Fourth, the fact that the child is a member of the great public-school system is always with him; he feels it. By this environment he is continually trained to be a harmonious and useful member of society; the atmosphere of the hearing and speaking world in which he lives, cultivates his physical, intellectual, and moral side.

Fifth, the day school is not only a distinct advantage to the child but to the community; it interests the various organizations and social forces of the community in its important work. It is especially instrumental in fostering the spirit of co-operation in the homes and schools.

Sixth, these schools are more economical for Wisconsin. They save the state in round numbers $20,000 a year as compared with the institute plan.

Seventh, not only are these schools more economical, not only is it an advantage to the deaf child to be thrown in contact with the hearing-children, but greater than these material things is the effect of this close relationship upon the character of both the hearing and the deaf.

The school may be likened to a family of ideal type. In such a family the little weak deformed or sickly one is shown special loving care, and so with our little day schools; annexed as they are to the large public schools, they are given the tender fostering care of the school board, superintendent, and entire community. This encourages the deaf children, helps them to gain confidence in themselves, and, who can measure the good to those who extend the helping hand? This annexing of the deaf classes to the public schools, as introduced by Wisconsin, is now adopted by other states. And, as another progressive step, a similar plan has been adopted in various cities for the blind and mentally backward. Wisconsin is so thoroly satisfied with her success in the day-school movement for the deaf, that an attempt is being made to establish similar schools for the blind. Milwaukee has such a school.

A public deaf school appeals to the community, because its work is not only educational but philanthropic. As one of our noted educators has said, it displaces the old-time selfish dictum of "A survival of the fittest," and makes the afflicted child "fit to survive." In this it is the gospel brought to earth; it is Christlike work. It is because of this element in it that every community where the day school is established will not willingly part with that school. It is a continual object lesson to other teachers and pupils. It helps the deaf by enabling them to be like those around them; it helps the hearing by broadening their sympathies and their charity for others. It means the altruistic spirit prevalent in the community.

Knowing that the state inspector of the deaf schools had spent time in looking into and studying the nature and character of the home life and work of the children, I asked her views on the question and quote to you her answer:

As a rule deaf children, in their own homes, enter into its domestic management and life as active members. I have visited nearly all of the homes outside of school hours so that I might observe the home life of the child. I have found the older girls at various occupations; sweeping, dusting, ironing, scrubbing, cooking, making beds, mending,

sewing, doing fancy-work, etc. The boys get in the wood and coal, run errands, split and saw wood, repair fences, build doghouses, carry in water, and frequently help wash dishes, iron, etc. The homes of the majority of the deaf children in our schools are those of the ordinary type, where each member assists in the family work. As a rule the children attend church and Sunday school and their schoolwork extends to the home, so that the bond between home and school is strengthened. The interest manifested by the other members of the family in the schoolwork of the deaf child adds much to his happiness. Coming as these statements do from one in authority and an eyewitness, they are freighted with significant meaning.

Wisconsin believes in the day schools because they are representative of that pure, broad democracy, the corner stone of our public-school system; because, the school improves and elevates the class of unfortunate children (the deaf, hard of hearing, and those having defective speech) and lightens the burdens of men; because, the day schools are an advancement along educational lines. The oral method is a sympathetic response to the life ties in the home. Because, the girls and boys who have gone out from the day schools are equipped to engage in honorable pusuits, are comfortable and happy, and become good citizens who are equal to the responsibilities of life; because, approximately 240 of the 315 pupils enrolled in these schools during the past year lived at home.

It is not necessary to mention more of the many excellent reasons for our belief in the Wisconsin day schools and our loyalty to their maintenance. We believe, most of all, in the Wisconsin day schools for the deaf because they fill so large a place in the very heart of saddened homes.

