The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-01-22
The SILENT SCHOOL
Annual Report of the Super
intendent of the Institu-
ton for the Deaf
and Dumb.
SPORTS AND INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
Interesting Account Of How Useful
Citizens Are Made of These
Unfortunates.
SPORTS AND INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
[speeial . .rhe Jersey city News."l

TRENTON, Jan. p, annual re-
port of the New Jersey School for Deaf
Mutes on Hamilton avenu has just come
from the printer. The report recites that
The institution has been successful during
the year just closed. The number of pu-
pills enrolled was 139-seventy-one girls
and ~sixty-nine boys. This is an increase
of eight over last year. There was only
one death, which resulted from material
fever. With this exception. the sickness
has been of such a character as usually
occurs among children.
According to the list of pupils, appended
to the report, there are eighteen Trenton
ians in the school. They are: William H.
Bennison, Andrew Borsch, Jr.. Thomas
Fleming, William stanton Mills H.
Sweeney, Charles Timm, Albert c. Titus,
George Wainwright. Frederick Walz,
Isaiah vansant. Grace L. Apgar. Missouri
Adams Ellen H.. Blackwell, Ioreno A.
Rice, Emma De Cou, Minnie Croft, Caro-
line and Jennie T. Temple.
Comptroller William S. Hancock is
treasurer of the school, and his report
shows the total receipts for the year to
have been $40. 0O0 and the disbursements
$40, 0s6. 43, leaving a deficit of s96.4S
Professor Weston Jenkins, the principal
at the school, gives some interesting in
formation about the institution. He
calls attention TO the increase in the num-
Der of pupils admitted to the school dur
ing the year. T~hirty-ive children were
added to the enrolment within the year,
and the principal says
This increase appears to be not the
result of an accidental fuctuation, like
ly to be followed by a corresponding de-
crease, but the beginning of a steady and
constant growth"
Or the subject of sports he has this
to say
Some sports are regarded as a means
of education as well as of amusement.
1t will be seen that for a weakly lad to
take no part in running or in baseball,
because he cannot hope to become a
champion, is as absurd as for a boy not
TO learn the multiplication table be-
cause he is not likely to master spherical
trigonometry.
Running. jumping and games which
are based on these exercises, ennis and
basket ball are excellent for both sexes,
and for boys, baseball. Football has been
played with success by our boys against
teams from other schools and from local
athletic clubs. 1t is unfortunate that our
youth nave chosen for their favorite
game one which involves such serious
danger and which tempts to unfair prac-
tees, and it may be hoped that educat-
ors in general will use their authority to
have some other game substituted for it..
Meanwhile, it is, perhaps, better to allow
it, under such restrictions as are prac-.
ticable, than to throw a single school
out of touch with others by forbidding
a game played elsewhere with the ap-
parent approval of the authorities.
"All teachers of deaf mutes who ia
recorded their experience have found their
greatest difficulty in imparting a free and
correct use of language. 1t has been
found that pupils who had made such
progress as to grasp the subject matter
of advanced studies when presented
through the medium of experiment have
been unable to use the language appro-
pirate for the description of their work
with accuracy, much less with elegance.
It is, therefore, to the teaching of Ian
guage thai the instructor of the deaf
must give the larger part of his thought
and work. Ard in the teaching of Ian
guage it is eminently true that it is
the first step that COSTS and that repays
best the expense of time and thought. 1t
cannot be too strongly insisted on that
what gives the needed command of Ian
guage is continued practice. This need
full amount of practice cannot be had
in the limited time spent in the class
nor can the interest which will induce the
pupil to continue in the practice of Ian
guage when away from the restraint of
the school room exercises. Indispensable
as are the hours of drill in the formation
of sounds, in tracing the written charac-
tiers on the blackboard and the like, 1t mas
seemed that something else was needed
to make the language which the deaf pu-
pill thus painfully acquires more real to
him-a means of more directly express
ing his w thoughts and emotions, and
an association with his hours of recrea-
tien as well as of conscious mental eff
fort. With this end in view, a course of
teaching has been in process of devel-
opment for the last two years, under Mrs.
Frances H.. Porter, who mas charge of
the youngest classes in the hours devoted
to what may be called perhaps recrea-
ton teaching. The materials used and
the method followed are similar in great
measure to those of he k-indergartens,
but avoid the word for fear of miscon-
ception.
During these hours the drill of. the
school room is. disused; the toilsome eff
fort Of voice and of hand, through which
the child must acquire the Indispensable
command of vocal and of written Ian
guage, is not required.
Ine Leacnef seeks only TO lead the
children's thoughts and impulses toward
expression into the familiar channels of
daily life. Any subject that awakens in
terest is taken p perhaps the daily
visits of the postman with the occasional
delight of a letter from home. The active
little fingers soon learn to shape the mail
bag and the uniform cap of the postman,
to fold envelopes and to enclose the let
ter, to cut out and afix the stamp, and
to provide whatever else is necessary for
the play. All the operations connected
with the mail, from the writing of the
letter to it's final delivery. are gone
through with the greatest zest. At every
step the teacher uses language to give
directions, to relate what has been done
and to ask questions. The fnger-alphabet
is the medium generally employed. as it
is used with much more ease than writ
ing. and our experience is, can be more
readily made agreeable to the children
than can speech. The pupils are not
urged to try to commit any form of ex-
form is used, is any further notice taken
of the error than to substitute the cor
rect form. In this way the objects and
which take the child's at
tention in his daily life at home or in the
school come up and are made the subject
of conversation and furnish practice for
the child's ingenuity in making models.
It is familiar to all observers of child
hood thai it is the familiar rather than
the novel which is most priced as ma
terial for play, and SO these things of
everyday life afford occupation which
never flags for lack of interest.
In this way are secured two prime es-
way iaps fund 81 Simple language
to the deaf child. appropriate to
the things with which he is con-