Early training.
As more sensations are received through the eye than through any other
organ, the mind of a blind child is vacant, and the training should
begin early or the mind will degenerate. Indirectly the loss of sight
results in inaction. If no one encourages a blind child to move, he will
sit quietly in a corner, and when he leaves his seat will move timidly
about. This want of activity produces bad physical effects, and further
delays mental growth. The blind are often injured, some of them ruined
for life, through the ignorance and mistaken kindness of their friends
during early childhood. They should be taught to walk, to go up and down
stairs, to wash, dress and feed themselves.
They should be carefully taught correct postures and attitudes, and to
avoid making grimaces. They should be told the requirements of social
conventions which a seeing child learns through watching his elders.
They have no consciousness that their habits are disagreeable, and the
earlier unsightly mannerisms are corrected the better. It is a fallacy
to suppose that the other senses of the blind are naturally sharper than
those of the seeing. It is only when the senses of hearing and touch
have been cultivated that they partially replace sight, and such
cultivation can begin with very young children.
Blind children have a stronger claim upon the public for education than
other children, because they start at a disadvantage in life, they carry
a burden in their infirmity, they come mostly of poor parents, and
without special instruction and training they are almost certain to
become a public charge during life.
Public authorities should adopt the most efficient plan for preparing
blind children to become active, independent men and women, rather than
consider the cheapest and easiest method of educating them. We cannot
afford to give the blind an education that is not the best of its kind
in the trade or profession they will have to follow. There are many
seeing persons with little education who are useful citizens and
successful in various industries, but an uneducated blind person is
helpless, and must become dependent.
The surroundings of the blind do not favour the development of activity,
self-reliance and independence. Parents and friends find it easier to
attend to the wants and requirements of their blind children than to
teach them to be self-helpful in the common acts of everyday life. A
mistaken kindness leads the friends to guard every movement and prevent
physical exertion. As a rule, the vitality of the blind is much below
the average vitality of seeing persons, and any system of education
which does not recognize and overcome this defect will be a failure. It
is the lack of energy and determination, not the want of sight, that
causes so many failures among the blind.
Physical training.
A practical system of education, which has for its object to make the
blind independent and self-sustaining, must be based upon a
comprehensive course of physical development. A blind man who has
received mechanical training, general education, or musical instruction,
without physical development, is like an engine provided with everything
necessary except motive power.
Schools for the blind should be provided with well-equipped gymnasia,
and the physical training should include various kinds of mass and
apparatus work. Large and suitable playgrounds are also essential.
Besides a free space where they can run and play, it should have a
supply of swings, tilts, jumping-boards, stilts, chars-a-bancs,
skittle-alleys, &c. Any game that allows of sides being taken adds
greatly to the enjoyment, and is a powerful incentive to play. The
pupils should be encouraged to enter into various competitions, as
walking, running, jumping, leap-frog, sack-racing, shot-pitching,
tug-of-war, &c. Cycling, rowing, swimming and roller-skating are not
only beneficial but most enjoyable.
Mental training.
The subjects in the school curriculum should be varied according to the
age and capacity of the pupils, but those which cultivate the powers of
observation and the perceptive faculties should have a first place.
Object lessons or nature study should have a large share of attention.
Few people realize that a blind child knows nothing of the size, shape
and appearance of common objects that lie beyond the reach of his arm.
When he has once been shown how to learn their characteristics, he will
go on acquiring a knowledge of his surroundings unaided by a teacher.
Again, a careful drill in mental arithmetic, combining accuracy with
rapidity, is essential. A good command of English should be cultivated
by frequent exercises in composition, and by committing to memory
passages of standard prose and poetry. In his secondary course, the
choice of subjects must depend upon his future career. Above all,
stimulate a love of good reading.
Early manual training.
From the earliest years manual dexterity should be cultivated by
kindergarten work, modelling, sewing, knitting and sloyd. Blind children
who have not had the advantage of this early handwork find much more
difficulty when they begin a regular course in technical training. Early
manual training cultivates the perceptive faculties, gives activity to
the body, and prepares the hands and finger for pianoforte-playing,
pianoforte-tuning and handicrafts.