These schools are supported by local funds or by state and local funds together. The latter is the more common procedure, and in the case of schools operating under a state law, it is the usual, but not the necessary, practice. The schools in six states, namely, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, and New York, are thus maintained only by local funds of the city or county, the remainder receiving aid in whole or in part from the state.[298] The school in Minnesota and one in California are aided by private contributions. In nearly all cases carfare is provided to and from school when necessary.
In the day schools special buildings are not usually provided, separate classes being created in the regular school buildings; but in some of the larger cities there are special buildings, known as distinct schools, in which the class-rooms are for the different grades of deaf pupils.
The number of pupils in the day schools in 1912-1913 was 1,942. The smallest schools have but three pupils, while the largest one, in Chicago, has 307, the number usually depending on the size of the city. The method employed in the day schools is exclusively the oral with but two exceptions.[299] In all but a few certain industries are also taught, or more or less of manual training is given.
Arguments for the Day School
The great argument for the day school is that it is not well that children be "institutionalized." The institution life is said not to be the normal life, and its habits and associations are not in accord with the principles now being largely held in America. It is coming to be more and more realized that the home should always be the center of interest and attachment in the well established community, and that the character and influence of the family should be maintained unimpaired. In connection with orphan and other child-caring agencies, a greater emphasis than ever before is being put on the question of how to reduce the life to one of normality, and the "placing-out" of dependent children in homes where they can grow up as normal children is now a popular faith. The great watchword to-day in intelligent and constructive philanthropy is the "ideal of the normal," and it is on this ground that the institution is declared to be removed from the standard of the highest interests of society. Even though a child should profit in the institution, and even though he should be sent out into the world strong and self-reliant, yet while in the institution, he is out of line, and is just so far displaced from the ideal of the normal; and even though the institution is cleanlier, more sanitary and otherwise better equipped than the quarters from which the child comes, still the institution cannot be justified, for no solution can be acceptable if in the end it results in the breaking up of the home.[300]
More specific charges are also brought against the institution. Here life for the inmates is made too easy, and little can be known by them of the actual struggles of the world. The life is machine-like, and all is routine clockwork. By the discipline, which is necessary, much of the spontaneity of growing children is destroyed, and the surroundings are pervaded with the spirit of uniformity, "solidarity" and "dead levelism." On the other hand, the children fail to learn many important lessons in domestic economy which would be before them every day in the home; and they lose the attitude towards life, morally and socially, which is given by the home.[301]
The arguments for the day school may be stated more concretely yet. The special day school may be co-ordinated with, or made a part of, the state's educational system, standing on a level with its other schools. Deaf children here come to feel their place in the normal world, while people in general become more ready to regard them in a proper manner. These children at the same time are not made strangers to their own family circles and communities; and certain ones, by a school nearer home and consequently more acceptable to their parents, may be reached who would otherwise possibly never enter an institution.
In the way of cost the balance is distinctly on the side of the day school. With no costly special plant necessary, and with no charges to be incurred for food supplies, attendants and the like, it appears to decided advantage in the matter of economy in comparison with an institution; and its normal expenditures approach nearer those of the regular schools. At present the difference between the cost per pupil in the day schools and in the institutions is the difference between $120 and $277.[302]