Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1909-07-10
SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.
Some Interesting Facts About This State
Institution.

Institution.
The South Dakota School for the Blind
is located IN Gary, Deuel. county. At
present the institution consists ofebout
$40,0 900 worth of property. The build
ings are well furnished and we'll equip
ped for the instruction of the blind.
They are steam heated, electric lighted,
and we'll supplied with a convenient
water and sewer system. There is 90
acre tract ofIand in connection with the
institution.
Boys and girls alike are required to do
work in the household department.
This work is as the name signifies house,
work. Many Of the totally blind devel-
op marvellous degree of proficiency in
this most common and useful of all work
The object Of this training is to qualify
pupils for the performance ofhouse-hold
duties. Many blind children, coming to
school with the heart-sick thought that
they are only burdens to parents and
friends, have, after completing the course
in house work, found fields of activity
and usefulness in their own homes. In
addition to ordinary house hold duties,
the girls are taught to do mending,
darning and plain sewing.
The industrial training of the blind is
one of the most important features of
their education, as those who are not
able to do professional work are able to
become self supporting by means of one
or more ofthe trades which blind persons
can use successfully. In the department
basket weaving, chair Gaming, hammock
work, broom making; sloyd, cobbliGg
and piano and organ tuning and re-
pairing have been taught with good
results.
The school is in session nine months
of each year, the fall term opening in
September and closing in June. The
pupils spend the three summer months
in their own homes. Parents are re-
quired to furnish railroad fare and all
expenses in connection with the trip to
and from school and sufficient clothing
to make pupils neat and comfortable
during the school year. Tuition is free.
Books and the raised system of print
and all materials and apparatus used in
connection with the school work are
supplied to the pupil free of charge.
Board and room, washing, mending and
medical attendance are free to all. The
course of study is the same as that used
in the public schools and the blind child
is expected to do as much work and to
do it as well as sighted child. Adults
who have recently become blind, un-
educated blind persons, totally blind
children and children who by reason of
defective sight are unable to do salts
factory work in the public schools are
admitted. The principal qualifications
are that the applicant be Of sound mind
OF good character and of ordinary good
health. Children should be sent to school
at the age of six as the sense of touch is
more acute at that age and can be more
readily developed.
The institution is In no sense an
asylum. 1t is not intended as place of
refuge, protection or correction and
should not be classed with such institu-
tions. 1t is educational in everv depart
ment and is maintained by the state for
the sole purpose of educating blind per-
sons and training the blind youths of
South Dakota to become good, intelligent
self supporting citizens. Doing the
work of an educational institution 1t
should be classed with the educational
institutions of the state.
There are in the state now twenty
seven blind children who have meyer
attended school. The state has made
ample provision for them. If sent to
school they will be surrounded by all
the comforts of home, teachers and en-
ployees will become loving and helpful
friends and the institution will be to the
child school and home combined. L.
Let the people of the state take up this
matter and urge upon parents the duty
Of giving their blind children the bene-
fits generously provided in the School
for the Blind at Gary.
~--