The blind in Japan have long been trained in massage, acupuncture and music, and until recently, with few exceptions, none but the blind engaged in these occupations. From three to five years are required to become proficient in massage, but a Japan. blind person is then able to support himself. In Yokohama, with a population of half a million, there are 1000 men and women engaged in massage, and all but about 100 of these are blind. In 1878 a school for the blind and deaf-mutes was established in Kyoto, and soon after one in Tokyo. Japan has four schools for the blind, and seven combined schools for the blind and deaf-mutes.
As in other Eastern countries, blindness is very prevalent in Palestine. Ophthalmic hospitals and medical attendance are now Palestine. available in the larger towns, and the missionary schools have done much to inculcate habits of cleanliness, therefore there is a slight decrease in the number of the blind. The home and school for blind girls in Jerusalem is the outcome of a day school opened in 1896 by an American missionary. There is also a small school at Urfa under the auspices of the American mission in that town.
Education
As more sensations are received through the eye than through any other organ, the mind of a blind child is vacant, and the training should begin early or the mind will degenerate. Indirectly the loss of sight results in inaction. If no Early training. one encourages a blind child to move, he will sit quietly in a corner, and when he leaves his seat will move timidly about. This want of activity produces bad physical effects, and further delays mental growth. The blind are often injured, some of them ruined for life, through the ignorance and mistaken kindness of their friends during early childhood. They should be taught to walk, to go up and down stairs, to wash, dress and feed themselves.
They should be carefully taught correct postures and attitudes, and to avoid making grimaces. They should be told the requirements of social conventions which a seeing child learns through watching his elders. They have no consciousness that their habits are disagreeable, and the earlier unsightly mannerisms are corrected the better. It is a fallacy to suppose that the other senses of the blind are naturally sharper than those of the seeing. It is only when the senses of hearing and touch have been cultivated that they partially replace sight, and such cultivation can begin with very young children.
Blind children have a stronger claim upon the public for education than other children, because they start at a disadvantage in life, they carry a burden in their infirmity, they come mostly of poor parents, and without special instruction and training they are almost certain to become a public charge during life.
Public authorities should adopt the most efficient plan for preparing blind children to become active, independent men and women, rather than consider the cheapest and easiest method of educating them. We cannot afford to give the blind an education that is not the best of its kind in the trade or profession they will have to follow. There are many seeing persons with little education who are useful citizens and successful in various industries, but an uneducated blind person is helpless, and must become dependent.
The surroundings of the blind do not favour the development of activity, self-reliance and independence. Parents and friends find it easier to attend to the wants and requirements of their blind children than to teach them to be self-helpful in the common acts of everyday life. A mistaken kindness leads the friends to guard every movement and prevent physical exertion. As a rule, the vitality of the blind is much below the average vitality of seeing persons, and any system of education which does not recognize and overcome this defect will be a failure. It is the lack of energy and determination, not the want of sight, that causes so many failures among the blind.
A practical system of education, which has for its object to make the blind independent and self-sustaining, must be based upon a comprehensive course of physical development. Physical training. A blind man who has received mechanical training, general education, or musical instruction, without physical development, is like an engine provided with everything necessary except motive power.