Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-02-21
SEPARATE SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF
AND THE BLIND.

The deaf residents of Virginia and especially
of this city with few exceptions have thus
| far been silent on the proposed separate
schools for deaf and blind children, prefer
ring to leave it to the wisdom of the Board OF
{ Directors and the Principal of the Institution
| to do what is in their opinion best for the
school and the classes concerned as well as
taking care not to make any dictation to them,
Notwithstanding the statement to the con-
| trary made in the communication that APP
peared in Fridays issue of the Staunton Daily
| News nor have the mutes been stirred up by
the report of the Legislature being asked to
make an extra appropriation of $3.50 for en-
larging the dining Hail.. The fact is that
the committee of the Board of Directors did
not ask for special appropriation of any
kind or any amount no object was stated in
their appeal They did not say word about
an additional building or about making an
addition to an one of the present buildings.
They simply asked for an increase in the
| amount of the annual appropriation for
the support Of the Institution-fron. $500
to S37, 800. They deemed such an increase
necessary, and they based their opinion upon
full knowledge of all the facts and careful
consideration of those: facts. We emphasize
the fact that all they asked for was the 81, 800
addition to the annual appropriation so as.to
enable them to support the school as it now is.
The Board does not take sentimental
view of the case. With them and with the
Principal it is pure matter of business. The
truth is, that there are deaf children and blind
children in plenty now in the State, outside of
| the Institution who should be provided for III
| the quickest and best way possible. This, the
Board and the Principal have been and are
endeavoring to do.
1t is true that the Laundry and Hospital
| were both built by the late Captain Chas.
D. Mccoy with the money saved out of the
annual appropriation for the support of the
Institution but the Ne,cs is entirely in error in
| its supposition that the appropriation at that
| time was the same as it is now. For eight
years (from 1870 to 1878 we believe) the an
nual appropriation was $4,000 per annum,
and it was by means of this extra appropria-
| ton of SIS 900 per annum amounting in all,
| to $40, 900 extra) that the Improvements spec1-
| fed were made Also, for the last eight or
/ ulUo years Inc dllelludUCc vi pupllo HdS oSOii
nearly twenty per cent greater than it was in
| the days when the buildings referred to were
erected. There are now seven classes in the
Deaf-Mute Department. Then there were
six. There were but two teachers on the boys
side in the Blind Department then; now
there are three. Between 1870 and 1880 the
average annual attendance was in the
neigh borh ood of 115-between 1884 and 1894
| it has been 100. We speak whereof we do
know. Apropos of this occasion, justice
should be done the Principal of the Institution
to say in this connection that he is an able
officer, affable and approachable; and that he
feels a deep.interest in the education OF the
Deaf and Blind both is evidenced by the fact
| that he is anxious that the Institution
should be enlarged, which could be done at a
small COST in order to admit more children,
either Deaf or Blind, or both. The separate
schools are it is true, desirable, but it will be
utterly impossible to get them as long as the
financial stringency lasts. When will the
propitious day come?
| The mutes are not in the ordinary sense Of
the word discouraged at the idea of being set
back many years before getting the separate
school. the erection of which would require
large expenditures and much time. They, be
it said to their credit, attend to their own
business, letting other affairs alone.
| TT NJ c.