The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-10-16
A sc HooL FOR DEAF MITES,
How the Graduates Succeed In Life
Teaching and Training

Teaching and Training
Philadelphia Times,I
Very nearly all the deaf mutes in
the state of the proper age are at
school, either in this city or at the
P1ttsburg institution. The number of
boys is about three .ifths of the whole.
This proportion has been found to
exist not only at the Philadelphia
school but statistics show that
all through the country tle
male deaf mutes out-number the
female in about the same ratio.
No attempt has BEEN made to account
for the preponderance of silent people
of the sterner sex and the suggestion
that the reason is that women have
stronger propensity for talking than
men does not rest on scientific fOundd-
ton
The Pennsylvani' institution is about
sixty-five years Old Its father was
Hebrew gentleman, who gathered half
dozen deaf and dumb children about
him in little brick house which used
to stand on Market street. Afterwards
the school was removed TO another place,
and sixty-three years ago the fOunda-
ton was laid Tor the present large
establishment.
The number of deaf and dumb per-
sons in the city, exclusive of those in
the institution, is about 800, said
| rincipal CrOuter- Last year com
mittee took a great deal of trouble to
trace the lives OF graduates for ten
wears back and the figures obtained are
very gratifying. It was found that
eighty eight out of every hundred are
self-supporting, working at various
trades in which hearing is not an
absolute requisite. Deaf and dumb peo-
pie can be found at work in carpenter
shops, machine shops and in similar in
dustrial establishments. That Autograph
on the wall is the work of a graduate.
| know of four lawyers who are deaf
mutes-two in Ohio and two i'll Canada.
The late chief examiner Of patents,
Parkinson. was deaf mute and a mum
Der OF the government clerks in Wash
in ION are icte.i in the :
1noSt cases snow LndL speech al. $780,
ing are not absolutely essential for com
parative success in various walks of
life. A large number of those known
as deaf and dumb can speak, however,
thanks to the educ ton received in IN
situations of this character.
Teaching the deaf and dumb is very
difficult work, requiring great expert
ence and indomitable patience. 1t is,
perhaps, twice as difficult as teaching
the blind. 1t is comparatively easy to
reach the understanding of the blind,
because they can hear. But in the case
of child born deaf it is an entirely
different matter. Where the deafness
is accidental or occurring through dis
ease, say at 8, 10 or IL years of age, the
work is not so hard. The fact that the
child has once had the sense of hearing
is a great foundation. In this inStitu
ton we use both the sign or manual
system and the oral or lip-reading sys-
tenn. The former is the French idea
and the latter the icrman.
''Of the total number of deaf persons
about one third can lie made to speak,
but of those who are born deaf the pro
portion is very much lower-in fact /
would not like to reduce.it to figures.
We have oral classes here; and indus
trial education is receiving more atten-
ton each year. We have now carpen-
ter shops, tailoring shops, and print
ing once. The girls are taught all the
forms of needlewOrX, cooking and the
various other feminine occupations.
The work of the special committee
appointed last year to collect infOrma-
ton as to the lives and occupations of
graduates of the institution for ten
years previous to 1881 is embraced i'll
pamphlet of forty pages. EeafneSs,
the report states, is most likely 10 occur
in the poor and middle classes, fully -
per cent. of the pupils from whom i'll
formation was received coming from
poor parentage. The inability of poor
parents to provide proper medical at
tendance for their children when suffer
ing from those diseases that result so
frequently in deafness, is largely ac-
countable for the disproportion. The
mining regions of the state, it is noted
afford many illust tations of this fact,
the miners of the Lehigh, Schuylkill
and Wyoming regions sending more
children in proportion to their total
population than any other class of
people.