The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-04-19

among the children in their social contacts outside of the classroom This is called the combined Iaeth- cd. In 1857, twelve years before the Mystic School was established, the American School had a special teacher of articulation, the first school in the country to have one, and had been teaching speech tol
 many years before that. Mystic teaches, or attempts to teach speech and lip reading to all of its 92 children. The American School teaches speech and lip-readihg to 1 208 of its 243 children. The differ ence creeps in here. Mystic puts speech and lip-reading before everything else while the American School teaches 1t as part of its curriculum, and 1t is not permitted to assume proportionsNof a fetish standing as an obstacle in the path of the fuller education of the child, Unbiased observers say that the speech results obtained in combined method schools are as good as those obtained in oral schools. As to lip reading, popular conception has it as easy as reading print. As a
 matter of fact 1t is an art to be compared with painting ability. If you cannot paint, no amount of teaching will make master of you. Either you are born with it or you are not. It has been shown by 3 famous authority on lip-reading that of the most commonly used words at least 50 per cent have other words which look exactly like them on the lips, such as "pan," ban man. or 'speas," ]" piece" bees" This factor, together with the limited vocabularies of deaf children, the rapidity of the motion of the lips, and the differ ences in the shape of peoples lips will demonstrate the difficulties in- herent in lip-reading. It is esti- mated that not more than 30 per cent of profoundly deaf children can read lips with any degree of effectiveness.
 The combined method is the more POPuldI luEIl1OQ do ASuLG0 VIII At~ test: Out of the 65 public residential schools in the United States with a total eilrollment of 14,249, only g with a total enrollrnent of 935 for bid the use of signs or finger spelling. The Philadelphia and Lex ington (New York) schools, listed as oral schools, now do not forbid the use of signs to their children out side of the classroom. The Idaho School formerly g pure oral school has changed to the combined method.
 The language of signs, to those who really know it, is a graceful and beautiful language which ade- quately serves its purpose as a means of conversation among the deaf. Deaf children will use 1t no matter how much you try to prevent it. Suppressing It, as is done at Mys- tic, only inhibits the children and deprives them of their only easy means of conversation and exchange of ideas. Lip reading is so diflcplt that they settle their problem either by sneaking in a few forbidden gess-- lures or by not talking at all. Amoifg the staunchest supporters of the combined system are those orally trained adult deaf people who have had the intelligence to rise above their early training. At a recent basketball tournament held in New Jersey, teams from ten schools for the deaf were entered. Nine of these were from combined schools and one from an oral school. The boys who could sign mingled freely and hap pily, comparing schools, talking bas- ketball. The team from the oral school kept to themselves, thslr conversation even among teammates being limited to what might De described as rnonosyllables. They were objects of pity. It is at the combined school that the children's play is more spontaneous, thelr smiles more frequent, and their out look upon life more wholesome.
 As to the efficiency of the Amerl- can School as an educational m stitution, for l2O years it has turn ed out deaf people who became sell supporting and respected citizens. A number have achieyed confluence as clergymen to the deaf, college professors, newspaper editors, artists, architects, responsible employees ga the staffs of museum, writers, ana 2 large number of teachers employee by schools other than their own. Six schools for the deaf in the United States, four of them now state schools, were founded by graduates of the American School
 Vocationally, the American School keeps abreast with the times, teach ing its boys printing and 1inotyping, woodworking, auto mechanics, ma chine shop practice, photography, gardening. The wisdom of this edu- cation can be noted in the occupa- tions of her graduates who are listed as linotype operators on large dailies. printers, woodWorkers, auto mechanics, toolmakers, and skilled machine hands. More than ever be- fore do the deaf people need trade, and the far-sightsd policy of the American school is sending out its graduates equipped to hold their own in the communities in which they reside. It is obvious that with its larger enrolment the American School can have more and better organized vocational courses than E possible in a small school With an increased enrollment even more can L. aa,,a aI0r0 thpsn lines.