The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-05-11
AUST|NE SCHOOL
DEMONSTRATION
Progress Made by Deaf Pu-
pills AmaZes Public
Audience
PRINCIPAL WEAVER
MAKES ADDRESS
Explains How Deaf and Dumb" Is Er.
rOneOus Term Children from Be
ginners to Advanced Glasses Show
Their Accomplishments.


Their Accomplishments.
One of the miracles of this century is
the rapid progress made in recent years
In the education of deaf children. This
was strikingly illustrated by the demon
stration of class work of different grades
of deaf pupils given at the Austine In
stitution for the deaf last evening. The
demonstrations of their rapid progress
aroused much interest in the work i'm the
20 interested persons who attended the
exhibition
Prof. James A. Weaver. principal of
the Austine Institution. introduced the
demonstrations by an interesting lecture
on the deaf and their education. Mr..
Weaver said that the purpose of this
exhibition was TO make the people bet
ter acquainted with the education of the
deaf children, about which they are
Woetuilyy lgn0rapt. For years these
children were treated as detectives. and
sent to asylums: but in recent years the
people have awakened to the fact that
the deaf are as strong mentally as those
Who hear. Prof. Weaver also explained
that the term deaf and dumb was err
roneous. the children are unable to
y cak only because they arc born de-
and could not learn to speak by exam
pie as most children do Prof Weaver
said that the highest ambition of the
school was to teach the pupils to speak
4 language. To do this a puDil must
learn to read lips and utter sounds Then
the pupil must mem0rize a number of
words sufficient to enable him to carry
On conversation. In speaking of the
differences in pitch in the voices of the
pupils, Prof. Weaver said that the pe-
GUITAR pitch was due to the fact that the
totally deaf could not regulate their
voices. Those who hear even very
slightly are much better in the matter
1f voice modulation.
The first class to demonstrate was a
mall class of pupils who had been in
the school only since last September
Miss Dorothy Foster the teacher. gave
the names OF c0lOrS, and one of the bows
cad her lins and nicloed the color named
rom an assortment of colored yarns in
basket. The boy also wrote on the
blackboard the names of the articles
Miss Foster showed the class These
pupils also read the teachers lips for
mental arithmetic examples giving the
,orrect answers.
The next demonstration was given by
| slightly more advanced class under the
direction of Miss Gertrude Denman
Fhe teacher placed knife in varying
relations to a box and then asked the pu-
Ills to describe the relation. These pu-
MS also described pictures that Miss
Oenman showed them.
The next class. under Miss Christine
Iyer, was still further advanced in its
tudies. These pupils gave the multipli-
.ation tables through the sevens. One
of the bays drew a map of Vermont and
New Hampshire. locating the principal
eivers. cities and mountain ranges One
# the boys also answered questions in
Elementary geography, in which the boy
,rought out the fact that he was a
oval native of Barre. Vt When asked
he would like to live in Brattleoro, he
answered, No. it is too small town.
Prof. Weaver took charge of the adj
yanced class, substituting for Miss Bos-
ey, giving them advanced arithnIetfc
Examples and simple algebra problems.
Prof. Weaver said that these pupils had
acquired sufficient vocabulary to be
tble to read newspaper and to under
Stand it,
Following the close of the demonstra-
ion the persons present met some of
he pupils, and light refreshments were
;eryed.