Evening star., 1896-09-22
President GaDaudet's Paper Before
the Social Science Association.
TWO METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
The Combined System in Use at
Kendall Green Generally Followed.
Crafty ING RE S Il 7 s.

Prof. e. NJ. Gallaudet, president of the
Columbia Institution for the Deaf and
Dumb, read the following paper at Sara
tcga before the Social Science Association
recently in session there:
For several years past an interesting
modification of methods has been going on
in the education of deaf mutes in this coun-
try.
The manual method of Or. rEper and the
oral method of Heimeke, long antagonistic,
have come together harmoniously in a COM
bined system, the salutary working of
which with the deaf as class is most
gratifying.
Time was when the supporters of the two |
leading methods were arrayed against each |
other in bitter strife. But it has been
shown beyond question that the manual |
method, made use of alone, comes far short |
of doing all that can be done for the deaf |
in the way of their education And it has |
been made equally clear that where the |
oral method is used exclusively, very many !
of the deaf fail of securing the mental de- |
velopment of which they are capable, and
that large proportion fall far short of
success in their efforts to acquire speech.
The automatic conclusion has, therefore,
been reached that no single method is Suffl-
cient for the complete training and develop
ment Of all the deaf: from which 1t follows
that any school limiting itself to a single
d
resources are compared with those of one
that employs both methods in judicious
combination.
The testimony Of careful and competent
observers has led to these conclusions.
Prominent among such testimony Is the
recent report and action of the school, board
Of Portland. Me-, under whose direction
school for the deaf has been conducted for
nearly twenty years.
In this school the oral method was used
exclusively for sixteen years. An examina-
ton of the pupils by the school board led
its members to fear that the method there
tcfore employed was insufficient.
Favared the Combined System.
A commi..e was appointed to visit the
School for the Deaf at Hartford, Conn,
known to be carried under the COM
bined system, and the school at Northamp-
ton Mass easily first among the oral
schools Of the country.
Careful Investigations were made by the
committee Of the work done in both these
schools, and its verdict was emphatcal-
| ly in favor Of the combined system, which
was at once adopted in the Portland school.
After an experience of more than two
years the board and all the friends of the
| school testify to the unquestioned superior
| ity of the combined system over the oral
| method. Among the most competent OBJ
servers of results in the education of deaf
| children are the parents of such children.
| Within the past few years many parents
| whose deaf children had been trained un-
der the oral method exclusively have ccm-
muncated to me their dissatis faction with
the results attained. and have sought my
| aid in bringing their children under
| broader and more elastic system.
| l have seen such children, often dwarfed
| and hampered by the restraints of a sim
| gle method, develop most satisfactorily and
| happily under system combining all
| methods
Experienced teachers of the deaf are
| competent observers of methods. Twenty
/ five years of observation by many OF them
from school to school in the United States
| have led to a consensus of opinion that is
| consensus Is expressed by the fact that
| four-fifths Of the schools for the deaf
| in this country, containing nine-tenths of
| the pupils taught, are now conducted on
| the combined system.
| The oral method, introduced from Ger
many into this country in 1865, has failed
to secure any widespread recognition or
| acceptance as an Independent method,
| while the teaching of speech under the Ju-
dicious restrictions of the combined system
has been taken up successfully in every
ore of the old schools.
Not to Every Child.
It is important the public should know
that the power of speech cannot be sue
cessfully impaired to every deaf child.
Jealous promoters of the oral method
claim that this can be done. But the dis
proof of this claim by results is complete
and notorious.
Edward Walther principal. of the insti-
| tuition for deaf mutes at Berlin, one OF
| the leading educators of Germany, speaks
in a recent important work on the training
| of the deaf of the disposition of some
| teachers to overestmate results. and says:
"Sii ce it is hardly possible that they de-
ceye themselves, their object must be to
deceive Others" and he adds the frank ad-
mission: I'VE must openly and candifly
confess that we cannot bestow upon the
deaf mute q power Of speech that ap-
prcaches the speech Of hearing persons,
nor a means of understanding the speech
of others that is anything more than a
meager substitute for hearing
| In another part Of his valuable book Wal
ther speaks favorably Of a certain use
Of the language of signs, according to IT
'inestmable advantage as a means OF
intellectual and moral Development, and
declaring that every teacher of the deaf
should be thoroughly acquainted with it.
These utteIances of Walther, than whom
l no abler supporter Of oral teaching to
T the deaf can be found in any country, must
be taken as "sign of the times" of first
Importance, for they justify the position
occupied by the supporters OF the combined
4 system in this country, and at the same
G time take the ground from under the feet
| of the pure oralistS.
Other testimony from competent observ
ers In Germany in support of a combina
e ton of methods comes from adult dea
f mutes, graduates Of German schools, who
O in conventions and by petitions to tn,
- imperial government, numerOusly signed
make known their conviction that th
t method under which they were trained i
:, not satisfactory, and their desire that th
q | schools of their country should adopt tn
| American system.
s To Adopt American Methods.
- Similar testimony comes from the edu
# Gated deaf Of France, Italy, and the unite
kingdom. And In the latter country
# purpose to adopt American methods ha
e, taken definite shape. For not long sine
- the board of governors Of the institution
- for deaf mutes and blind at Belfast, Ire
- land, decided that they would have al
- American principal who would conduc
&c their schools on the combined system.
>. Disappointed in one or two efforts
y. the governor Of that institution, which
~ one Of the largest and oldest on the Britis
Isles, persisted in their purpose to come, s
to speak, under the American flag, and
had the satisfaction, two weeks ago. of bid
ding God-speed to a young brother in m
profession on his embarkation for Belfas
the first American principal Of a Britis
4. school for the deaf.
E And England is not behind Ireland in he
70 | readiness to adopt American methods l
the education Of her deaf, for the younges
l. public school for that class in England
n opened four years ago at Preston. adopted
K by the formal vote of its directors. 18th
|