SELF-SUPPORT

FRANK M. DRIGGS, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE UTAH SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
AND THE BLIND, OGDEN, UTAH

It is with pleasure I address you this morning upon a subject of vital importance, especially to those of us who are directly concerned with the education of the deaf, the blind, and the feeble-minded. With these children the problem of self-support appears more serious than with normal youths. The state, at great expense, undertakes to educate the defective child; how can this process be carried on without pauperizing him? No one doubts that institutions for the education of these classes should be maintained, and yet the question arises, can or should they be made self-supporting? If for some the training afforded by the state does not result in independent-citizenship, how may the dependent ones be made to support themselves? The problem is a grave one when we consider how handicapped our deaf, blind, and feebleminded are. Our responsibilities are made doubly difficult by their deficiencies. How shall we fit them for life's struggle after school? What employment is open to them outside of public institutions?

My remarks on these questions, in so far as they are based on actual experience, will have direct reference to the deaf and the blind only.

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As to the first question, "How can we educate the deaf and the blind children to such a degree as to make them self-supporting and valuable citizens ?" We are dealing with boys and girls who, more than other children, need the kind influence and gentle leadership of the teacher. Their training in school should be not only a preparation for life, but life itself with all its problems. Education is growth and development, physical well-being, mental improvement, and moral culture. Life in school is life in all its aspects, or ought to be, and the life lived in school should indicate and greatly determine what the future usefulness of the citizen is to be. The institution which fails to train its pupils to understand that it is as important for them to do as it is for them to know fails to make of the boys and girls intrusted to its care independent men and women.

If we are to educate and not pauperize the child, we must train him not only to do things, but to do them without help. We are growing only when we are free; we are free only when we can assume the responsibility of doing something. There is a consciousness of weakness and a consciousness of power. Children may go to school and not live, or grow, or develop as we would wish. A teacher may teach, and teach hard, and yet not produce growth. Too many of us, I am sorry to say, help to imprison our pupils by doing for them the work we are paid to lead them do for themselves. The teacher who carries home written lessons, and corrects errors the pupils should correct for themselves; the pedagogue who diagrams sentences and solves problems in detail, while his pupils sit in idleness, is a robber, stealing from his boys and girls rights which should be aids to their future usefulness. All agree that self-effort educates, and that the person who is to be educated must put forth the necessary energy to learn, or forever remain in darkness.

The first step in the training of a child for independent citizenship is to let it feel the influences and see the beneficent results of self-support. The whole atmosphere of a school must be filled with the spirit and the love of that useful work which enables man to support himself and others, and at the same time crowns him with self-respect, independence, and honor. We can educate children without making paupers of them only by creating within them a love for work; we must make them understand that it takes work to secure an education, then more work to keep it, and yet more work to use it, and that the reward for those who are willing to work is happiness. Our boys and girls must know that they may succeed in almost any line provided they will labor intelligently, persistently, and honorably. Our children must be made to feel that all they receive from the public fund is given with the assurance that some day it will be returned a hundred fold in manliness and womanliness of the highest type. That individual defectives can be made self-supporting is proved by conditions as they exist today, for the world teems with excellent men and women, graduates and ex-pupils of our schools for the deaf and the blind who are valuable citizens, producers, giving more than they have received.

When you ask whether these institutions can be made self-supporting, I answer, Yes, if you mean by support giving to the nation young men and women who will make the world richer and better for having had the opportunity of attending such schools. If, however, you intend that these institutions shall become workshops where the first thought is financial gain, and that thereby they are to lose their character as schools, I most emphatically answer, No.

The United States stands in the very front rank of the civilized nations of . the world today because it provides a free and liberal education for all its children, no matter how poor their circumstances or how defective their capabilities, and at the same time demands that they shall give back citizenship of the most efficient and trustworthy order. Institutions for defectives may be made self-supporting, but why should they any more than our public day schools, our high schools, our colleges, and state universities? All children should be educated, the bright boy and the dull boy, the normal child and the defective child. The state has no right to be partial in its distribution of knowledge, and it cannot afford to be. The state should not educate your boy because he can hear and see, unless it provides similarly for my boy who cannot hear, or see, or speak. It would be an unjust discrimination.

