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 institutions 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; xxxii., 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 Institution, 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 Institution, 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 Institution, 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 Institution", 1894 (Proceedings of American Association 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 Institution sent special representatives to Europe to investigate, these advising little change on the whole. See Report of American School, 1845, p. 25; New York Institution, 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 Massachusetts, 1867, p. lxxii.; 1868, p. lx.; Report of Special Joint Committee of the Legislature on Education of Deaf-Mutes, Massachusetts, 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 Institution 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 Association, "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, xxxi., 1897, p. 331; American Educational Review, xxxi., 1910, pp. 219, 281, 415; Proceedings of American Association 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.