What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know Part 4

XIX

DAY SCHOOLS

The parents are the ones most interested in this matter, and it is through their efforts alone that improvement can be brought about. In Ma.s.sachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Was.h.i.+ngton, Oregon, Texas, Missouri, and California, free public oral day schools have been established. This movement has reached its highest development in Wisconsin and Michigan. In Wisconsin there are twenty-four such schools scattered throughout the state, and in Michigan fourteen. New schools are opened by the Board of Education under prescribed conditions upon the request of a certain number of parents of deaf children. Such a law should be on the statute books of every state, and will be when the parents of deaf children organize and demand it.

XX

THE DEAF CHILD AT FIVE YEARS OF AGE

When the little child that has been deaf from infancy is five years of age, he should be placed in a _purely oral school_ for the deaf, if such a thing is possible.

The child who has become deaf by illness or accident after speech has been acquired, should be placed under experienced instruction by the speech method _at once_.

To quote once more from my little book of suggestions to physicians:

"If the proper school for the little hearing child of five did not happen to exist in his immediate neighborhood, no one would think of insisting upon the necessity of sending the little one away to a distant boarding school. But that is what must be done in the case of the little deaf child, if precious and irrecoverable years are not to be lost. It is often a difficult matter to persuade a mother to sacrifice her own personal happiness and comfort in having the little child with her, and to look far enough into the future to see that a true and unselfish love for the child requires her to entrust him to the care of others during those early and crucial years."

XXI

SCHOOLS FOR THE HEARING AND PRIVATE GOVERNESSES

If no oral day or boarding school is available near at hand, the mother should have the far-sighted love that is unselfish, and the courage to part with her little five-year-old child during the months of the school year, and place him in some one of the distant schools where he can live and be taught in a purely oral environment. There are two alternatives to this, each of which is sometimes attempted, but both are undesirable.

First the mother not infrequently attempts to have her child educated in the schools for hearing children. This is very unsatisfactory and even dangerous, for if persisted in it results in wholly inadequate progress, uneven development, bad speech, irretrievable loss of time, and often in a complete nervous breakdown. This may not come for some years, but the nervous system, once undermined by the excessive strain of trying to keep up under impossible conditions, can never be fully repaired. Here is what a _partially_ deaf woman writes of her experience as a child:

"When I was three and one-half years old scarlet fever left me almost totally deaf. My father was a physician. He was urged to send me to a school for the deaf, but his medical training told him that what was needed was a.s.sociation with speaking children, if I were to retain my speech, for at that time the oral method was unknown in our state. So I went to school with hearing children. Unless you have been deaf, you will not understand the misery in this statement. A little, lonely deaf child, I went to a public school, hearing practically nothing of the teachers' instructions or the pupils' recitations. Of the torture of that deaf childhood I will not speak. You all know how cruel children may be, and a deaf child among hearing children often suffers untold torments."

The second alternative is to seek some person who will teach the child in his own home. This, too, is very unsatisfactory, and involves loss of time and opportunity that can never be recovered.

In the first place, the beginning years of a deaf child's educational life are the most important of all. They are crucial. It is then he requires the highest skill, the greatest experience, and the most perfect conditions. The best teachers can seldom, if ever, be induced to teach a single child in its home. Usually these teachers are more or less inferior. But even the best teacher in the world cannot do for a little deaf child in his home what she could accomplish for him in a well-organized and properly conducted school.

Neither the intellect nor the character of the deaf child can be as successfully developed, after five years of age, by a private teacher in his home as in a good school.

The following elements are essential for the highest educational welfare of a deaf child:

_First._ The stimulus and incentive of a.s.sociation and compet.i.tive companions.h.i.+p.

_Second._ The contact with more than one mind and more than one speaker.

_Third._ The avoidance of becoming dependent upon some one as an interpreter, and the cultivation of independence and self-reliance through constant practice with various teachers.

_Fourth._ A fully equipped and trained organization, providing a complete and uninterrupted education under one head.

_Fifth._ Regularity of life, and the subordination of all living conditions to the highest educational advantage (a thing utterly incompatible with home conditions).

These most necessary conditions are not possible of attainment through private instruction in the home. The child who is kept at home and given private instruction too often grows up to be timid, self-distrustful, and unfitted to cope with the difficulties and oppositions of the world. He falls an easy prey to temptation and is quickly discouraged by obstacles. Very often he is selfish, narrow, and overbearing. Not having those about him of his own age and with the same desires, he has become accustomed to having people yield to his whims and fancies as child playmates would not yield. He is more or less excluded from the plays and pleasures of childhood. All those about him have an advantage over him.

On the other hand, the tendencies of the school-bred child are to be simple, natural, and childlike. His inclination to moodiness and suspiciousness is much less. He is happier. He becomes self-reliant, independent, and respectful of the rights of others. He is less petulant and more obedient. The wisest parents do not educate their hearing children at home, nor should they attempt it with a deaf child.

XXII

IMPORTANCE OF THE BEGINNING

I wish to lay very special stress upon the necessity _at the beginning_ of the most expert and experienced instruction that is attainable. If circ.u.mstances make it impossible to give to the child the best _all_ the time, then he should have the best at the start rather than later. Every effort and every sacrifice that are ever going to be made for the child's sake should be at the beginning of his school training, and not delayed till he is older. The years from five to eight or ten will determine his future success. If he has poor teaching during these early years, even the best teaching later will not be able to make up the loss entirely. But if he has good teaching during the first few years, then less expert teaching later cannot do him as much harm as it otherwise would. The early years are his most crucial period, and the best efforts should be expended then instead of when he is twelve or fourteen.

XXIII

AVOID THE YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED TEACHER

Between the ages of five and ten avoid the young and inexperienced teacher and the amateur as you would the plague. Unfortunately, the idea is prevalent that _any one_ can teach a little child, but that it takes experience to teach the older pupils. This is a disastrous fallacy.

Young and inexperienced women are too often quite ready to a.s.sume the great responsibility of teaching a little deaf child. They rush in where angels might well fear to tread. Unfortunately, parents, and even school superintendents, are often too ready to permit them to do this dangerous thing.

XXIV

ON ENTERING SCHOOL

Through the courtesy of the _Volta Review_, in which her article appeared, and of the author, Miss Eleanor B. Worcester, a teacher of the deaf for many years, and at one time the princ.i.p.al of a school, I am able to include the following very sensible and valuable advice for the guidance of mothers when their children enter school.

THE FIRST YEAR AT SCHOOL

BY ELEANOR B. WORCESTER

At last the time has come when you feel that it is best for your boy to study with other children. And since your own town does not offer him a suitable opportunity, it is necessary to send the little fellow to one of the well-known boarding schools, where trained and wise men and women are devoting their thought and energy to giving every advantage of education, comfort, and happiness to the little people under their care.