The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-04-19

To the Editor of The
 Waterbury Democrat:
 A commission has recently been apnpinted by the governor to make a study of the education of the deaf of the state with the view of seek ing out the advisability of merging the two schools, namely the Ameri- can School for the Deaf of West Hartford and the Mystic oral School of Mystic. This has been g need for some time and the deaf people of the state welcome such a study.
 To begin with we must state we believe a merger would be 2 wise step provided the consolidated school be located in West Hartford. We propose to show that a consoli- dation would result in benefits to the state and to the deaf children therein. We are deaf people our selves and feel 1t incumbent upon us to look after the best interests of the deaf children of Cpnnecti- cut. We are citizens, taxpayers, wage earners, property owners, and househoIders just as ate most of the people around us. Except for the loss of our hearing we consider our selves normal in every way and take our places on an equal foot ing with our Iieighbors. As intelli- gent adult deaf we feel that no one is better qualified to speak on this matter than we are. We have all been through the educational mill and unlike guinea pigs and white mice, we can speak our esti- nation on the fare fed us.
 The affairs of the American School have been administered by board of directors chosen from among the most prominent men of Hartford and its envirors. The re- suit has been a most efficient edu- cational institution with a per capita, cost of $50l for the year 1935-36, which is only few dollars less than the average oyer a period of years. Mystic, a state institution, has run up per capita cost of $93055 for the same year. This amount was spent for ordinary re- curing expenses and does not in- c1ude some $5,900 spent for equipment. These equipment items occur every year and should really be added to get the true per capita.
 ltystic's authorities have declared (ab that their costs for 1935-36 were unusually high due to some needed Improvements such as re- pairs, painting, etc." and that their average per capita cost for the ten years preceding the last one was only $742; (b) that they are not the highest costing per capita institution in the state; and Co that small school must neces- sarily cost more per capita than a larger one. In reply we point out thAt:
 (a) As stated in the budget re- port of the state board of finance and control, the $930.55 was for ordinary recurring expenses. If the 1935-36 expenditures included some unusual items why then is an even greater per capita request of $944.58 made for ordinary recurring ex- peylses for the biennun1 of 1937-39? Mystic's per capita cost of $930 is the highest by far of any state ci' state-supported school for the deaf in the United States. Only one school is known to exceed it and this private school in Massachu- setts which charges a large tuition. The highest per capita allowance made by any state, next to the one made to Mystic, is approximate tely $725 per pupil.
 (b) It is true that some of the tubercular sanatpria spent more on ar, annual basis than Mystic, the highest being $1,118 per annum per capita. But 1t must be renenl- bered that these tlibercular sana- toria are in operation 52 weeks of the year whereas the Mystic School is only in operation for a school year of 38 weeks, as the children are at home for the summer vaca- tion. Dividing the $930.55 annual per capita by 38 weeks of operation gives a weekly per capita cost of $24.49 which is approximately $500 a week higher than any other insti- tuition in the state.
 (c) A few miles away, in Provi- dence, there is a school for the deaf with an enrollment of 108, to Mystic's 92. Without the help of 3 herd of cows. tlocks of chickens, and plots of garden ground to furnish necessities for their table, the Providence School operated on an outlay of $584 per pupil for the year of 1934-35. Y
 Much of the controversy hinges around the comparative merits of the methods employed by the two schools. Volumes can, and have been written on this topic but space permits only Of the barest essen- tials here. Mystic teaches by the medium Of speech and lip-reading and forbids the use of signs to the children attempting exactly the same procedure fin every case. This is called the pure oral method. The American School teaches by the same method but recognizes the wide individual difference of deaf and hard of hearing children and attempts to adopt to each child educational methods best suited to his needs. Of the 243 children in the school 35 have been found to be making unsatisfactory progress under oral -instruction and have been put in special classes where they are taught by the me- dium of signs and finger-spelling. No effort is made to slppress signs