The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-02-27
4O6
From the Boston J oIrnal.
Instruction of Deaf. Mute Children.

ingtonS Head QuarterS) is one OF the most
romantic and beautiful villages of even that
beautiful region known as &C the Highlands.
1t is not however, my purpose TO describe
a scene so familiar doubtless, to most of
your readers, but rather to call their atten-
tion to remarkable school lately opened IN
Fishkill, the village referred to, for the IN
struction of deafmute ctildre;s of from JiUe
years Of age and up1Cdrds.
AS is, perhaps, known to you, such chit
dren are not usually received at our large
public institutions for the education of the
deaf and dumb, until they are ten or twelve,
or even older one practical result OF which
rule is that nine tenths of the deatmuteS
remain from birth almost entirely uneducat-
ed, up to the time of their admission to one
of these institutions,-a fearful waste when
we consider how much is usually learned
by other children in these early years!
Some two years ago, Mr.. David E. Bart
lett, lately an instructor in the New York
Institute, undertook to reduce to practice
an idea which had long possessed him, viz,
that the education of little deaf-mutes ought
and should be commenced at as early an age
as with other children. He opened his
school, and the result has satisfied not only
himself, but all who have had occasion to
know the facts, that great mistake has
hitherto prevailed, not only among people
generally, upon this subject, but among both
teachers and parents of deaf-mutes For
while many parents are satisfied that the
little deaf-mute, so interesting to them be-
cause of his infirmity, with his voiceless
tongue, but his bright earnest, watchful
eyes, beaming with intelligent curiosity, is
in no sense intellectually inferior to his lit
tie chattering p!aymates, still they entertain
belief that they themselves cannot teach
him for want of time for systematic atten-
ton, or from other causes while, at the
same time, fearing that none can so well
understand his wants, or so accurately read
his expressive little features as they, who
have watched and known him from his
birth, they think it better, at any hazard, to
keep him at home, until he has become
probably a violent, ungovernable boy, rather
than to send him forth at tender age, to
the care of strangers who cannot, as they
fear, take such an interest as they them
selves do, or teach as they would if they
could.
All parents of deaf mutes probably also
fear the influence of public school educa-
tion away from home upon their children
in this, that feeling of estrangement may
grow up in the breast of the little mute,
thus cut off from the influences of his home,
and that all those dear ties, even mother S
and fathers love, will become unappreciat-
ed or unremembered and the warm gushing
emotions of filial love will be transferred 10
those with whom their little child is sent
to pass so many years in such intimate as
sociation. In whatsoever degree so painful
result may be induced by public school
education; however unlike those of home
may be the habits acquired in such institu-
tons, it may be confidently hoped that the
system pursued by Mr.. Bartlett will prove a
safeguard against such evils. His pupils
compose his family the children evince by
their manners that kind of confident, trust
ing familiarity which one expects to see in
well governed home. and their smiling
gleeful faces express their happiness ant
coptentmant. The family and the school
are, however, so intimately blended, that i
is impossible to speak Of the one as distinct
from the other, and hence any minute des
cription Of every day life in the house woult
seem to be a violation Of the sanctity of &
private home.
| cannot, however, refrain from saying o
Mr.. Bartlett that he is well known to all
interested in the education of deaf-mutes
especially in New York, as an accomplished
scholar and thoroughly a Christian gentle
man. No one can see him as | have seer