The San Francisco call., 1909-10-09

that rings through the rooms at
leisure time is real and good TO hear.
Why shouldn't these boys and girls be
happy? They are daily deiving deeper
into a world unknown to the less for
tunate of the blind who are compelled
to stay at home and acquire learning
as they may. To the boys and girls OF
the Overlook institution for the blind
at Philadelphia this new world is being
opened. by the utilization OF scientific
methods that to the layman are novel
and interesting. The process may well
be described as enabling the sightiess
students at the institute to see with
the finger tips.
1t is called examining" at the Over
brook establishment. Briefly the proc
ess Is TO enable blind boy or girl to
see mirrored mentally the shape and
general appearance of the birds and
animals that live in the world outside
the walls of the institution. Once
student at this establishment has had
the opportunity TO pass his hands over
the wool OF a sheep or the feathers of
a bird and the fingers have tele-
graphed to the brain the contour and
general appearance of the object so
examined" that blind boy girl
knows exactly what the sheep or bird
looks like and thenceforth the names
of these creatures assume an entirely
new meaning in the mind of the stu
dent.
In one of the classrooms at the in
stitute there have been set up variety
of mounted figures of birds and ami
mails of the everyday kind. One class
was being introduced to the sheep at
the time the writer called. 1t was in
terestIng Gone would like to say pa
thetic" but the word is barred at Over
brook to observe the delighted looks
on the faces OF the blind girls as they
pa ssed eager fingers over the woolly
figure on the table.
Meanwhile the instructor was busy
explaining:
THE wool you touch is the material
from which our clothes are made. The
sheep itself is the animal that provides
us with our mutton 1t is the sheep
that you hear 'baa-a-ing' when you go
TO the park"
And so the lesson proceeded, while
the students busy fingers fiuttered
over the woolIy figure. examining it
with keen interest. A live sheep Is
difficult to approach, but these sight
less children could examine the mount
ed animal until every detail of its COM
position was familiar to them. When
next visiting the park 1t was easy to
see that the flock of sheep would pre-
sent a new interest for the blind stu
dents. They would then see the sheep
in their mental mirror, shaped exactly
as they appear to those with eyes TO
see.
The class adjourned to another part
OF the room. where a variety of birds
mounted for their use were placed
around at convenient heights. A
knowledge of the appearance of these
birds could be acquired by the eyes in
the fingers of the students. The color
of the birds plumage was explained by
the instructor, and the children had
then been introduced to the world of
feathered things, a world that would
have remained sealed book to most
of them but for this clever method of
enabling them to see with their fingers
Surely no work could be more inter-
esting to a teacher than this of inn
parting instruction to the blind. The
general complaint OF the school teacher
Is the lack of interest on the part of
the average child. Here the blind stu
dents were fairly bubbling over with
enthusiasm. The instructor found it
difficult to reply to the innumerable
questions asked by the eager students
How high can 1t fly? Where does
1t build it's nest? What does it eat?
Can it hurt you with this Sharp beak?