The Portland daily press., 1876-03-20
visible Speech for Deaf Mutes.

| Inc proposition made at the last meeting
OF the schoo! committee is worthy of careful
consideration by our citizens. Inquiry
through the scholars in the public schools
shows that there are in Portland about fifty
deaf mutes. Probably twenty of these are
children who can be taught to speak. Some
| OF them are at schools in other states, but
some are debarred from instruction. The
| IDEA OF immortal souls being thus shut up in
perpetual solitary confinement, has peculiar
ly interested the sympathies of the benevo-
lent, and institutions for teaching them the
sign alphabet have been long familiar to us.
But Prof BePs system of ''visible speech''
has rendered G practicable to teach deaf
mutes in connection with our ordinary school
system.
The system adopted is called the "Ger-
man" method, it was invented by Samuel
Heinicke, and introduced into his school at
Leipslc in 1777. But his method could not
be adopted for the English language because,
unlike the German, it is not phonetic. In
1869, Prof. Alexander Melville Bell, of Lon
don, introduced set of symbols, by which
each sound in our language is represented by
character representing the position of the
organs OF speech in uttering it. The results
of this are marvellous. Little children learn
their Specification as readily as they would
sounds; they learn also to recognize the same
characters made by the mouth in speaking;
and the final result is that related by Mr..
Hudson, that he carried on an animated con-
versation with young lady for fifteen min
utes, without being aware that she was total
ly deaf, and reading his lips, or noticing that
her pronunciation had been learned by sight
and not by sound.
To establish such school here is neither
dificul: nor expensive. A school room in
central position can be assigned; skilled lady
teachers can be obtained from Boston at the
same salaries as for ordinary schools; and
the common blackboard serves as the text
book. The only point in which it is more
expensive than the ordinary school is that
one teacher cannot attend to as many pupils.
If such school is established in Portland,
ard certainly we should wish our city to leao
In such an enterprise. all the other cities and
towns within easy railroad reach of us,
would send their pupils here daily, paying.
as at the Boston school, for each pupil, and
many pupils from our state now sent abroad
would be sent to this city in preference
Where parents are unable to pay the expense
the state aids them.
OF the forty seven pupils in the Boston
school, in 1874, only eleven were born deaf,
wv
misfortune which is liable to fall upon any
child among us from an attack of scarlet
fever, meningitis, typhoid fever, convulsiops,
whooping cough, assesses, or even from a
fall.
Ii every child has a claim upon us for
common school education, how exceeding
strong is the claim of the poor child, smilten
by disease, who without our aid would be a.
the beast, while the child with ordinary fac
ulties can pick up an education for bimsell
in spite of us.
To aid the labors of those who are irving
to present the claims of this object in their
strongest light, everyone having a child
which will be sent to such a school is
requested TO send 10 John B. Hudson Jr.,
Portland, its name, age and sex, with his
own address, including those residing in ad
joining towns. Those living at more distant
points who wish to send children here 10
board and to attend the school are requested
to do the same.
The Boston school is under the direction
Of the School Board, and is in the seventh
year Of its existence, and lis success is so
great that the committee warmly recommend
other cities to establish similar schools.
A case has just been heard of which Illus
trates the need of such school, There is
bright, active boy of seventeen in this city,
who lost his hearing at five years of age, by
the meningitis. His mother expended all
her surplus earnings for years in medical
treatment. He has learned to draw letters
well, but does not comprehend them, except
that he has learned 10 write one or two
names as arbitrary characters. The mother
feels that he must be educated. an she will
remove to Boston Tor that pupose if school
is not started here.