Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-12-23
Io1ua's Blind Not Educated?
{vinton Eagle.)

c.aSie.J
err counties. There is no question but
there are blind children in them who
ought to be receiving the benefit OF this
school. The attendance from the other
counties are very scattering. The to-
tai attendance from all the counties In
the state only aggregate from 100 to
1870. Notice the discrepancy between
Polk and Linn and the other counties
given which clearly shows that some
children in every county are being ne
elected according to the accepted
proportion of Il blind person for every
1900" the attendance here should be
several hundred. There are about TO-
900 blind people in the United States.
The proportion of ! to 1,200, perhaps.
will not obtain in Iowa. but suppose
you divide it by two and make the pro-
portions to $500, there would be then
about 700 to 900 blind In Iowa Now out
Of this number there would be proba-
bly, at least one-t third of school age,
IL not one~half.
Now what is the remedy?
There Is but one answer by those
who are closely connected to those in
situations, and that is that there should
De u law DftSStti SONtlHiiiS eHp teeS'N
ance in these schools similar to that
provided for the seeing schools. The
state makes it it's business to see
that every seeing child In the
state is given a common school
education A compulsory educa-
ton law is upon the statutes which
provides that every child shall have SO
(, many weeks schooling every year. SUI
! perintendent Rot1ert, for the school for
the deaf has covered this very fully In
a paper he read before one OF the
quarterly meetings OF the state board
of control. 1t has been printed by Mr..
tRothert at the deaf school press and
any one can secure copy by send
ing to Mr. Henry, w. Rothert. superin-
tendent of the Iowa school for the deaf
. at Council Bluffs. We have not the
space to more fully refer to this vail
liable paper in this ARTICLE but will do
so in the future.
one of the peculiarities entering In
to this matter is the aversion of peo-
pie to sending their children to a state
institution. 1t is almost impossible to
Impress upon their minds that while
these schools are state institutions IN
name they are in fact simply schools
and are operated in the same manner
| and contain the same advantages as do
| the seeing schools. A blind child or
deaf child should not be allowed to
grow up in ignorance simply because
their parents may have perhaps an
aversion to a state institution. They
should be compelled to investigate the
character Of these schools. In any
event the state should enter in and
protect the child. In time it is going
TO reach maturity and the parent viii
have passed away. leaving it a charge
upon the state or county. Every deaf
and nearly every blind person can be
made self-supporting.
This is a matter that the governor
and the state board of control should
give it's attention to, so that 1t may
be brought before the coming session
of the legislature. On first thought II
might be considered a hardship upon
| the parent but that is not so for the
reason that the parent is not adverse
to the blind or deaf child receiving an
| education but to its aversion in send
ing the child to state institution. II
it is made the duty of the parent tic
send it's child to a, school provided foi
the child's benefit the aversion viii
soon wear off, and parents now who
are neglected to send their children tt
one of these schools will in the neal
/ future wonder why they were so OPP
posed to it.