, and other sentences were spelled as they would be
spoken to a 'hearing' child in appropriate associations. The blind
pupil followed with his hands the signs made by junior pupils who were
unacquainted with language, and in this way readily learned to sign
himself, the art being of advantage in stimulating and in forming the
mind, and explaining language to him. One of the pupils was confirmed,
and in preparation for the rite over 800 questions were put to him by
finger-spelling. His education was continued in Braille. The deaf-born
boy developed a fair voice, and could imitate sounds by placing his
hand on a speaker's mouth. Two of them had a keen sense of humour, and
would slyly move the finger to the muscles of their companion's face
to feel the smile with which a bit of pleasantry was responded to. In
connexion with the pupil who was confirmed, the vicar who examined him
declared that none of his questions had been answered better even by
candidates possessed of all their faculties than they were by this
blind-deaf boy."

Mr W. M. Stone, principal of the Royal Blind School at West Craigmillar, Edinburgh, gives this very interesting information:

"We have five blind-deaf children at this institution, and all are
wonderfully clever and intelligent. In all cases the children
possessed hearing for a time and had some knowledge--very slight in
some cases--of language. The method of teaching is, first to teach
them the names of common objects on their fingers. A well-known object
is put in the child's hand and then the word is spelled on the
hand,--the child's hand of course. The child learns to associate these
signs--he does not know they are letters--with the object, and so he
learns a name. Other names are then given and similar names are
associated together, and by noticing the difference in the names the
child gradually grasps the idea of an alphabet. For instance, if he
learns the words cat, bat and mat, he will quickly distinguish that
the words are alike except in their initial letters. When in this way
language has been acquired he is taught the Braille system of reading
for the blind and his progress is now very rapid. This method may
appear very complicated and difficult, but in reality it is not so.
There are no institutions in Great Britain specially for the
blind-deaf, nor are there any in America. I do not know of any on the
continent. Our own blind children here are receiving the same
education as our other children, and in some ways are more advanced
than seeing and hearing children of their own ages. They not only
read, write and do arithmetic, but they do typewriting and much manual
work."

Mr Addison mentions two deaf and blind pupils who were taught by the late Mr Paterson of Manchester, and a third in the same school later on. Another was taught in the asylum for the blind in Glasgow, though she only lost hearing and became deaf at ten.

Mr William Wade has written a monograph on the blind-deaf of America, in the preface to which he points out, rightly, that the education of the blind-deaf is not such a stupendous task as people imagine it to be.