The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-02-10
TEACHING THE DEAF.
THE FIRST SCHOOL FOUNDED IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.


ford In 1s17-systems of Instruction
and Their Friendly Rivalry.
The earliest recorded attempt to found
school where the deaf could be educated
was made in the early part of the seven
teenth century by the learned John But
Ter, contemporary of Milton and Bacon.
He, however, says of the project: 81 soon
perceived, by falling into discourse with
some rationale men about such a designe,
that the attempt seemed so paradoxicall,
prodigious and Hyperbolcall that IL did
rather amuse than Statistic their under
standings. Indeed, 1t was not until more
than a century later, when De l'Epee,
Heinicke and Braidwood founded schools
in France, Germany and Great Britain re-
spectively, that any permanent institu-
lions were established for the education of
the deaf.
1t is a very rare occurrence when deaf
person is mute for any other reason save
the lack of the instruction which n hearing
child receives through his ears. Recoeniz-
| ing this fact and that speech Is the most
distinctive gift of man, Heincke and
Braidwood devoted themselves to the
training of the vocal organs of their pupils
and to teaching them to read the speech of
Others by noting the movements of the lips
and tongue. On the other hand, the A bbe
| De l'Epee based his method of instruc-
ton upon the fact that all human beings,
when deprived of speech, either through
deafness or ignorance of the language
spoken about them, resort to signs to make
known their wants All savage races have
n code of signs by which they can COM
municate with one another and with the
| surrounding tribes He therefore conven-
tionalized and systematized signs and in
vented new ones when natural gestures
failed to convey the idea
With this system of conventionalized
signs, brought to this country by DR.. Thorn
! as H. Gallaudet q school was opened in
| Hartford In the year 1917. 1t had been
found, however, that the sign language
did not solve the problem of giving the
! deaf means of communication with the
world in general Very few people under
stood this language while its construc-
| ton, so far as there was any, and it's con-
ciseness-a single gesture frequently rep
resenting complete sentence of spoken
ernacular-rendered it unfit for repre-
senting dramatically constructed Ian
guage The method Of spelling the
words with the fingers by means of fin
ger alphabet was then pressed into service
in conjunction with signs. This is the
same as writing in foreign characters on
the blackboard or upon paper, except that
it is more rapid and more convenient. In
this way the reading and writing of gram
NAUTICAL English could be taught, and both
the manual alphabet and the sign language
are employed in certain schools today.
For many years after the founding Of
the Hartford school no speech was taught
there, though today the teaching of artcu-
lation is an important factor in the
work. In 1867, largely through the efforts
of Horace Mann, who some years previous
! ly had visited the schools of Europe, two
| institutions were established in this coun-
1 try where the deaf could not only be taught
to speak, but he taught by speech without
| the use of the manual alphabet or the sign
language. One of these was in New York
city and the other in Northampton, Mass,
and they are today large and furnishing
institutions.
After the establishment of these institu-
tions there sprang up in this country in
the ranks of the teachers of the deaf a
division which already existed in Europe.
On the one side were the ardent advocates
of the sign language as a means of instruc-
ton and explanation while on the other
were the opponents of signs, who employed
the manual alphabet, writing and speech
only. The controversy has been waged
with more or less energy ever since; but
like all the ideas of cruder and less ad-
vanced age the sign language has been
gradually crowded out, until now it is en-
tirely excluded from many schools and
used but sparingly in others
A single argument brought forward by
the son of distinguished advocate of the
I nnfh in nj lie la N.
guage is enough to indicate it's ultimate
fate, though it has served noble purpose
in its day. He says, sit is a fact worth
noting that the signs used by the Indians
of North America are identical in many
instances with those employed by the deaf
mutes of today" No one will question
the truth of this observation nor deny
that 1t is worth noting, but we have reached
"a stage in the worlds history when we can
lay aside the tools of savagery. Through
progress in enlightenment we are fortu-
nately able now to give our deaf children a
better means of communication with men
than that employed by the American In
dian or the African savage. 1t Is a friendly
struggle, in which the old school advocates
Of the sign language are the defensive party
and the oralists the aggressors. Both are,
however, engaged in the great work Of
ameliurating the condition OF an unfor-
tunate class and have much that is com
mon ground where they can clasp hands
with hearty approval.
In the schools for tho deaf in the United
States today three systems Of instruction
are used. The methods employed are, in
the first system, signs and the manual
alphabet; second system, speech and the
manual alphabet; third system, speech
only. Writing is of course employed in
all the systems. John button Wright in
Century.
nv AITTHORTTV