For it all there is but one remedy—the enactment of a strong compulsory education law and its uncompromising enforcement. No matter how strenuous and diligent may be the efforts to reach the children,[538] it is only when such a law is on the statute books that the state's really effective weapon is at hand to secure attendance.[539]
However urgent are the needs of compulsory education laws for children generally, there are special reasons for them with the deaf. The deaf stand in particular need of an education, and without it their condition is peculiarly helpless and pitiable. Compelling reason is also found in the fact that, besides the ordinary schooling, industrial training is likewise afforded to the deaf, which is hardly possible elsewhere, and which may mean no little towards success in after life. Even though it sometimes seems hard to take a deaf child from his home, and separate him from his parents for a number of months at a time, especially if the child is in his tender years, the greater necessity of the law is but indicated if such children are to be kept from growing up in ignorance. The hardship in separation is rather apparent only and is temporary, while the gains are not to be measured.
Not only should the deaf child be required to attend school, but for reasons equally strong it should be seen that he remains at school a sufficient number of years, and a sufficient length of time each year. It is a difficult matter as it is to secure full attendance, but too often also the temptation is at hand for pupils to leave early to take up work on their own account, or because the school routine seems irksome; and too often is a pupil called away to help on the farm or in the shop by what is sometimes hardly less than the greed of the parent, or by what is sometimes miscalled his poverty. The state should allow nothing at all to stand in the way of the child's best interests.
Present Extent of Compulsory Education Laws
How important are compulsory education laws for the deaf is being generally seen, and the demand has become practically unanimous for their enactment, the feeling not being confined to educators of the deaf but shared in by others interested in them.[540] Such laws have begun to find their way upon the statute books, and are now being increasingly enacted. Already practically half of the states have them, nearly all of which were enacted since 1900. In other states the matter is also being agitated, with the likelihood that provisions will be extended to them in time. States with such laws now number at least twenty-three: California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.[541]
With respect to the provisions of these statutes, we find that in some cases the general compulsory education law applies with its age-periods, fines, etc., while in others there are special enactments for the deaf. In most states an exception is made if there is instruction at home, or with equal facilities, and at the same time and in the same branches. In certain ones truancy officers are expressly designated to enforce the law.[542] Fines for violation are placed at sums varying from $5 to $200.[543] The period of attendance required may be the school year, but more often a part, as five, six or eight months;[544] and the term for which attendance is required is either a designated number of years, as five or eight, or a period between certain age limits, as from eight to sixteen or from seven to eighteen, etc.[545]
FOOTNOTES:
[530] Special Reports, 1906, pp. 145, 146, 242. Of the colored deaf less than one-half—1,169 out of 2,836—had been to school.
[531] In 1890 the proportion of deaf children between five and twenty years found to be in school was only 40 per cent, to be accounted for in part by the fact that only those children actually in school at the time that the census was taken were included. Census Reports, 1890. Report on Insane, Feeble-minded, Deaf and Dumb and Blind, 1895, p. 102.
[532] In the case of the Alabama School it is said that "there are many deaf children of school age in the state not in school". Report, 1900, p. 24. In the case of the Kentucky School it is stated that "there are still 200 [children] of school age in the state who have not received the benefit of the school". Report, 1903, p. 13. See also Report, 1887, p. 98. In Tennessee it is stated that there are "doubtless quite a number of deaf children of whom we have no knowledge in certain counties". Report of Tennessee School, 1910, p. 11. In Texas there are said to be "300 deaf children in the state within scholastic age who are not in school", this proportion possibly being 50 per cent. Report of Texas School, 1912, pp. 5, 12. See also Report of Board of Charities of New York, 1910, i., p. 151; Arkansas School, 1890, p. 44; Western Pennsylvania Institution, 1888, p. 19; 1908, p. 19; Maryland School, 1893, p. 8.