The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1916-05-09

That was most acceptable act of
the North Carolina Legislature at its
last assembly to change the corporate
name of the Morganton School to
1.-The North Carolina School for the
Deaf"
Superintendent E NICK. Goodwin,
fully alive to every interest of the
deaf and sensitive to the smallest
detail of anything that detracts from
the uplift of the North Carolina
School, presented this matter to the
legislature twenty-five years ago, but
it was dropped without very much
consideration, no doubt due to their
not realizing the true significance OF
the measure.
1t is strange, yet human nature
that when an idea (opinion) takes
root in the human mind, it generally
requires dynamite-power to root it
out. Down the centuries, even emin-
ent representatives of educational
methods have converted deaf boys
and girls into dumb tragedies. But
latterly it has been proved, not by
theory but by practice, that deaf chill
dren are speeches. only because they
lack the necessary training in speech.
In the Front Rank
The North Carolina School has for
years stood in the front rank OF
schools for the deaf in America
(American schools are more progress
sive than those abroad tho we have
gotten from them some good ideas),
still almost within the sound of the
schools farm bell there are people
who scarcely have the least concep-'
ton of tn. merit, strength, and wide
intelligence of the methods and man
1n,1t Of fIn Tnr4h 10
at MorgaIlton.
Schools of today for the deaf are
as much institutions for learning as
any other, having methods of instruc-
ton just as advanced and thoroughly
planned as are the methods Tor in
structing the hearing. 1t takes just
as Wide-aWake men and women to
make successful teachers Of the deaf
as it does in any school, Talent
brightness, capability are as highly
appreciated among them as anywhere
The sooner the people of any State
disabuse their minds Of the idea that
any one can instruct the deaf, the
better it will be for their schools. No
institution of education demands Tor
its success higher grade Of Gua3ii-
cation and thorough equipment than
do the schools for the deaf. In many
recognition has bbrought about mag
nificent results. All of us know that
in any department whether educa-
tional, industrial, or what not, thor
ough preparedness brings q higher
grade of results.
Need Trained Men and Women
Allow me to prophesy that tie time
is approaching when our best schools
will not employ a second-rate educat-
ed man or woman (this should be
true of the schools for the hearing
as welD-a university nan IS not tGo
good for the ranks of instruction for
the deaf. A young woman acquaint-
ed with two or three languages Will
only be the better prepared to ana
lyze and present to her pupils the in
tricacies of the English language
which is a foreign language to the
deaf, and so hard for them to straigE-
ten out.
In the American Convention o. In
structors of the Deaf at the Nor
canton School in 1905, with a dele2a
ton of over three hundred, repre-
senting thirty-five states, there was a
fair showing of the class of men and
women both Intellectually and social
ly, who are engaged in this work.
Telephone Inventor Interested
Perhaps it is not generally known
that the distinguished DR.. Alexander
Graham Bell, of telephone fame, from
the very beginning of the upward
trend of the American schools for the
deaf has been intensely interested,
and has given $250,000 to the "Ameri
can Association to promote the teach
ing of speech TO the deaf" that artic
ulation experimenting might be adj
vanced. 1t was the writer's privilege
to hear him at one of the National
Conventions deliver an address on
''Visible Speech" His father, Dr.
Melville Bell, F. E. l. S., F. r. S. S.
A, who was a professor in University
College, London, was the inventor Of
Visible Speech Symbols method
not easily explained without charts)
which illustrate, symbolically, the