rapid progress having been made in the last few years. The states have also been falling into line. Connecticut began in 1899 by requiring tests for vision; other states followed, and two types of laws have developed. The one is mandatory, seven states now having such laws, although they may apply to the cities only. In ten states permissive laws have been enacted, but here the community remains dormant until it is aroused to the need of action. Medical inspection and physical examinations are still largely confined to the cities, the movement in the rural districts having made but little progress. State law alone can remedy this situation. 1 Gulick and Ayres, Medical Inspection of Schools, 1913, p. 17. CHAPTER III CARE AND TRAINING OF PHYSICAL DEFECTIVES It is rapidly being conceded that the school authorities must educate the exceptional as well as the normal children. The blind or deaf child should not be educated by philanthropy but by the public schools. The education of these classes must not interfere with that of the normal children, but all are entitled to the advantage of an education, even though the labor expended on one group exceed that expended on another. A thorough medical examination must precede the separation of children into groups or classes for special instruction. Those physically incapable of meeting the ordinary requirements of regular class work need to be segregated for special instruction, some to be educated by the local school board, some by the state. The better known groups are the blind and the deaf, but additional ones are the crippled, those having defective speech, and the anæmic and tubercular group. The last is the most numerous of all. 1. The Blind. Every state should provide an institution for the education of its blind, and provision for the maintenance of the children in whole or in part must also be made. The state schools should enroll all blind children in the country districts and the smaller communities where the number of blind is not sufficient to make the establishment of classes for the blind possible. Education should be compulsory and a charge levied against the community so as not to discriminate against the locality that educates its blind directly. The state must make ample provision for the indigent blind and insist on educating them, and if necessary it must pay all expenses directly. It is far better to spend money on the education of blind children than to give permanent relief in the form of pensions. The cities must establish independent facilities for educating this class. Although a number of the schools for the blind in the United States were established by private philanthropy, the duty of the public to perform this function is universally recognized. There are 53 state schools for the blind in the United States with an enrollment of nearly 5000 pupils, a large proportion of whom are over 14 years of age. In some of the large cities classes for the blind have been established by the local boards of education. Some experiments have also been made with the blind in classes with the seeing pupils. In each of the four elementary schools for the blind in Chicago, special apparatus is provided and special teachers are placed in charge. The pupils are taught the Braille system of print and are assisted in the preparation of their work. They divide their time between their special rooms and the regular classrooms; they recite with the regular classes in reading when they reach the third grade and thereafter; they usually enter the classes for language and music from the beginning and wherever possible they are given the opportunity to recite with seeing pupils. In Cleveland the blind children recite in the regular classes in the upper grades only. Such a program is carried out partly to reduce the cost of education and partly to bring the child in touch with the outside world and to make the seeing pupils more sympathetic. Most cities adhere to the old custom of educating the blind separately. In 1912 New York City operated 12 classes for the blind and had an enrollment of 125 pupils; Chicago enrolled 53, and other cities 14 in all-made some special provision for the blind children. The preliminary education of the blind both in state and city schools is similar to that of seeing children. It is naturally somewhat slower, and the majority of children are in the lower grades. Reading is comparatively slow work, but the Braille system of print makes writing by the blind simpler than before, and relief maps are used, for the sense of touch must be substituted largely for that of sight. On the whole, the education of the blind must proceed along physical and industrial lines. Compelled to grope about, the blind lose their firm and erect posture, and unless carefully trained they suffer much physically; consequently systematic gymnastic exercises, athletic sports, and various recreations must be provided. Heart and lung action is improved thereby and a better posture is assured. Although the blind can acquire a considerable formal education because of their hearing, the problem of self-support is a difficult one because so little can be done without the eyesight. While the blind may rise to high intellectual levels, they are not easily made capable of self-support. They are restricted to a very small number of occupations, the principal ones being teaching music, piano-tuning, broom making, chair caning, weaving, and basket making. Each student must be thoroughly trained, or competition from seeing people makes self-support impossible. If the school coöperates with the home and stimulates interest in the blind children, parents become more hopeful and better results can be achieved for the children. A serious problem in many schools for the blind is the proper segregation of boys and girls. It is difficult to prevent the blind from marrying the blind, yet nearly every instance of such marriage is a tragedy. The spirit of independence and the duty of self-support must be religiously taught or frequent intermarriages among the blind will follow and the community be compelled to support a family of children, as very few of the blind can provide for more than one additional person. 2. The Deaf. Like the blind the deaf have been given a measure of care and training in state institutions. In the same way the work must continue for the sake of the children scattered over the state who would no doubt be neglected but for the facilities which a state can provide. Although the state instutitions are fundamentally educational in character they must also minister to the needs of the indigent group. In the cities day schools for the deaf can easily be established because the deaf can reach them without assistance. The children can be brought to some convenient location and trained un der special teachers in day classes in a special building or even in a part of the regular school, but a centrally located building offers the better plan. If all of the deaf can be brought together, a system of grading is made possible, economies in equipment can be made, and adequate courses in industrial training be provided. The deaf cannot speak because they cannot hear themselves articulate, so they eventually become dumb. Formerly they were taught the sign language, using signs and gestures to express themselves, but in recent years an oral method has been developed, and children now learn to articulate by means of "lipreading." Many of the deaf acquire considerable power of speech, but in this respect the congenital cases are much inferior to the others, although hearing may have been destroyed within the first two years of life. The majority of children are now taught by the oral method, which enables them to converse with the hearing. The deaf exceed the blind in numbers, therefore both in the cities and throughout the states the student body is larger than that of the blind. In 1911 the 57 state schools enrolled 10,740 pupils. There were also 55 public day schools, of which 21 were in Wisconsin and 14 in Michigan, while the private schools numbered 20. The last two groups enrolled 2300 children. A comparison of the deaf and the blind in state schools shows that while 6.1 per cent of the former were high school students and graduates, the corresponding proportion among the blind was 18.5 per cent. The blind can master a formal education more rapidly than can the deaf, and their scholastic attainments are much superior, but that eyesight is an invaluable asset for industrial efficiency is evidenced by the fact that few of the deaf receive charitable relief while many of the blind are so assisted. The majority of the deaf are physically subnormal, this condition being both cause and effect. An important effect is inferior lung and chest development, due in part to the failure to use the organs of speech. The oral method of communication will lessen the difficulty, but physical training is necessary to develop properly every part of the body that fails to receive suffi |