But you may say, "Why must the state furnish these defective children with a home and food and shelter? It does not provide such things for the ordinary child." The reason is plain. The state provides a free education for all its children. For the normal child it places the public school at the very home door; it often consolidates school districts in order to give greater advantages, and when children live at inconvenient distances, frequently transports them to and from school at public expense, because transporting the child to the school costs less than bringing the school to the child. On the same principle, the state finds it more convenient and more economical as well as productive of superior results, to establish and maintain a central school for defective children, paying for their board during the term. The state furnishes a home as a necessity incidental to education, not as an act of charity. Parents submit to the separation from their unfortunate children as a painful sacrifice which they make for the good of the child and the benefit of the state. I do not wish to infer that these children who live in state boarding-schools should do nothing in return for the state's generosity. I would make them feel that the school is their home, and that they are to help take care of it and keep it clean. I would require their assistance in the manifold little duties about the house. Home duties are the vital duties of life. Their performance brings a realization of power to earn, as well as a consciousness of ability to help others, Further, I would insist that they should express themselves politely and gratefully whenever they desire anything given to them, no matter whether it be their own property, something purchased with their money, or whether it be a sheet of paper or a pencil provided by the institution. Too often, I regret to say, we who should set the example forget to say, "If you please," and "I thank you." We cannot be too strict in these matters. In a

public boarding-school where everything seems to be ours for the asking, the thought must be, if we are to train our pupils rightly, that these many blessings are not really ours unless we make ourselves worthy of them.

HOW CAN INDIVIDUAL DEFECTIVES BE MADE SELF-SUPPORTING?

First, by giving them an education which shall train not only the mind and heart, but the hand and spirit as well. This is true of all classes.

For their own sake, and for the sake of the pupils in school we must take a practical and helpful interest in our graduates and ex-pupils, watch and advise them when they leave us, and keep the undergraduates informed as to the success of individual pupils. I have found that our boys and girls are deeply interested in the records made by those who have gone out from the fostering care of the school.

Another helpful method is to put pupils on record before distinguished visitors, by requiring them to stand up and answer such questions as: "What are you preparing to do by and by to repay the state for your education ?" "What vocation do you desire to follow ?" Inquiries like these lead my deaf and blind boys and girls to think about their future, and to realize that they must do something for themselves.

It is wise to honor the boy or girl who has done well, and to suggest not only to pupils, but to parents and guardians, that young people should be useful at home as well as at school; that they should be employed at profitable work, study, and play, even during vacation. Great was the round of applause one September morning a year ago when, in chapel, I exhibited one of our younger lad's calloused hands, and made the pupils feel that I loved and honored this boy who had toiled and sweat and earned for his widowed mother, while some other youngsters, equally able, had idled the summer away.

By devices of this sort we can teach independence and avoid the danger of overhelping our pupils. I recall an instance, and there are others like it, of a county pupil's appearing at my office door and asking for a pair of new trousers. Only a few weeks before I had purchased for this same boy quite a stock of good clothes and was, therefore, astonished to learn that it was already necessary partly to furnish him. It struck me that a golden opportunity presented itself, and I said, "Walter, you have worn out your clothes too quickly. I am afraid you have not been careful with them. I cannot afford to buy you any more. But Walter, wouldn't you like to earn some money and buy your own trousers ?" It was a happy thought. He did want to earn. He did want to be independent. And that boy worked ten Saturday afternoons to earn sufficient to pay for the clothes. They were his trousers and he knew it, he also knew their value, and six months after he was wearing them for best. He was proud of them, but more proud because he had earned them.

I have recently read in our chapel service two books dealing with the lives of young people, who by hard, earnest toil climbed, step by step, and round by round, self-effort's successful ladder. One of our heroes was an