Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-04-09
DEAF AND DUNE.
F. b. ROBINSON.

In this era Of progress for the bet
terment of humanity, nothing shows
more beautiful or useful results than
the present method of instructing
the deaf and dumb. The modern
cultivation attained by those child
zen is even beyond the highest hopes
of bygone ages. The ancients did
not know how to instruct such per-
sons and left them to their miserable
fate. They had a great philosophy
with little utility-unfruitful. They
considered person without the
power of hearing could never learn
or speak; in short could not be edu.
Gated. Egypt, with almost 5000
years of high civilization did not
grow wise enough to impart knowl-
edge to such unfortunate persons.
Aristotle, the wisest of Greeks, who
lived in the birth flow of science
and philosophy, declared them inca
pable of culture, and unfortunately
his opinion on this as in many other
things was held until the 10th cen
fury. Culture and progress went ON
in Rome for some 1900 years, but
none seemed TO know how to teach
deaf persons to speak and learn.
Even the church did not spend its
charity on them. The Holy Angus
tine said: "Those who are born dumb
could never receive belief, for be-
lief comes from the preacher, and
except one hears he can never learn
to read or write" These poor un-
fortunate creatures were thus through
all ages looked upon as a sign of
Gods wrath, or as imbeciles incapa-
BILE of mental Improvement.
The first known teacher of the
deaf and dumb was Pedro de Ponce,
a Benedictine Monk, who in 1870
taught 4 deaf children the alphabet.
But many years passed before very
much was done. In 1869 the most
important and greatest principle in
the instruction Of deaf and dumb
was announced. The emancipation
proclamation to the deaf from the
servitude of ignorance was given to
the world by DR.. j. X. Amman, a
distinguished Hollandish physician.
The principle was simply that deaf
persons could be taught to speak.
a child born deaf is not at all neces-
sarily dumb. The only reason it
does not speak is because it is I'M
able to learn words like ordinary
children. The organs of speech al
most always exist normal, as the
lips, teeth, tongue, palate, larynx,
vocal cords.
All that is necessary is to teach
the child how to use them in order
to make definite sounds or words.
Charles Epees founded the French
school and method about 1870. He
used definite sign language and
did not teach the child to speak. He
thus had a dictionary of signs.
Over 100 years after DIR. Amman
had shown that deaf could speak,
Samuel Heinike, of Hamburg, be-
gan to use it and he became the
founder of the present method of
instruction in Germany. In 1875 he
taught deaf child Of his friend to
speak, aud shortly afterwards found
ed a school in Hamburg for the deaf
and dumb. Heinike also believed
that child could not learn to think
clear without words. Up to this
time all deaf and dumb instruction
had been done by isolated private
individuals with no particular meth
Cd except their own, but wished to
exercise a warm-hearted charity for
the unfortunate. The method of
instruction now is simply to teach
the child to speak himself, and also
to understand what others say by
the motion Of lips, tongue and teeth.
1t excludes, as far as possible all
finger speech or signs, called in Ger
man GeJrden Sprocbe Mother
speech). 1t is done in the following
way:
The child is taken in the school
at the age of six years. At first the
teacher only teaches one child at q
time. The teacher places the child
in front Of him and with a pencil
pushes the organs of speech in the
proper position to say the letter A
Then the child is taught to SPEAK
the letter aloud, and repeat it unit
it can say it when shown it again.
This slow, continuous, very tedi
GUS but sure method of repetition
must be taught through the whole
lalphabet. It requires weeks, month