The Deaf / Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their Education in the United States

by Harry Best

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 destitute 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 institutions. 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 passed the experimental stage, and it probably remains to be determined to what extent they really offer advantages to the deaf over the institutions. 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.

All the schools are really parts of the public school system, with the exception of a comparatively small number of private schools which have been created in certain communities. In addition, the work in America is characterized by a national college, which represents the completing mark in the system of their instruction. By this the education of the deaf is made not only to stand all along the way parallel with education in general, but also to assume a place accorded it in no other land.

In the schools one of the great features is the industrial instruction, and this is rightly emphasized. As much as the need of vocational training is insisted upon on all sides to-day, with the deaf it is essential to a greater degree than it can be anywhere else. The pupils of the schools who have had this industrial training as a rule do well in the world, and in many cases put their training to most practical account. It could be wished, however, that we had a careful and detailed record, uniform over the country, of the former pupils, which would be a test, demonstrative as well as suggestive, of the efficiency of the industrial training of the schools, and which would be equally of value in other spheres of industrial education.

Though in the work of the education of the deaf in America, industrial instruction occupies a very prominent part, yet in the schools there is an abundance of "schooling" in the strictest sense. The problems of the education of the deaf are peculiar, and their instructors have to face difficulties of a kind not found in any other lines of education. Yet earnest thought and study are being given to these problems, and efforts made to solve them as far as it is possible. In the conventions and conferences of instructors notable work has been accomplished, and these bodies are insistent upon progress and better results.

For the greater efficiency and success of the schools, the law as well as public sentiment can be called in aid. Deaf children everywhere should be prevailed upon or compelled to enter the schools, and should be required to remain as long as their best interests demand it. Education should be a matter, forced if need be, for every deaf child, for terrible as ignorance always is, in the deaf it is the most dreadful of all.

In America private assistance to schools for the deaf has not been great, and very few schools have been beneficiaries from resources other than the state's. To-day, with the exception of a few cases, aid from private means has ceased to be expected, and calls for such bounty are now seldom made.

At present nearly all the schools are public institutions, and rely entirely upon the care of the state. The state has in general recognized its duty towards the education of the deaf, and has engaged to provide for it. In half of the states this responsibility is recognized, and provision guaranteed in the organic law. In all the states the legislatures have undertaken to see that means of instruction are offered to all their deaf children, and it is found that, all things considered, the states have in general taken a keen interest in their educational welfare. Few schools can boast of overgenerous appropriations; many not infrequently have failed to receive all that has been asked for, and have thus often been prevented from doing their best work. Yet it may be said that if the legislatures have not always responded with alacrity, or always bounteously, or at all times with a full sense of their responsibility, they have responded at least with cheerfulness, and mindful of all the calls upon the state's treasury, and often according to the best of their light. It has been realized that the education of the deaf is an expensive undertaking, far more so than the education of ordinary children; but it is none the less realized also that this education pays—pays from every possible point of view.

That the school for the deaf is not given its full educational recognition is a grievance in some states, and this cannot be regarded otherwise than unfortunate. In time, however, this will most likely be changed, and the schools everywhere will come into their proper standing, and be considered only as the agencies of the state for the education of its children.

The most deplorable thing in the treatment of the schools by the state is that in some quarters politics with its baneful influence has been allowed to interfere. But as hideous and disgraceful as is this action, we may now believe that in most places its back has been broken, and that hereafter men everywhere will think better of themselves than to allow it in a single instance.